The Fate of Both Erica and Changez Is the Same in the Reluctant Fundamentalist. to What Extent Do You Agree?

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The fate of both Erica and Changez is the same in The Reluctant Fundamentalist. To what extent do you agree Hamid’s 2007 novel ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ employs multiple parallel narratives that constantly foreshadow the intertwined fates of its characters. In the text Hamid explores many versions of the same fate through several characters, who initially are worlds apart but conclude their journeys at equivalent destinations. In the novel protagonist Changez and his ‘lover’ Erica embody the idea of how ‘foreigners’ come to mirror the fate of one another through compelling forces that bind them to one another’s fate. Their common nostalgic natures, imperial backgrounds and longing for ‘home’ contributed to Changez and Erica’s ultimate decision to assimilate to one another. Hamid conveys nostalgia as a contagious disease that condemns Changez alongside Erica to the same fate. The course of events begins with a ‘younger’ Changez who utilises his nostalgia ‘restore’ his ‘glorious past, denoting the good in nostalgia. However, this growing nostalgia causes him to ‘become resentful’ communicating to readers that nostalgia ultimately leads its bearer to a gloomy fate. Erica demonstrates this aspect further as she is implied to have symbolically drowned in her ‘murky waters’. The theme of nostalgia links Changez and Erica through its ability to hinder them both of life. Erica’s life becomes ‘dormant’ after Chris and she ‘stops doing many things’ similarly Changez is griped in ‘unhealthy melancholy’ and loses ‘satisfaction in life’, alluding to readers that he is to follow Erica’s path, in search of ‘home’. In addition to nostalgia, Hamid’s novel strongly appoints the motif of home and homeland as a trigger to Changez and Erica’s growing sense of’ foreignness’ and longing for ‘home’. Erica confesses to Changez that Chris is her ‘home’ and in turn Changez

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