Shyam Selvadurai's “Funny Boy” Essay Samples

The book entitled “Funny Boy” by Shyam Selvadurai is about the constant cultural clash in Sri Lanka between Tamil and Singhalese groups because of the difference in moral values that grasp the reader’s attention. The book also discusses an unseen issue faced by many individuals that are kept in secret from ages (Holt, 2011). This book has clearly plotted the characters that are easy to relatable. In other words, readers can easily experience similar scenarios that took place in the story (Mahavalirajan, 2009).
Every society has different beliefs and moral values that it follows, but getting married in dissimilar cultural group brings conflict for a child, and it bothers a child’s personality as well. It is expected that the child may get confused in choosing the values. Including cultural issue in this book, Arjie is suffering from another hidden issue regarding his sexual identity i.e. a problem arose of declaring his homosexuality. Herein, it is easier to note that talking about homosexuality is a taboo in many societies (Selvadurai, 1997).
It is totally unacceptable in Arjie’s society that a boy is appearing like a girl. It is also because his father has a reputation of a real man and village will make fun that real man father has a girly boy son.
In the book, Shyam Selvadurai tried to discuss the issues within the context of Arjie’s character as he has been projected to have no chance to live his life the way he wanted. In particular, he liked playing with his female cousin instead of playing with boys outside. I have observed and come to a conclusion that marrying in another culture is not a challenge, the challenge is to accept the indifferences among the cultures.

Works Cited

Holt, J. (2011). The Sri Lanka Reader: History, Culture, Politics. New York: Duke University Press. Print
Mahavalirajan, R. (2009). Tamil/Transnationalism a Convenient Concept. Authorhouse. Print
Selvadurai, S. (1997). Funny Boy: A Novel. New York: Harcourt Brace. Print