The Fatherland: Exploration in the Father-Son Relationship under British Imperialism

Abstract

"In capitalist societies, education, whether secular or religious, the teaching of moral reflexes handed down from father to son..." Frantz Fanon writes in The Wretched of the Earth. This project argues that the characters of Kim and Stephen serve as a retelling of colonial, national, and familial paternalisms. In the novels, Kim and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the main characters are in search of finding their identity outside the influence of their fathers and national identity. By doing this, both Kim and Stephen go through the process of becoming their own father.