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British Literature Since 1798, Kureishi shows the effects of class on the…

- - - - At the end of the novel Haroon also fully realizes the seriousness of his leaving his wife. He empathizes with her in a way he hadn't before, and has confused feelings about his love for her and his attachment to Eva
      - Though Karim learns a lot in his journey, he does not seem to change fundamentally. He now knows that the path he is taking to success is degrading and exploitative, but chooses to continue on it.
        
        Karim does learn more about himself and that he is in control of some parts of his life. He finally breaks from his idolizing of Charlie after his time in NY, showing he is capable of breaking from the parts of his identity from his youth that are not good for him.
  - - - Resistance to changing demographics from a historically white Britain:
      - British who were so recently colonizing India and attempting to "civilize" the Indian people (White Man's Burden) - make them act "British" - are now unaccepting of those same people when they come to Britain proper. Even as the immigrants integrate into British culture (the dinner scene with Kareem's family, showing how typically British their lives are) they are still rejected and subject to racial attacks and discrimination
      - The immigrants from former British Colonies and their descendants are often of lower economic class due to a lack of generational wealth.
        
        Council Estates - Caldwell
        
        The Caldwell residents have differing perspectives on Individualism that influence their decisions, views of people above or below them in class, and treatment of one another.
        
        Felix has an individualist mindset, though not quite Thatcherite level. He is beginning to rebuild his life after overcoming addiction and is trying hard to not repeat the mistakes of his past. This has made believe in a form of self-determination and made him wary of others that could drag him down. He breaks off his relationship with Annie because who he sees as beyond help - full of self pity and capable of infecting him with the "pity virus" and destroying the life he is currently building with Grace.
        
        Garvey House where Felix's father came from has a sense of communal living despite the struggles of its residents. Felix sees this when the stories his father told him (and continues to tell him) come to life through the pictures in the Garvey House Book.
        
        Michel and Pauline have become jaded to the plights of the poor. Michel believes "not everyone can be invited to the party". They are not necessarily incorrect in their assumptions (they were both correct about Shar's intentions), but their mindset of self-preservation and rationality smothers empathy and separates them from any communal attachment to Caldwell.
        
        Leah feels connected to Caldwell in a way that the other characters don't. She doesn't feel the need to escape it like the others, and sees the other residents as part of her tribe even when they wrong her.
        
        Jamila and Leah have similar mindsets about their community, but Jamila has a stronger sense of autonomy and being direct about what she wants.
        
        Jamila has a strong sense of individual agency while also being communally minded. She represents someone who can be autonomous while still authentically supporting others. She has a strong sense of independence but lives communally.
        
        Leah is content with her and Michel's situation. She does not have the same desires as Michel in terms of wealth and the traditional family structure.
        
        Michel is ambitious and wants to "escape" their lower middle class lifestyle. He want's to follow the traditional steps of success - gaining wealth, having children, owning a home.
        
        Punk movement comes from "vicious little council estate kids... howling about anarchy and hatred". Poor kids are the drivers of the counter culture movement.
    - - Leah sometimes feels out of place at her job because she is the only white woman working with mostly women of Caribbean descent. The women joke around with her light-heartedly and likely without any malice, but it causes uncomfortable moments for her and there are things she feels left out from in conversation.
  - - - Industrialization, expansion of railroad, necessity for housing for factory workers leads to urbanization. Mass amount of people become nameless workers serving ideas of infinite growth and wealth expansion. Cities become dense population centers filled with factory workers and their families
        
        Industrial Capitalist values can be seen as an continuation of the greed and dehumanization of British Imperialism, now employed to oppress the citizens of the British homeland.
        
        Worker exploitation
        
        Expressions of culture or self denigrated or prohibited
        
        Union strikes in protest of industrial work conditions. Their protests are shown mostly in a good light even despite Dicken's conflicted feelings about unions and the union leader in the novel being revealed as deceptive and self-serving.
      - Continued population increase, now not only from increased birth rates and scientific advances but immigration as well.
    - - Being married to a politician from the Conservative party Clarissa lives in a wealthy society still clinging on to the values and customs of Imperialist Britain. Characters like Lady Bruton and Hugh Whitbread are remnants of this old guard of upper class society, still adhering to these values as if nothing has changed.
        
        The wealthy characters, while not disliking him, consider Peter a failure for not finding a traditional path to financial success and see his time an India as him running away. Peter is critical of the decadence of the rich and Clarissa's lifestyle.
      - Septimus' character shows the decay of the Empire following WW1 -the death of thousands of Englishman in the war and the now visible decline. He is a soldier who should be respected and treated as such, but is instead left suffering like thousands of other survivors of the war. His character questions the glory of the Empire - a suffering veteran who ends his own life while the upper class still carry on as if nothing has happened
      - The Prime Minister is seen as a ridiculous and disappointing man as he roams through Clarissa's party, showing the disconnect between the reality of current times and the old values of the empire.
        
        Woolf's display of the old remnants of the Old Britain as absurd, out of touch, and even cruel (Septimus), fits with Ballard's vision of a fallen Britain. Woolf is showing the cracks in the old Britain, and Ballard is declaring it dead
- - - - Focus on interiority, breaking from convention in order to express human experience in a truer way. Relativity of experience -- each character is written in the style of their own individual natural patterns of thought
        
        Interiority used to humanize. Stream of consciousness style emphasizes the uniqueness and inherent value of the individual
  - - - "I didn’t know you could speak to a reader like this, as if they were your equal – as if they
        were a friend."
        "They were like Karim: pushy, wild, charismatic,
        street-smart, impudent, often hilarious. Despite their relatively lowly position in the British class
        system they suspected they were cool, and knew they had talent and brains. They felt special, even if
        the rest of the world thought they were marginal." - Zadie Smith
- - - - Louisa's breakdown causes Gradgrind to begin to change his ways. He is able to be broken through to by the love of his daughter.
- - - - Septimus feels hated by the world. There is no use for a man with a broken mind in their society. The Doctors treatment is to put him away from society to "rest". The cultural environment only worsens his suffering.
        
        "So he was deserted. The whole world was clamouring: Kill yourself, kill yourself, for our sakes." - 92
        
        Dr. Bradshaw is a man obsessed with status and uses his patients as a means to glorify himself and ingratiate himself into the world of the upper class.
      - The reader's more personal experience with Septimus makes the dehumanization of him by Doctors and others resonate more.
        
        Septimus' death causes Clarissa to reflect on the artificiality of many parts of her pampered life (the absurdity of the party in view). Throughout the novel she spends much of her time reflecting on her past with Peter and Sally. She finally comes to talk to them after reflecting on his death.
        
        Detail's like memories of the good times with Rezia, his love of literature and wish to be a poet before the war humanize him and help show and emphasize value as a human being despite his "insanity".