Modern “America” The poem “America,” by Tony Hoagland, desc2ribes the narrator’s journey as he goes through a mental and implied makeover. One of the defining elements of Tony Hoagland’s “America” are the comparisons. Metaphor is perhaps the most important poetic device within Hoagland’s poem. The poem starts off with a student comparing America to a maximum-security prison, because the young student mourns the modern American consumer-based value system. In “America,” Hoagland uses metaphors to illustrate the growing influence of consumerism, capitalism, and most of all the greed that rules the modern American society.
PROMPT: “The novel is presented in the form of one man’s monologue. Discuss the effects of the narrative technique.” The ‘Reluctant Fundamentalist’ has a mesmerizing monologue which interprets the point of view of a Muslim and the situations he encounters whilst in America before and after the events of 9/11. The novel takes place in a café where the Pakistani protagonist; Changez confesses to an American his experience whilst living in America. Mohsin Hamid’s (the Author) monologue allows the reader to emotionally connect with the text as it addresses the reader indirectly through the American. Hamid’s narrative technique of silencing all other characters besides Changez is a unique method which allows the reader to feel as if they are a part of the scene.
Tomorrow’s Society, Today Society slowly changes for the better and the worse day by day. Ray Bradbury depicts the negative change over time in his award winning novel Fahrenheit 451.This fictional book talks about the life of Guy Montag, a man who burns books for a living and soon realizes the corruptness of the society he lives in. The story takes place in a world set in the future where the people are unhappy with their lives because of their government. Though the novel was written in the mid-1900s, many things that Bradbury states in the story now relate to society directly. Bradbury writes this novel to warn against the many negative aspects of society.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist Prompt: In what ways does Hamid use symbolism and setting to explore the main themes of the novel? ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ by Mohsin Hamid is a dramatic monologue in which Changez, a Pakistani man recounts the tale of his brief and torrid love affair with America to an anonymous American whose responses can only be heard through Changez’ verbalized perceptions. The novel revolves around Changez’s changing identity as he struggles with his fluctuating allegiances to America and Pakistan during the aftermath of the terrorist bombings on September 11, 2001. Hamid uses setting as a tool to demonstrate the different stages in Changez’s personal development and discovery of his own identity. He also created a symbolic connection between Erica, Changez’s love interest and America, partnered with his purposeful use of setting in order to demonstrate the destructive nature of nostalgia.
Mohsin Hamid actively involves the reader in his novel. How does he do this? The Reluctant Fundamentalist, written by Mohsin Hamid, 2007, displays the cultural and social differences in a time shaped with terrorism. It follows the protagonist, Changez, who finds himself alienated from his American life, while being victim of unprecedented prejudice. The novel is displayed in a frame narrative technique using an extended monologue directed towards Changez’s newly met acquaintance known only to the reader as ‘the American’.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist In the text ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ by Mohsin Hamid, the protagonist Changez is slowly revealed as an unreliable narrator through the progression of the framed narrative. Mohsin Hamid has written this piece as an extended monologue and used it create security within the reader and the details of the story, but then slowly shifts the whole situation and little by little continues the development of Changez being an unreliable narrator. Slowly but surely, as the novel progresses, the reader is shown the comparisons that the narrator Changez makes between cultures, the views that he has and racial prejudice he develops towards Americans when talking to the unnamed American tourist. It is also gradually revealed to the reader that Changez has forgotten many details of his story when recounting it, also exaggerating parts and giving his views on certain things, hence making him an unreliable narrator. It is very easy to believe everything that Changez says in the beginning, because of his likeable characteristics, but the more and more one connects with the narrator, the harder it becomes to be so gullible.
Double Indemnity, a novel by James M. Cain, tells the story of Walter Huff, an average man and experienced insurance salesman who finds his way into a dangerous and risky string of events when the focus of his ordinary house call is unexpectedly diverted. Unable to avoid the seduction of Phyllis Nirdlinger, the client’s wife, Walter indulges himself in plotting the murder of Mr. Nirdlinger enticed by greed and love. In literature, characterization allows readers to empathize with the protagonist and secondary characters, and thus feel that what is happening to these people in the story is vicariously happening to them. It gives credibility or the impression of living reality. Characterization moves the story along by putting fascinating characters
Changez initially places his identity within the context of fulfilling his personal American Dream. When Changez arrives in America he envies everything the country represents, freedom, patriotism and pride. He ‘immediately [was] a New Yorker” assimilating himself into the New York culture. Changez relinquishes his ‘Pakistaniness’ in order to fit in with his Underwood Sampson colleges ‘my Pakistaniness was invisible, cloaked by my suit, by my expense account.’ ‘Unsheathing’ his American Express card as though it was a rare commodity at the Pun Jab Deli expressing ‘I have an expense account’ is a subtle sign of the change within in Changez as he becomes more like a New Yorker, consequently though the card was not accepted. As there were aspects of Changez sacrificing himself to achieve the American dream there is also examples of his true feelings about the façade he comes to understand the American dream to be.
Within the 24 hours of the plot’s duration, Paul Haggis has decided upon presenting thrilling-reality based themes such as oppression, crime, racism, corruption, obligation, indignation. In separate incidents, all different character’s lives collide with each other, purposely leading to further tension and understanding of the overall plot and its assertion. Main characters like a police detective linked to a tragic family faith, an attorney and his pampered wife, two car thieves constantly discussing racism, a racist veteran cop taking care of his sick father, a successful Hollywood director and his wife, a Persian-immigrant father and a Hispanic locksmith, will conduct the audience throughout this social-critical drama. Thus, an “utter entertainment satisfaction” arouses and also may lead to moral and soul-searching. One specific scene, out of 19 scenes, which is called “The revenge”, is going to be discussed in this forthcoming essay.
“ I was never an American. I was immediately a New Yorker” How is Changez’s sense of identity altered over the course of the novel? In Mohsin Hamid’s novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” the narrator Changez is confronted with the public’s perception of his identity of whether he is a Pakistani man or an American. He exhorts some particular characteristics all the time while others only come to the surface towards the end. With the novel being written as a monologue we discover how Changez feel throughout his life experiences in America as a Pakistani man.