George Khan first came to the United Kingdom in 1937. Although he had a former wife left in Pakistan, he got married to a British woman, Ella, as his second wife. 25 years later, their seven children are marching cheerfully with their neighbors for a Christian celebration. Their only daughter Meenah is carrying the Christ on the cross, and the youngest boy Sajid is strewing flowers on the road. They are totally accepted by the community; however, the children had to deceive their father’s eyes, when Ella informed that he came back home earlier than they had expected. Since George would not be happy seeing his children joining in a Christian parade, they ran the backstreets while the band marched in front of the Khan’s house.
The next scene started with a close-up shot toward the pictures of nine members hanging on the wall. Though their apartment was too small to hold a large family, and their incomes were limited, the Khans seemed satisfied with their life. Furthermore, it was a special day for the family; the eldest son Nazir was going to get married to a Pakistan wife. Even the non-Muslim neighbors gathered around the decorated van, giving them their blessings. Everyone except for Mr. Moorhouse, an enthusiastic adherent of Enoch Powell and yet unaware of his daughter and son hanging around with the Khans, seemed delighted, until the bridegroom ran out of the mosque in the middle of the marriage, and that was when the problem which the family was involved became obvious. The picture of Nazir was taken off from the wall, and George regarded him as a dead child.
What differentiates
East is East from other stories having the similar structural outline of adolescent rebellion against parental authority is the distinguishing construction of the family. As mentioned above, George is an immigrant who married a British woman. Therefore, the family is half Pakistan, half Britain, which made the problem more complex than other immigrant families. The second generations of immigrants are likely to have conflicts between the different standards at home and the outward society. However, the seven children are forced to behave differently depending on the father’s presence, not by the location of themselves. For example, the children attempted to run away in sight of a van coming from the mosque to their house; however, once they were caught by George, who was actually watching them from the beginning, they obeyed him without making resistance. Moreover, Tariq, Saleem, and Meenah served themselves pork sausages and bacon while their father was leaving the house. It was not the first time, and perhaps they were getting used to it, though they had to destroy the evidence in great haste on the sudden return of the patriarch.
Among the children, Tariq is the character who seems to be most frustrated by the religious restriction. This good looking young man is a rock music fan, a secret boyfriend of Stella Moorhouse, and a regular visitor of a night-club. Therefore, it is needless to say that he was infuriated at George when he heard about his secret engagement with a Pakistani whom he had never seen. After coming back from a temporary run away from home, he gathered his nerve and asked his father, “Then, why did you marry Mom?”
Since it was a crucial question, it got George into rage, and made the food chopper shudder in his hand. One of the essential problems with George is his inferiority, complex toward the Muslim community. He persists in his home country and Islamic religion, but since he became an emigrant and married with a Christian, he could no longer be a representative of either his country or religion. There was a scene of George getting excited while he was listening to a radio news program reporting the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, which led to the liberation of Bangladesh. He seemed to be worrying not only about his first wife, but also about Pakistan as his home country. As a historical fact, however, Pakistan was formed as a modern state in 1947, thus it should be ten years since George had left his home country. His poor relation with Pakistan was exposed by Mrs. Shah who crossed sword with George about the clothing of Meenah. George insisted that she should wear a traditional sari, and Mrs. Shah denied it by telling that sari is not a traditional costume of Pakistan. Therefore, George became a father of seven children in Britain, and yet he can be regarded as an “orphan” without a home country from this point of view. His inferior complex is also evident by observing the names of his children. Although his own name is a typical English name, all of his children’s name—Nazir, Tariq, Abdul, Maneer, Saleem, Meenah, and Sajid—are chosen from the names of the Islamic world.
Another problem, which is deeply related with the former, is his simplistic dichotomy between the two values; i.e. Pakistan and Britain, Islam and Christianity, parent and child, etc. As long as George persists in Pakistan and the Islamic world, he and his family living in Britain are doomed to be the outsiders. On the contrary, their interracial marriage can be regarded as irresistible evidence showing the mobility of the ideas and concepts of tradition or nationality. Those ideas have influence upon people for they are beyond the comprehension of individuals, in the meanwhile unjust for the same reason. In addition, the position of parent and child is the most shifting among the examples. Marriage is the diverging point of a son being a husband, climbing the first step of becoming a parent, a reproduction of his father.
To sum up, George had two problems. First, he had an excess inferior complex toward the Islamic community, and second, his dichotomy between the two values lacked flexibility. In the meantime, it is noticeable that he repetitively claimed that what he was doing was intended for the family benefit. Therefore, George is not the only person to be responsible for the crisis which the Khans experienced, neither is this merely a problem of a certain individual being mentally unbalanced. As George had done, it is not unusual for migrant workers, emigrating from colonial regions to suzerain states, to leave their family in the home country, since they could not afford it for financial reasons. This tendency leads to an unbalanced population of immigrants, and once the men leave their home country, finding a partner from the same nationality become exceedingly difficult for them. Thus many migrant workers will rather attempt to find a partner from a different nationality, which will give rise to many interracial marriages and children of mixed parentage. Consequently,
East is East is a film filled with exotic music and images, and yet it did not end with only introducing the life of British Muslims, but it is highly suggestive about the intricate conflict, which includes the search for their identity, between the interracially married couples and the second generations.
