How a Capitalist Society Affects Family Life in The Decline of the West by Hanif Kureishi

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The short story “The Decline of the West” is written in 2010 by a man named Hanif Kureishi. It focuses on the how the modern capitalistic society is and how it affects the family life. It also questions the ethnicity of capitalism.
The main character is a 3rd person narrator but it is bound to the main character. We only get to hear his thoughts and see things from his point of view. The story takes place in England in the outskirts of London.

In the start of the short story we are presented to a guy named Mike who has been fired from his work and is coming home early to tell the news to his wife. We are told that he was working late and that it affected his relationship to his family that rarely sees him.
Mike has built up a debt which would take about two years of income to repay and that makes the firing a serious problem. The family has a desire for material things which requires a certain amount of income and they want to appear as if they have a great life. They have put on a kind of “mask” to the public society. Mike knows that their family will not be able to keep living in their five story house in outer London. Mike’s two sons, Billy and Tom, already want to move but only because their schoolmates live in bigger houses.
Tom and Billy are used to living the upper-class life which includes their parents working almost all the time and the au pair being their closest “relative” at home. This creates a kind of alienated relationship between the parents and the kids. The family communicates every day but they all live separate lives.
The kids are used to being able to get what they want without being questioned, but never understood how or why. They have no respect towards their dad and especially Tom doesn’t think that h...

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...work, at home. In the process of trying to be a good husband and dad, his only function is a money-making-machine, and he has neglected being a role model to his kids.
Throughout the text Mike becomes clearer about the fact that capitalism and materialism goes hand in hand, but he does not clearly understand what happens in the financial sector and what effect it has to him and his family.
The title “The Decline of The West” is referring to the Wall Street collapsing which happened in 2008 and interfered with a a lot of Americans as well as millions of people all around the world. The text is about how a family is now paying for the collapse that they never had anything to do with.
Is it fair that normal working families have to pay for something that they had nothing to do with? Is it fair that families fall apart just because they live in a capitalistic world?

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