“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” This quote, by Nelson Mandela, reflects a recurring theme in “Funny Boy” by Shyam Selvadurai. Throughout the novel characters such as Radha Aunty, Jegan, and Arjie are ostracized, and belittled by society due to the hatred that lies within Sri Lanka at the time. When the characters are antagonized, they are taught to hate themselves, and often feel the need to change, because this is what was taught to them. The characters didn’t hate others or themselves prior to this knowledge,
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Ammachi taught her children to hate the Sinhalese, the rivalling ethnic majority in Sri Lanka, and when she discovers that her daughter is in love with one, she tries her very hardest to convince her daughter to hate and antagonize them as well. “But is that a reason to hate every Sinhalese?” (Selvadurai, 59) Radha Aunty says this after her mother, Ammachi, forbids her to continue her friendship with a Sinhalese man. “You flaunt your illicit relations in public and you dare say you haven’t done anything.” (Selvadurai, 76). Ammachi refers to her daughter courting a Sinhalese as an illicit relation, Ammachi’s hatred runs so deep that she thinks that a Tamil-Sinhalese relationship should be illegal. Ammachi disregards her children's personal feelings, and instead teaches them to hate, and in a lot of cases teaches them to feel racially superior. Ammachi had also influenced her son, Robert (Appa), Appa had fallen in love with an English girl, but when he returned to his family in Sri Lanka he realized “that an English girl would never fit in with his family.” (Selvadurai, 164) After Radha has an horrible encounter with a Sinhalese group, she turns into her mother, and turns cold toward the Sinhalese. “...I had not understood that the moment I saw Radha Aunty with that bloody bandage around her head that her relationship with Anil was over.”Ammachi taught her children to hate, which shows us why Appa himself teaches his children to hate, it is a cycle which someday needs to be broken. Radha Aunty calling off her relationship is yet another example of people whose lives change because of the prejudice of others, similar to that of the plight of Arjie. People who are taught to hate often surrender their lives and ambitions to please
Ammachi taught her children to hate the Sinhalese, the rivalling ethnic majority in Sri Lanka, and when she discovers that her daughter is in love with one, she tries her very hardest to convince her daughter to hate and antagonize them as well. “But is that a reason to hate every Sinhalese?” (Selvadurai, 59) Radha Aunty says this after her mother, Ammachi, forbids her to continue her friendship with a Sinhalese man. “You flaunt your illicit relations in public and you dare say you haven’t done anything.” (Selvadurai, 76). Ammachi refers to her daughter courting a Sinhalese as an illicit relation, Ammachi’s hatred runs so deep that she thinks that a Tamil-Sinhalese relationship should be illegal. Ammachi disregards her children's personal feelings, and instead teaches them to hate, and in a lot of cases teaches them to feel racially superior. Ammachi had also influenced her son, Robert (Appa), Appa had fallen in love with an English girl, but when he returned to his family in Sri Lanka he realized “that an English girl would never fit in with his family.” (Selvadurai, 164) After Radha has an horrible encounter with a Sinhalese group, she turns into her mother, and turns cold toward the Sinhalese. “...I had not understood that the moment I saw Radha Aunty with that bloody bandage around her head that her relationship with Anil was over.”Ammachi taught her children to hate, which shows us why Appa himself teaches his children to hate, it is a cycle which someday needs to be broken. Radha Aunty calling off her relationship is yet another example of people whose lives change because of the prejudice of others, similar to that of the plight of Arjie. People who are taught to hate often surrender their lives and ambitions to please