East vs. West
Kureishi often displays a preoccupation in his work with broad stereotypes of the West being solely materialistic and the East solely religious. He explores these themes in his stories by creating characters that embody and subvert the binaries of these opposing cultures. In doing so, Kureishi illustrates that these stereotypes do not hold up in real-life situations, although they shape the way people think of each other. Kureishi therefore encourages readers to abandon ideals of a binary world and to rather resist prejudice and to view people as individuals rather than symbols of their supposed culture and what it represents.
Masculinity and Fatherhood
Kureishi explores the theme of fatherhood and what it means to be a man through the eyes of his characters that are often fathers themselves. In "Hullabaloo in the Tree", for example, Kureishi questions which approaches to fatherhood would suit a man with different cultural references, e.g. a strict, authoritative Eastern perspective, reflecting his own father's, versus a more lenient Western approach. He finally decides that his masculinity as well as his approach to fatherhood can only depend on himself and his authenticity as a hybrid character, which refers back to the theme of hybridity and identity.
