In the Reluctant Fundamentalist, Hamid Deliberately Employs the Use of Different Stereotypes to Challenge the Readers Own Prejudices. Discuss.

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In the reluctant fundamentalist, Hamid deliberately employs the use of different stereotypes to challenge the readers own prejudices. Discuss. In the twenty first century cultural prejudices and international labeling is becoming more and more common within society. As a result of these preconceived stereotypes, global conflict has arisen, relationships have been shattered and barriers erected. Mohsin Hamid, author of the ‘Reluctant Fundamentalist’ implicates the reader within his controversial novel, to consequently highlight through the modern reader’s predetermined judgments, the ramifications of simple a misunderstanding between two cultures. The reader’s own outlooks are heightened by the use of dramatic monologue, accelerating and intensifying the tension between the characters in the novel, but also between the reader and the author himself. Hamid concentrates primarily on the imperialism of the American society and the demise, embodied within his symbolic stereotypical characters: representing their part within the fallen American empire accordingly. The 2007 novel accentuates the diverse, peculiar and differentiating qualities each one of Hamid’s characters posses and how each one aids in foreshadowing the events leading up to the deterioration of the parasitic relationship between America and Pakistan, both symbolically and literally post 9/11. Historically America has been depicted as the superior nation, deeming surrounding countries as inadequate and inferior. Consequently, there are several stereotypes attached to American civilians that allow the reader to assess the western world and what it represents. The American and his fellow nation conform to the stereotype depicted by Hamid within the novel. The American’s ‘short cropped [hair], and expansive chest’ instills visions of army and military compatriots within the impressionable mind of the

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