’Anita and Me’ by Meera Syal (0)

BOOK REPORT
Title & author of the book: ’ Anita and Me’ by Meera Syal
The setting of the book?
The story resolves around Meena Syal, the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the Midlands' mining village of Tollington. The novel provides a vision of British childhood in the 1960s , a childhood caught between two cultures , each on the brink of enormous change . Meena is desperate to fit in with the other children in her neighbourhood while forever feeling like an outsider because she is “ different ”. Eventhough the Punjabi family is well respected by the locals, there are still sutations when they have to deal with racism .
Plot summary (NB! Use the present tenses)
Anita and Me by Meera Syal is the story of a young Punjabi girl growing up in the fictional English village of Tollington in the Midlands in the 1960s.  The book follows Meena during her pre-teen years as she is desperate to fit in with the other children in her neighbourhood while forever feeling like an outsider because she is “different”. She and her family are the only immigrants in the village. They are trying to work out how to fit into British society while attempting to maintain their own culture. Meena’s house is always full of a constant stream of ethnic visitors and her parents seem to see no need to integrate futher. Namely, her parents considered every Indian immigrant in England as a friend or even as a part of the family. Meena’s family are keen to see her keeping up the family’s cultural tradition . Meena on the other hand , is caught between two cultures. She is having a difficult time adjusting to her surroundings, wishing she were blonde and carefree like her 14- year -old neighbor , Anita (Brewster).  Meena idolizes Anita for her looks and free spirit , and in many ways wants to be very much like her, but the reality of her life keeps putting Meena back in her place , a place she desperately seeks a way out of. As the book progresses, Meena seems to fit in quite well with the other children and the family are certainly accepted, admired even, by the community.  This all begins to fall apart though as ignorance and racism clash as Meena encounters first hand how hurtful racism and ignorance can be and she struggles to understand the relationships between people and their ideas . For instance , Anita starts to go out with Sam after her mother left the family. The boy is the head of the motocycle gang and despises coloured people. There had been even rumours about him and the boys that they beat an Indian guy to death . Not only did she have to struggle with the problems with racism, but also with the idea of having a baby brother. This all was too much for her. Fortunatelly, Meena’s grandmother came to pay a little visit to them from India. She and Meena develop At the end of the novel Anita’s little sister Tracey runs to Meena’s place to get help. Namely, she believed that Sam is killing her older sister. They found them in the garden of Big House, where the witch suppose to live . When Tracey tries to attack Sam to defend Anita, the boy throws the girl into the pound. She would have been nearly drowned, if she hadn’t been saved by a mysterious man. It turns out that the man is from India and also the owner of land , where the closed mine is. Meena’s family decide to move out of Tollington.
Characterize and analyze the main characters (what motivates them, are they round or flat characters, do they develop, if so, in what way)
Meena Kumar is 9 years old and lives in the village of Tollington ‘the jewel of the Black Country ’, the daughter of Indian parents who have come to England to give her a better life. Meena is, much to her parents' chagrin, no angel : She lies , commits minor thefts, and has the bad habit of making vulgar remarks when her prim and proper aunties are around. She is also having a difficult time adjusting to her surroundings, wishing she were blonde and carefree like her 14- year -old neighbor, Anita. Meena idolizes Anita for her looks and free spirit, and in many ways wants to be very much like her. Meena is even allowed to tag along with Anita's gang of older girls , although she is still something of an outsider. She just wanted to belong somewhere. However , Anita and her friends want to do things more suited to older girls – chase boys and go out – and Meena finds herself being left behind . Meena has to find her own place in a world full of racism and ignorance, and learn to reconcile who she is with what she aspires to be. Meena had even a little crush on Sam, before he found out about his despisal against coloured people.
Anita Rutter is the sassy blonde school rebel, two years older than Meena and bossette of The Wenches, a three-girl gang of antisocial wastrels. She loves to tease the boys and thieve from the local sweet shop . nita is the polar opposite of Meena - she comes from a broken family as opposed to Meena's stable, loving family; Anita is not studious nor highly literate; and, Anita sees sex as a means to an end and as a way to cope with her own bleak life. She starts to hand out with Sam more often, after her mother left the family for a butcher.
Sam Lowbridge is the head of the motorcycle gang. In the novel there is an episode in which Sa mis verbally abusive of Indian people, which hurts and embarasses Meena. Sam is aware of the fact that, like many others of his white working - class peers in his village, hei s stranded in the demising Tollington without a fair chance finding employment . As a social outcast, there is no useful palce for Sam in the society that has rejected him. Given his racist opinions, he feels betrayed in view of the opportunities in store for Meena. These feelings are of course augmented by Meena playing with his attraction to her, whereby she underscores her position of relative power . Sam bring people under his sway by bullying them.
