What different points could be discussed in context of 'Funny Boy' by

Shyam Selvadurai as a new type of bildungsroman?

1 Answer

Kumar Neelotpal, Aspiring author

Answered Sep 19, 2017 · Author has 1.9k answers and 3.4m answer views

“A romantic novel dealing with a person’s formative years is called a bildungrsroman”.

It is indeed a new type of bildungsroman because it focuses on the plight of a homosexual teenaged boy, who is going
through his formative years, of the Tamil ethnicity, living in the Sinahala-dominated island nation of Sri Lanka, which is
located in South Asia, thus the book is very important from the Post-Colonial point of view.

The author himself is a homosexual and is of the Tamil ethnicity. He himself hails from Sri Lanka and is now settled in Canada
but has blatantly stated that this novel is not autobiographical and the novel has nothing to do with him.

The title “Funny Boy” in this context means that the boy who happens to be the protagonist is not normal but funny. Funny
in the sense that he is queer. The novel presents to us the immensely disadvantaged position at which the South Asian queer
community was in 1983. We see how the boy, Arjie, was expected to act like a normal  boy but he could not because he was
not normal. He was funny. Homosexuality was a taboo. It was not to be talked about but swept under the rug. We see that
the protagon not only feels the pressure from the society but also from his family to conform to the standards of
the ideal  teenage boy. His family talked about his habits and demeanour occasionally but never got to the depth of it. No
one consoled him or supported him. Thus exhibiting the proverbial generational gap.  The only one who understood him was
his younger sister.

In the first chapter, we see how the author takes us right in to the gender and sexual identity conflict of Arjie, when we see
him displaying his feminity and enacting the role of a bride in that bride-bride game, only to be humiliated by his obese,
boyish-looking, female cousin, Tanuja.

In the second chapter, we see how his aunt Radha was in love with a Sinhalese man, Anil Jayasinghe. But later changed her
mind to marry a fellow Tamilian, Rajan Nagendra, after her train was attacked by the Sinhalese militants.

In the third chapter, we learn that Arjie’s mother had an affair years ago with a man named, Daryl. He had returned to Sri
Lanka to investigate, human torture but one day was found dead on a beach. The witnesses were advised to keep their
mouths shut if they did not want to meet a similar fate.

In the fourth chapter, we see Jegan, a former Tamil Tiger militant who comes looking for a job at Arjie’s father’s house. He
was the son of Arjie’s father’s friend. He was given a job at Arjie’s family hotel but was kicked out of the job, soon. He was
starting to show that his old militant habits had not worn off and that he would definitely relapse.

In the fifth chapter, Arjie’s father switches his schools for him, hoping that the new school will “force him to be a real man”.
The irony was abound. The school forced him to be a man, a man who was fully aware of his sexuality, who finally came out
of the closet. The two sexual encounters between Shehan and Arjie prove this. We also see how abusive, the principal of the
school was.

In the sixth chapter, the violence between the Sinhalas and the Tamils, takes an extreme turn. The Sinhalas start burning
every Tamil establishment (homes and shops alike). Arjie’s family hotel is burnt down and his grandparents who were
trapped inside, die in the fire. Arjie’s father utilises the final plan. With his remaining family, they flee to Canada thus leaving
their motherland behind.
Now to get to the talking points, we need to see some of the characters :

