In the year 2008 a huge and comprehensive financial crisis began. For some people it had almost invisible consequences, and for others it transformed their everyday life completely. Being used to making and spending money without having to worry about one’s economics, a firing can put the world upside down and force a family into a less materialistic life, which they are not at all comfortable with. That’s exactly what the protagonist, Mike, fears will happen to him, his wife and their two sons in the short story “The Decline of the West” by Hanif Kureshi, written in 2010. This short story is certainly about what consequences both a capitalistic and materialistic society can have to a family, such as how a world-wide financial crisis can influence and reflect the values of a family living in this kind of society.
The short story is told with a 3rd person narrator limited to the protagonist, Mike. Therefore the reader only knows about his feelings and his thoughts, not the boys’ or the wife’s thoughts. Hence, the point of view is very subjective and that makes the narrator unreliable. The reader only sees the world through Mike’s eyes and thus the reader is inclined to sympathize with Mike and his opinions, even though they can be wrong. For instance the reader perceives the boys as rude and ungrateful to their father’s struggle to keep them materialistic satisfied. Maybe the unhealthy relationship is based on a lack of attention and love from their father, but the reader doesn’t get that impression, because the point of view is limited only to Mike and his thoughts about the relationship. However, the family seems to agree that Mike is a hopeless husband and father:
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“You’ve spoiled and neglected him, you ridiculous, foolish man. And now you expect him to obey you!” (ll. 134-135)
“You’ve done nothing for me.” (ll. 64) Mike appears as a man, who obviously doesn’t get the respect and thanks he deserves. He perceives himself as a victim of the family’s greed: “Just call me the Delivery man.” (l. 147) The story might have been different if the story was told with a 3rd person omniscient narrator. Though the story is told from Mike’s point of view, the author may have added some comments, which appear as they were a part of Mike’s thoughts, but still seem too ironic and half-witted to be so. An example of that is: “Yet how could his family be considering despicable or guilty of this, when all they’d asked for was continuous material improvement?” (ll. 88-90).
The reader is here given the impression that the author does indeed consider families like Mike’s the guilty ones.
Mike as a person is first of all rarely at home, because he works so much to satisfy the family’s greed:
“The au pair saw more of his house and family than he did.” (l. 5)
Still it seems like he’s living in a dream world, or have an unrealistic view upon reality. That shows when he’s heading home after work with bad news, but still looks forward to hear the cosy sound of his wife’s and sons’ voices. He might have experienced their greed and ungratefulness plenty of times, but still he’s lying to himself about how comfortable their family and home are. He’s completely wrong, and for instance a clearly example of the wife’s disrespect and not all “cosy” manners, is the quote: “Is it attention you’re after?” (l. 188), because it shows that she sees him almost as a child, or at least someone who’s just making the family’s money and nothing more than that. She’s also not at all dressed up when he gets home, and he feels disappointed about that. Also she quickly disappears to take a shower when he arrives, and the youngest boy only shows the father attention to persuade him to buy him a new guitar:
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?In this assignment I aim to discuss life story work: which can provide the care worker, and care receiver a better understanding of each other’s needs, and provide the care worker with information that can help support the care receiver in the best way. The carer needs to possess certain skills sensitivity, confidentiality, empathy, trustworthiness, and have commitment to seeing the story to the ...
“I like you sometimes, Daddy. But I want guitar lessons.” (l. 74-75)
In other words there’s a long way from what Mike thinks his heading home to, and the actual reality. The life of idle pleasures seems to be an essential theme in the short story, because the family is used to getting everything they want, for instance: Mike has built a shed to the boys, which they could play music in, but they stopped using it, before he even began to pay for it. He seems to be spoiling whole the family – maybe because he feels inadequate as a person:
“As the boys liked to point out, other children at their school lived in bigger places; their fathers were the bosses of record companies or financial advisers to famous footballers. Mike, in contrast, in corporate finance, was relatively small-time.” (l. 25-28)
The good life seems like a facade, and though their family may seem generous, happy, structured and rich from the outside, the reality is different. Imogen, the wife, only does charity work three days a week and that’s poorly paid. But that has its reason:
“.. But she was the family conscience and Mike knew it was important to appear generous. Unlike some of his friends, he didn’t want a woman who worked as hard as him..” (l. 138-140)
In this quote the need to appear generous and rich is reflected, but also the conservative and traditional view upon women is reflected in Mike’s thoughts. He wants to be the head of the family, but it all seems to fall a part because of the fact that he has been fired.
Because the modern world is so terribly dependent on money and consumption, the future suddenly seems hopeless to Mike. He lives in such a materialistic world with a huge focus on having the right and expensive furniture and houses, and when the lights are suddenly turned off it’s like he experiences an epiphany. When he walks down the stairs to find the source of the break down, he considers how easy it would be to fall and just die.
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This thought may appear because of the unknown consequences of the firing – will they have to leave and find a smaller and cheaper house, and will his family be able to bear him if he isn’t the “Delivery man”? He finds it easier to just escape the problems, instead of facing them and tell his family about the job, that he no longer has. Also, when finding the lever which turns on the current again, his actual view upon the world is presented: “… their awful world started up once more its humming and vibrating.” (l. 108).
This quote may as well be one of the author’s comments, and thereby, this short story may also represent a critique of the materialistic and capitalistic modern world, which has made some of us unable to appreciate non-materialistic things, such as family, tolerance and love.
The theme mentioned above, may also be represented by the title. The title “The Decline of the West” may refer to the crack on Wall Street in 2008, where the Western long economic increase suddenly stopped and left millions of people with no job and thus less money to support their families. One of these people could be Mike, which is the economic supporter of his family. He and his family are used to live a life with a materialistic abundance, and suddenly a decline of their economic stability seems to tear it all a part, because their social gathering and family life is based on only materialistic wishes and satisfactions. In 2010, where the story was written, the Western world experienced huge economic problems, and in this story Mike considers whether the problems are punishments for years of economic progress and abundance.
“.. Like many people, Mike had also worried whether the present catastrophe was punishment for years of extravagance and self-indulgence.” (ll. 86-87). To sum up this short story is told from the protagonist’s point of view and that makes the narrator unreliable. The author’s opinions are presented through Mike’s thoughts, and that makes the protagonist seem like he has lost the connection to the real world and is not aware of his own and other’s mistakes, considering an overriding materialistic focus and a huge consumer spending. The author may have chosen this point of view to make his own opinions clear to any vigilant reader.
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Forget about what the CIA or the U. S. government knew, just from reading the U. N. report issued in March to the Security Council, U. N. inspectors knew about but could not account for the whereabouts of a variety of WMD, tons of stuff." let us not forget who put saddam in power and supplied him with "tons of stuff" in the first place. but you made a few excellent points about the WWII strategies ...
The most significant themes are capitalism and materialism and especially their influences on both the individuals and families in general. It’s a criticism of the life of idle pleasures and the message of the story might be that everybody in the Western world has to be aware whether they are dependent on only materialistic satisfactions or still able to appreciate unity, solidarity, love, tolerance, friendship and family. We have to consider which part of life is most important to us, before we get caught by the capitalistic system’s predominant importance: money and nothing more.
