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Funny Boy Arjie's Identity

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How the interaction with characters, society and general culture helps shaping human behaviour in harmony or in conflict with Arjie’s identity
Funny Boy a novel by Shyam Selvadurai follows Arjie’s character formation from age seven until he is fourteen, before immigrating to Canada. Arjie’s interaction with characters, society and general culture helps shaping his human behaviour in harmony and often in conflict with his identity, that is formed by his ethnicity, language, religion, family class status, education and sexuality.
Arjie is a Tamil boy, who does not speak Tamil, but Sinhalese and English and belongs to the Christian minority in Sri Lanka, a country ravaged by ethnical clashes. “..I started school a year ago and my father had put …show more content…

His desire to play the bride-bride dress up game with the girls of his family with all the makeup and festivity is inspired by the Sinhalese and Tamil cinema. “I was an icon, a graceful, benevolent perfect being upon whom the adoring eyes of the world rested” (5) . He likes being the centre of attention and he is controlling the game and sees his role as the bride as most fitting. The cinema has shaped his sense of style and is the inspiration for his imagination. For him the Bride’s role is “the personification of all that was good and perfect in the world” (39) and “then there will be the loneliness. I would be caught between the boy’s and the girls’ worlds, not belonging or wanted in either” (39) . This shows that the conflict with his family about the dress up results in his realization that something he finds natural is considered wrong by the adults and he must comply to the role that is expected from him by the traditional heteronormality of the society. He is reading books and plays with girls, which according to his father is not a sign of masculinity. His fascination with “Little Women” book and sequels and identification with Beth and Jo, female characters is another proof that part of his sexual identity is shaped by popular culture. These cultural influences shape his character in harmony with his sexual identity. The realization that his behaviour must be self censored so he does not upset his relatives is in conflict with his true sexual

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