ipl-logo

Funny Boy Arjie's Identity

1088 Words5 Pages

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

Show More
Related

Neil Shubin Your Inner Fish Summary

1592 Words | 7 Pages

Your Inner Fish - Book Report The book “Your Inner Fish” written by Neil Shubin takes us through his search and knowledge of fossils as a paleontologist. The main idea is well, finding your inner fish or in scientific terms tracing back the evolution from fish to land living animals such as mammals. Neil shares his experience looking for important fossils that reveal our evolution into humans.

Read More

From He To She In First Grade: Summary And Response

1087 Words | 5 Pages

‘From He to She in First Grade’ Summary & Response In Laurie Frankel's story, she observes the journey her first grader takes as a transitioning male to female, at home and in school; and she accepts her child throughout. Her daughter communicates that she wants to wear feminine clothing and instead of ignoring her feelings and moving on, her parents accept her decision and tell her that as long as she is comfortable, it doesn’t matter what she wears. Her transition starts with showing her parents she enjoys wearing a sparkly green dress that was part of a puppet theater present gifted to her. She doesn’t take the dress off and starts to wear other stereotypical female things such as: hair clips, heels, skirts and dresses.

Read More

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao Analysis

1033 Words | 5 Pages

When we read some fairy tales, the girls usually wear dresses and the boys wear pants and shirts. Although there has the same family traditions in Stone Butch Blues, the narrator Jess Goldberg like to wear pants and shirts instead of dresses. However, in her family, the female always wear a dress and people also believes in that. As she argues with her father that she does not want to wear a dress, her father said “Because you’re a girl” ( Feinberg, 19), which indicates what her parents think a girl should do and they want to let she correct her “fault”. Not only her parents think that way, other strangers also ask Jess about her gender.

Read More

The Boy And The Loon Analysis

836 Words | 4 Pages

Both the community and the boy learn to be accepting and tolerant of those around them. These ideas are important in modern society as racism and hatred is radiating throughout the world. Nowadays, people are not accepting of different races, sexualities and personal preferences. While this story does not address differing races or sexualities, it exhibits the

Read More

The Altar Of The Family Analysis

1242 Words | 5 Pages

“At Seventeen” and “The altar of the family” are constructed to make you agree that being masculine doesn’t require conforming to male stereotypes. Both authors use characterisation, point of view, descriptive language and conflict to convey this opinion. Characterisation in both texts help push the idea that manhood isn’t just about being strong, emotionless and almost robot like. David from The Altar of the Family completely flips masculinity on its head by being a “damn grown boy playing with dolls” this quote tells us that David is different than his normal male counterpart but also asks the reader the question of what defines manhood and if playing with dolls is a non-masculine thing for a male to do. David also is insulted

Read More

How Did The Celts Move Across The Center Of Europe?

145 Words | 1 Pages

Across the centre of Europe the Celts move gradually west through Germany into France, northern Spain and Britain. This branch contains two sub-branches: Continental Celtic and Insular Celtic. By about 600 BCE, Celtic-speaking tribes had spread from what today are southern Germany, Austria, and Western Czech Republic in almost all directions, to France, Belgium, Spain, and the British Isles, then by 400 BCE, they also moved southward into northern Italy and southeast into the Balkans and even beyond. During the early 1st century BCE, Celtic-speaking tribes dominated a very significant portion of Europe. On 50 BCE, Julius Caesar conquered Gaul (ancient France) and Britain was also conquered about a century later by the emperor Claudius.

Read More

Gender Role Models In Richard Linklater's Boyhood

1037 Words | 5 Pages

The ability to understand male role models allows for a more intelligent understanding as to why boys act the way they do, and why our conceived notion on what being a boy changes. While examining the movie Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater, and the entry “Boyhood” by Eric Tribunella, manhood is defined by “the ability to dominate, care for, or exercise power over others”, while “to be a boy means to be flawed, inchoate, or incomplete” (Tribunella). The movie and the entry both enlighten audiences with examples of boyhood and how it changes and shifts from each person. Linklater’s

Read More

Film Analysis: Growing Up Trans

696 Words | 3 Pages

What pieces of clothing are for boys and for girls? Alex and his friends also talk about how being a guy is “working out”, “not showing any emotions” and “not playing with gender”. Why are these traits correlated with masculinity? It is perceived odd for girls to display these characteristics. They are followed with labels such as lesbian, or tomboys.

