Who Is Bruce Springsteen's Struggle In Greeting From Bury Park

Cultural Struggle In the story Greeting From Bury Park by Sarfraz Manzoor, the author was fascinated with the music of Bruce Springsteen. His friend Amolak was the person who introduced to Bruce Springsteen during his college years, since then he became extremely obsess with his music. It was like if Bruce Springsteen lyrics had possessed his soul entirely. Hence, his obsession with Bruce Springsteen lead the author to find him-self struggling to please his father, in which causes the author to lose his identity in the processes. The music of Bruce Springsteen had a huge impact on the author's life, which find himself struggling to please his father. Hence, the passion with Bruce Springsteen started when Amolak recorded a cassette for the

He stated that “as I listened to Bruce Springsteen I realized this was like nothing I had heard before” (92). The sound was called “Growin up”. This sound opened his mind, but it was the lyrics who had an impact upon the author life. The author expresses that “This was not a song, it was a spoken word introduction to a song; it was man recalling his childhood and his relationship with his father” (92). As shown above, the sound was a reflection of the relationship between his father. It was the boost of confidence that he was looking for, so he could confront his father. His destiny was not yet decided but the music gave him a rebellion of his own path. On the other hand, His father was expecting his son to return with a degree in hand and great salary, but he was very disappointed because the author failed to do so. The author state that “I was most successful at being

In fact, the author and Amolak had been outsiders since college. They were Asians but with the British taste and they couldn’t be hundred percent British as they wanted to because their families had different cultural background and traditions. The author mentions that “…we have white taste and we were not like the whites because of our families and traditions” (122). As can be seen, the author has a profound towards his traditions but he doesn’t feel like one of them. In addition, the author was invited to a party in London with his own ethnicity. In effect, he was disgusted with the environment and the exaggeration of make-up applied on women. He stated “This is not my world, these are not my people, this is not how I like to have my fun” (120). It shows that the author was uncomfortable even with his own people. The reason is that he was molded with Bruce Springsteen music, which was mostly for white people. His personality was very different from his own kind. He felt like he didn’t’ belong there. At the same time, the music of Bruce Springsteen changed the author identity, in which he realized that his entire life was in England. He suggested “ it has taken me three decades to realize that there is only one country which is truly mine” (268). For this reason, the author come to his sense and realized that his identity lies in England and nowhere else. Britain was the