Aspects of class and culture in E.M. Forsters 'Howards End' and Hanif Kureishis 'The Buddha of Suburbia‪'‬

Beforehand, some aspects the two novels Howards End and The Buddha of Suburbia have in common shall be pointed out in the following. Although they were not decisive for the selection of the two novels that will be analyzed in account of their aspects of class, the analogies the two novels bear are worth mentioning.

To begin with, it might be unintended, but nevertheless striking that Hanif Kureishi used very a similar naming in his Buddha of Suburbia as Forster did in Howards End, even if there is no genuine analogy between the several persons of the same name.

Karim’s mother for example, a simple woman of the working class, is called Margaret, just like Margaret Schlegel, a representative of the intellectual class and therefore antagonist to her namesake. Besides, there is Helen, a girl from the upper-middle class and later lover of Karim, whose name reminds of Helen Schlegel, Margaret’s sister and therefore also belonging to the intelligentsia.

Eva Kay, a representative of the upper-middle class but despite her efforts not genuinely belonging to the intelligentsia, finds her counterpart in Eva Wilcox, the daughter of the Wilcox family who epitomize the industrial class.

Finally there is Charles - or “Charlie” - Kay, Eva Kay’s beautiful son who thinks of himself as something special, just like Charles Wilcox does, Eva Wilcoxes’ brother, who reveals to be a typical snob.

Besides those name similarities which one might argue are nothing more than arbitrary, there is, however, a very clear parallel between Anwar’s and Leonard Bast’s death: both are hit and both die of a heart attack. While the former, a very conservative Indian, is ironically hit by his son-in-law with a dildo in self-defense, the latter is beaten with a sword by Charles Wilcox, who takes revenge for Leonard’s impregnating Helen.

While Changez is lucky, and is released after initially having been accused of manslaughter, Charles is arrested for manslaughter and has to go to prison for three years.