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.
To obtain his initial power he travels to America as a “lover of America” and “focus[es] on the fundamentals” whereas, finally he refuses to be a “modern-day janissary, a servant of American empire” and as anti-American in Pakistan “[his] days of focusing on fundamentals [is] done”. In Pakistan, Changez is trying to make his “concerns about money and status things of distant past” and he looks at dignity and position as power in his personal life, as he believes that status in any traditional, class-conscious society “declines more slowly than wealth”. Therefore, obtaining a scholarship for Princeton, he travels to America and involves himself in Underwood Samson as a financial fundamentalist, valuing cultural elements. Changez being well-paid and gaining Princeton’s prestige, he achieves this initial goal, yet his experiences and his political maturity causes him to feel “powerless” and even “angry at [his] weakness” when he visits his family in Lahore. In America, Changez falls in love with Erica and is enjoying his powerful life as “immediately a New Yorker” for four and a half years.
living the American dream, after all, the whole reason why he departed to America is to perhaps help heighten himself and his family’s social prestige back in Lahore. Although, all of this is intervened with Erica’s problems in the end. Erica is also a
Through the many events which feature in the novel, the reader is able to deduct that whilst Changez may lose himself and become perplexed about his identity during his time in New York, he ultimately is a man who is entrenched in his heritage. Changez’s odyssey to New York caused him to become a ‘lover of America,’ however it also resulted in him losing touch with his true character. For Changez, arriving in America was a ‘dream come true,’ and attending Princeton inspired him into feeling that his life was a ‘film in which (he) was the star and everything was possible.’ As novel develops, the reader is able to see a progression from the originally ‘polite’
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.
Mohsin Hamid’s dramatic monologue, The Reluctant Fundamentalist tells the story of a young Pakistani man who is consumed by the status of America and becomes immersed in the American way of life. The narrator, Changez is unsure of who he is, and whilst certain personality traits remain, his sense of identity is changed significantly by the novel’s conclusion. America is the country that Changez becomes enamoured and then disillusioned with. This turbulent emotional journey is reflected in Changez’s professional and personal relationships. At first, he is enchanted by the beautiful Erica, with whom he attempts to pursue a romantic relationship; likewise, he is enticed by the career and status opportunities that elite valuation firm Underwood Samson offers.
“ 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.
The plot of The Reluctant Fundamentalist [pic]is quite simple. Changez, a young Pakistani who was educated at Princeton and worked on Wall Street, is telling his story to a nameless American he meets in a restaurant in Lahore. Changez is both fascinated and repelled by America that offered him an education and a lucrative job but at the same time, made his life intolerable in a multitude of ways. Changez's uneasy relationship with America is mirrored by his equally painful involvement with a woman called Erica. (As you can see, Hamid is quite heavy-handed with the way he names his characters.
The novel starts with an anonymous American sitting at a café in Lahore being approached by a Pakistani man who introduces himself as Changez. The two briefly talk about typical American traits until Changez starts to narrate his experiences in America. Throughout their discussion, the bulky waiter repetitively concerns the American with his abnormal behavior and glances while Changez constantly assures that there is nothing to worry about. In many instances, Changez’s choices of words towards the American imply that he may be an undercover agent. Changez starts the story of his experiences in America with the time when he was a college student at Princeton University.
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.