Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 Funny Boy is a coming of age novel that tells the story of Arjie, a young boy like any another, enduring the vicissitudes of life. Throughout his journey of self-discovery, Arjie experiences the trials and joys of love in all its forms. Shyam Selvadurai himself is a homosexual Sri Lankan Canadian novelist born in Colombo, Sri Lanka to a Sinhalese mother and a Tamil father. In 1983, the family emigrated to Canada due to ethnic riots that were severely damaging the country. Essentially, the novel recounts his childhood experiences, growing up with the troubles of self-discovery as a homosexual, Tamil boy in Sri Lanka. Considering the family as a conservative project, Arjie’s family works as an oppressive patriarchal unit,
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At the young age of seven, Arjie’s family severely restricts him from free self-expression. The world he lives in does not allow for a child to innocently play, but rather adheres to the norms of gender and sexuality, categorizing every action as either feminine or masculine. In the beginning of the novel, Arjie, his siblings and all his cousins go to their grandparent’s house for the day, sticking to regular routine. The girls and Arjie play the game of bride-bride. Arjie always plays the role of the bride when they play the game, simply because he is the “bestest bride of all” (10). To the children, being the bride never meant being a girl, until Tanuja (Her Fatness), Arjie’s stubborn cousin wanted to be the bride. In frustration, she said “But he’s not even a girl… A bride is a girl, not a boy… A girl must be the bride” (11). The kids kick Tanuja out, but the repercussions are grave. Arjie’s role play as a bride did not set well with his family, they could not see his actions as innocent, nor as a form of self-discovery. Rather they realized that Arjie was contesting the reality of gender norms and because of this, he was …show more content…
The family never addresses homosexuality nor homophobia, they just beat around the bush doing everything they can so that Arjie does not grow up to be gay. Arjie’s father decides to transfer him to Victoria Academy, the school that “will force you to become a man” (210). What does it mean to become a man? Biologically speaking, all it requires is to have the male genitalia, a condition Arjie meets. But to his fathers it means more than this. Geert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher that argues that masculinity and femininity differ in the social roles that are associated with biological sex and that they refer to the dominant sex role in societies, his Feminine and Masculine Culture Dimensions states “masculine cultures expect men to be assertive, ambitious and competitive…and to respect whatever is big, strong and fast. Masculine cultures expect women to serve and care for the non-material quality of life, for children and for the weak.” (Hofstede 308). This is the type of man Appa wants Arjie to be, the traditional, patriarchal, overbearing hegemonic masculinity that Appa himself possesses. Even when Appa and Amma begin seeing Arjie’s more feminine side, Appa says to Amma “You should have known. You should have kept an eye on him…if he turns out to be the laughing stock
At the young age of seven, Arjie’s family severely restricts him from free self-expression. The world he lives in does not allow for a child to innocently play, but rather adheres to the norms of gender and sexuality, categorizing every action as either feminine or masculine. In the beginning of the novel, Arjie, his siblings and all his cousins go to their grandparent’s house for the day, sticking to regular routine. The girls and Arjie play the game of bride-bride. Arjie always plays the role of the bride when they play the game, simply because he is the “bestest bride of all” (10). To the children, being the bride never meant being a girl, until Tanuja (Her Fatness), Arjie’s stubborn cousin wanted to be the bride. In frustration, she said “But he’s not even a girl… A bride is a girl, not a boy… A girl must be the bride” (11). The kids kick Tanuja out, but the repercussions are grave. Arjie’s role play as a bride did not set well with his family, they could not see his actions as innocent, nor as a form of self-discovery. Rather they realized that Arjie was contesting the reality of gender norms and because of this, he was …show more content…
The family never addresses homosexuality nor homophobia, they just beat around the bush doing everything they can so that Arjie does not grow up to be gay. Arjie’s father decides to transfer him to Victoria Academy, the school that “will force you to become a man” (210). What does it mean to become a man? Biologically speaking, all it requires is to have the male genitalia, a condition Arjie meets. But to his fathers it means more than this. Geert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher that argues that masculinity and femininity differ in the social roles that are associated with biological sex and that they refer to the dominant sex role in societies, his Feminine and Masculine Culture Dimensions states “masculine cultures expect men to be assertive, ambitious and competitive…and to respect whatever is big, strong and fast. Masculine cultures expect women to serve and care for the non-material quality of life, for children and for the weak.” (Hofstede 308). This is the type of man Appa wants Arjie to be, the traditional, patriarchal, overbearing hegemonic masculinity that Appa himself possesses. Even when Appa and Amma begin seeing Arjie’s more feminine side, Appa says to Amma “You should have known. You should have kept an eye on him…if he turns out to be the laughing stock