Mr Kumar is very typical of his generation - highly educated but häving to take more menial or mediocre jobs in order to survive in a new country. He dotes on his family, and has chosen to avoid the big city, where most Asians have set up home, so that he is regarded as odd by both the English and the Indians. Meena’s parents want to hang on to her; they don’t want her to grow up too quickly; and they are incredibly protective because they don’t understand their surroundings themselves. They are from generation who has their own dreams crushed to give their family a better life in other country.
The main problem or conflict the characters have to solve
Families like Meena’s are trying to work out how they fit into British society while attempting to maintain their own culture. Meena's house is always full of a constant stream of ethnic visitors and her parents seem to see no need to integrate further , but Meena finds them baffling. It seems as if racism is a great probleem for Meena since she does not feel that she belongs to the English or the Indian identity . Meena’s is caught between two cultures. She and her family also have to deal with racism and narrow -mindedness in the village.
How was the conflict solved? What is your opinion of the solution ?
Meena tries to reinvent her life and her past in order to make herself more interesting and in some sense to fit the stereotypes. She is very much the opposite of her mother, who has managed quite well to find her Indian/English identity and is upset by Meena’s lies. Meena doesn’t feel that she belongs wholly to the English or the Indian identity. She has the need to exploit her situation, to challange and to test boundaries in order to find herself. It is by doping so that she comes across racism and narrow-mindedness and has to deal with that. She makes up a wonderful story about the hardships that her yet innocent parents went through during their first time in England. She tells her friends when they play in the park that she […]“ was a Punjabi princess and owned an elephant Kalled Jason King ,“ and at school she uses her Indianness as an excuse: […] „I hadn’t completed my homework because of an obscure religious festival involving fire eating…“ Meena isa n unreliable story- teller and a self-confessed liar who uses stories and mythology to feel komplete and to belong. She basically wants to be someone , populaar and admired. She really gets the chance t omake use of her talent when her grandmother comes to visit. Meena makes up a story that her grandmother speaks several languages . Meena explains that her grandmother makes money by looking for gold . The villagers are amazed, but they buy the story which seems, to their preconceived understanding of Indian people, to be highly likely. It is much easier for Europeans to address social questions related to far away places , than to stare at the problems in our own backyard. This seems to be one of the reasons why racism is such a issue . Meena’s family experiences that they are accepted when they recognize the particular role given to them, that is as a separate part of the society, representing the exotic but at a distance . It is when they challange the roles given to them by the society, by trying to create their own space and identity within English society that the English feel threatened. Meena and her family decide to move, before the problms will get any Worde. Their new home was in a region , where the most people who lived there were Indians. It was a good decision , because it is better to live with people around you who has the same backround. However, Meena’s parents should have put more effort in getting to know the villagers.
What is the climax of the story?
The climax of the story is when Meena follows Tracy in the woods of the Big House. Eventough, Meena hasn’t seen Anita since she broke her leg, she still cares to the extent that she’d follow Tracey, thinking that Anita’s dad was killing her. But Meena soon finds out that it’s actually Sam and he’s making love with Anita. Tracey tries to attack Sam in order to defend her older sister. Anita, however, gets mad at her and chases after her. When Anita and Sam are left alone , the boy kisses her and confesses his feelings to Meena. Unfortunatelly, Anita sees it. She and Sam start to fight and when Tracey returns and tries to get Sam away from Anita, the boy throws the little girl into the lake. Tracey would have almoust drowned, if she hadn’t been rescured by a mysterious man.
Discuss the theme (s)? 
"Anita and Me" explores the themes of coming -of-age and integration. Set in the 60s, the story centers on 9-year-old Meena Kumar, a Punjabi girl who lives in a small town somewhere in the Midlands, England in the 60s. Her parents are Indian migrants who have worked hard to achieve a reasonable standard of life, yet find it a challenge to integrate themselves into English society, preferring the company of those who share their culture. Meena on the other hand, yearns to be blonde, eat Western food, and become a published writer for Jackie magazine . She is caught between cultures. As the book progresses, Meena seems to fit in quite well with the other children and the family are certainly accepted, admired even, by the community. Meanwhile, the story of the girl's relationship with Anita nicely illuminates the difficult, unspoken politics of childhood friendship .  This all begins to fall apart though as ignorance and racism clash as Meena encounters first hand how hurtful racism and ignorance can be and she struggles to understand the relationships between people and their ideas. Even her ’ best friend’ Anita leaves her behind.
Your opinion. (Justify)
I thought 'Anita and Me' by Meera Syal was a funny yet quite sad story. I liked the comic way in which Meena always seemed to be able to get out of trouble but I was suprised at the amount of racism she faced throughout the story. It had lots of little twists during her childhood involving her bizarre friendship with Anita. I found this book very enjoyable. I recommend this book to people who enjoy stories about relationships between humans from different cultures.