The Decline Of The West Analysis

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The Decline of the West is a short story written in 2010 by Hanif Kureishi. It could be argued that the title refers to an economical decline of the Western world but it could also refer to a decline in moral. The protagonist of the story, Mike, on the outside seems to have it all and a little more, but is it so? This essay will focus on Mike’s role in the story, along with the different meanings of the title. The story takes place on the outskirts of London where Mike, his wife, and his two children: Tom and Billy. They live in a house with five floors, their own parking facility, and a garden. He spends 12 hours a day working in order to keep their materialistic lifestyle possible. After a long day Mike is excited about coming home to spend quality time with his family. “He’d been looking forward to opening the door into the warm hall, hearing the voices of his wife and children…” (Line 1-3) but when he steps inside the door to tell his wife, Imogen, the news, she barely greets him as she goes upstairs for a bath. From there it goes to show that his life is not as perfect as it seems behind the covers. At work Mike gets fired which means they will have to cut down on all of their expenses. The demands from his family are many: His…show more content…
Richard Cory was a rich man and from the outside everyone would think of him as a person who had everything, but he still ended his own life. It is not told why or what made him choose to do that but the moral is that you can’t always judge a book by its cover. In the same way, Mike is wealthy when it comes to money but poor when it comes to love and respect from his own family. Neither is he happy, and although Mike does not kill himself, he does for a moment think positively about the idea while he is slipping down the stairs on his way down to the basement. Both stories could be seen to stem from the saying, “Money can’t buy

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