Read More

Gender And Power In A Streetcar Named Desire

1886 Words | 8 Pages

Boys often tend to choose heterosexuality because of fear, for example Mr Albert is brought into the patriarchal society by heterosexuality. He is always craving for Shug, but was forced to marry Julia Annie by his father. Powerless to challenge his father he must keep his relationship with Shug hidden. Alphonso is craving for younger women.

Read More

Compulsive Heterosexuality

731 Words | 3 Pages

To profess their heterosexual identity, boys enact the ritual of performative sex talk. With a profusion of sexual bravado, boys fight to one-up each other in their stories of sexual prominence and prosperity. Pascoe states that “expressing heterosexual desire establishes a sort of baseline masculinity” (87), in part to distance themselves from the feminine identity of a “fag,” but also to establish masculine dominance. These discussions center around how these boys are able to enact their subjectivity and control on the world around them, with women as the objects of their control and puppets of their desires. Furthermore, the masculine dominance is established through compulsive heterosexuality when boys engage in specific patterns of opposite-sex touching.

Read More

Argumentative Essay On Gender Identity

1045 Words | 5 Pages

When the boys change to stereotypes they are more likely to be more prone to substance abuse and suicide, having shorter life expectancy, and also engaging in more physical violence than girls. Zoe Greenberg, a journalist at The New York Times talks about gender in her article ¨When a student says, I'm Not a Boy or a Girl¨. In her article, Greenberg talks about the story of Sofia Martin and uses Pathos by using the story of Sofia Martin to play on the emotions of the audience to explain the situation that has occurred with the her, how ¨at the age of 15, after rehearsing in the shower, Martin made an announcement to the students at Puget Sound Community School where she explained to her school how Martin believes that she in not a male or

Read More

Gender And Sexuality Socially Constructed Essay

1388 Words | 6 Pages

If you’re a female and you do a lot of boyish things then you are a tomboy, and if you are a boy and you like female clothing, then you are a fag. From the reading, “The Social Construction of Gender”, it breaks down gender. Before you are even born you are portrayed to be a certain gender already. You will be told you must wear this because you are a boy, or girl. According to the author, “Gendered patterners of interaction acquired additional layers of gendered sexuality, parenting and work behavior in childhood, adolescents and adulthood” (Lorber, 142).

Read More

Manhood In The Bible

1116 Words | 5 Pages

Being a man today can be tough. The society a boy grows up in has a wide variety of ideals of what it is to be a man. A boy may see many contradictions of what it takes to be a man depending on the digital media he sees or the company he keeps. It can be difficult to make any sense out what it means to be a man. One avenue shows boys they can grow up to wear makeup and dress like women.

Read More

Funny Boy Shyam Selvadurai Analysis

821 Words | 4 Pages

By implementing the narrative voice of a young boy, Selvadurai utilizes the backdrop of Arjie’s innocence to introduce the idea that conflicting ideals can lead to confusion and alienation. As someone who has never quite fit the mold of masculinity, Arjie has always felt an underlying sense of helplessness and discontent with external norms. As a child, he would often play with the girls rather than the boys, one of his favorite activities involving his dressing up as a bride. When his parents discover this, they strongly discourage this “funny” behavior, coercing him into trying activities considered more masculine,

Read More

Secret Superstar Character Analysis

1240 Words | 5 Pages

Domestic violence is one such important issue which has been taken as the main theme in many movies. Films are considered as cultural artefacts and therefore the directors find it the best medium of representing the social and cultural reality of the domestic life of women in most of the Indian households. Advait Chandan’s directorial debut, Hindi movie Secret Superstar is a realistic film which deals with the issues of domestic violence and oppressive patriarchy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the movie Secret Superstar from a feminist angle and explore the subtle nuances of a woman’s life which is best represented in the film by the two major characters Insia and Najma. The former is forced always to abide by the rules and regulations of the patriarchal society and the latter who even performs her womanly duties faithfully is the victim of

Read More

More about Funny Boy Arjie's Identity

Related Topics

Open Document