The novel highlights the ethnic conflicts. The race of these people who are at war is the same but their ethnicities are
different. The Sinhalas are the majority and the Tamils are in the majority. The Sinhalas want to drive the Tamils out of the
country. They want to establish a totalitarian Sinahala government in Sri Lanka. The novel is against the backdrop of
the 1983 Colombo Riots. This is one of the themes in the novel as it shows us as to how these riots affect the day to day life
of the characters in the novel and the way in which they interact with each other. Another, theme is diaspora. This novel
informs us about the Tamil diaspora of Sri Lanka which was forced to leave their motherland and settle in other parts of the
world. We see the interplay of gender and sexuality. There are two genders, male and female but it is not necessary that a
male has to always be masculine and display a passion for the opposite sex and vice versa. Gender and sexuality are
different. Both the genders can also sport a different sexuality other than what is expected from them. The irony is unbound
especially, because Arjie is a homosexual and he is studying in a boys-only school. He struggles with the distortion between
his gender and sexuality on a daily basis and in public and in private. Another theme is marriage. We see how a marriage
between two people does not necessarily mean that they love each other. Barriers like ethnicity and race get in the way and
people are forced to marry someone else. Like Radha, who loved a Sinhalese man, Anil Jayasinghe but had to marry a
Tamilian man Rajan Nagendran. Also, Arjie’s mother was in love with Daryl, who was a Burgher, before getting married to
Arjie’s father. Other themes are ethnic identity and sexual identity. Both Arjie and Shehan have the same sexual identity i.e.
both are homosexual boys and are in love with each other but their ethnic identity again becomes a barrier between their
growing love. Arjie was a Tamil. Shehan Soyza was a Sinhala. Other theme is the Tamilian diaspora and the civil war in Sri
Lanka. Arjie and his family are now a part of the Tamil diaspora as a result of the civil war in Sri Lanka. Tanuja signifies the
shaming, estrangement and suppression of the queer community. The adversities against the queer community are
personified in Tanuja as androgynous, manly(in a sadistic way), ugly and fat. Sonali the younger sister to Arjie is the only one
who understands him. Diggy is Arjie’s brother. He is the ideal, nosey teenage boy. He warns Arjie to stay away from Shehan
because he knew that both Arjie and Shehan were queer and he disliked Shehan, because he was prejudiced against the
queers. Amma represents the feminist aspect of the novel just like Arjie’s aunt, Radha. Amma had to marry a man in an
arranged marriage. She loved a Burgher man, named Daryl. Arjei admired his Amma and after watching her, he started
getting in terms with his own feminity. Appa was also anti-queer. He is not a good father. He did not support his son Arjei,
instead of being a friend, he tries to suppress his sexuality. Jegan Parameshwaram, a former Tamil Tigers insurgent, ignites
the fires of passion in Arjei when Arjei admires his muscular body. Daryl uncle was kind to Arjei because Arjei was the son of
the woman whom he still loved but their love was forbidden and hence could not materialise. Black Tie was the abusive
principal of the school into which Arjei was admitted. He believed that children could be beaten up and made to do
anything. Black  symbolises evil and Tie  symbolises slavery and animalistic treatment.

The themes are :

 Gender and Sexuality.

 The Tamil-Sinhala conflict.
 Feminist issues.
 The Burghers are Sri Lankans of Portuguese/Dutch descent. Daryl signifies the racial barriers and the
phenomenon of migration.
 Human rights and human rights violations. (Which Daryl came to investigate but was killed).
 The next theme is related to the previous one, corruption, politics and governments.
 Immigration, borders and diaspora. How families are forced to migrate to better places. Canada is a very
liberal country with a not-so-tight border policy.
 Fear, unrest, hatred and strife, among the people of different ethnicities of a country, trapped in a civil war.
 Unemployment, lack of education and militancy. (Tamil Tigers and other similar terror outfits which work on
the ideology of hate and fear).
 Nationalisation and privatisation. The black tie  principal did not want the government to take over his
school. It is clear that the Sinhalese government wanted to nationalise the Christian school so that more
Sinhalese could get in. Even in school, Arjie was bullied by the Sinhalese boys for being a Tamil, when suddenly
Shehan, started giving him compassion which was secretively sexual. Shehan, unlike Arjie, was completely aware
of his own sexuality.
 Sexuality can not be forced on someone. Appa was forcing Arjei to be someone whom he could not be and
was not.
 Law and order and ethnic conflict. Arjie’s aunt Radha was almost killed and both of his grandparents died in
a fire. The absence of law and order and the increasing ethnic violence made living for them more difficult. They
decided to flee the country. Arjie had to leave his lover and his country behind.
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