The Reluctant Fundamentalist Is About the Loss of Innocence. Discuss

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist is about the loss of innocence. Discuss Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist talks about the loss of innocence in which a person’s simplicity is lost and replaced by guilt and corruption. The novel illustrates the loss of innocence by showing how the main characters change from being optimistic and carefree into becoming corrupted by terrible realities of life. Firstly, the author uses the protagonist, Changez, who was blinded by the luxury and power that America can offer to him, to reveal the realisation of reality and how he changes as he finds out that he was guilty. Secondly, loss of innocence is also portrayed through Erica and her nostalgia as she keeps on clinging in the past when she still has her innocence. Lastly, America as a country and its reaction on the 9/11 attack demonstrate loss of innocence as America becomes aggressively patriotic which causes conflict between nations. Hamid’s protagonist, Changez, was consumed by the luxury and power that America can offer but as the novel progresses he realises that he is not being true to himself. He has become conformed to the Americans which brought him guilt. This forces him to wake up to the reality and confront his true identity. Changez admits that he “had changed as [he] was looking about [himself] with the eyes of a foreigner who so annoyed [him]” (p.141). The author shows how Changez realises what he has become through the help of Juan Bautista who cleansed his inner conflict and gave him a better understanding of the reality and his true identity. His realisation of being a “modern janissary” opened his mind of the truth that he is being “a servant of the American Empire” against his own culture and nation. This shows Changez’s loss of innocence which resulted to his guilt and hatred to himself and America that he once loved. In addition to this, Hamid also

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