...Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid BY ABHIMANYU CHANDRA · AUGUST 2012 The question “who is to be blamed” wafts uneasily through the entire tapestry of Changez’s tale. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid, leaves the reader disturbed and questioning. Why does Changez adopt the rabid path that he does? Who really is the quiet and muscular American sitting across the table from Changez, sharp and cautious, with a metallic object by his chest, for which he repeatedly reaches upon sensing a threat? Who is the waiter, formidable and terse, serving Changez and the American at the café, and why does he seemingly pursue them through the dark alleys of the Pakistani city of Lahore? And what happens after the novel ends, late at night, as the waiter signals to Changez to stop the American, Changez cryptically pronounces—“we shall at last part company”—and the American reaches for the metallic object under his jacket? The novel, a dramatic monologue, follows Changez from Pakistan to America and back to Pakistan. Changez recounts his tale when he sees an American at a Lahore café and initiates a conversation with him. Born and brought up in Pakistan, Changez matriculates at Princeton, graduating summa cum laude. He begins work, thereafter, with a dauntingly selective and boutique valuation firm, Underwood Samson, based in New York. Just as his professional career is about to start, he forms an intimate friendship with the enchanting and well-placed Erica. Content...
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...The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid, 2007 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 184 pp. ISBN-13: 9780156034029 Summary Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact you seemed to beon a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services as a bridge. From the author of the award-winning Moth Smoke comes a perspective on love, prejudice, and the war on terror that has never been seen in North American literature. At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with a suspicious, and possibly armed, American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting. Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by Underwood Samson, an elite firm that specializes in the “valuation” of companies ripe for acquisition. He thrives on the energy of New York and the intensity of his work, and his infatuation with regal Erica promises entrée into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore. For a time, it seems as though nothing will stand in the way of Changez’s meteoric rise to personal and professional success. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in his adopted city...
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...Identity is as much about public perception as it is self-perception. In Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist the reader is confronted with this fact in a bid to understand what it means to be American and Pakistani. 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. Through the use of a dramatic monologue Changez is able to explore how he sees himself as he attempts to clarify his experiences in America. The use of allegory further enhances the story as Hamid also questions the identity of America and Pakistan as nations and provides a controversial ending to trap the reader in their own perceptions. Hamid depicts Changez’s identity as being fluid and constantly changing. As the novel is a dramatic monologue, Changez provides the American with a detailed account of his shifting identity. Hamid uses this to show identity is as much a conscious decision as it is unpredictable. At first, Changez is friendly and plays up this element of his personality for both his American guest, by “offering [his] services”, and his companions in Greece, as he could “not prevent myself from carrying her backpack.” Indeed, it is this facet that attracts both Erica and gives the reader some reason to empathize with him. Changez presents himself as a respectful, thoughtful person, someone who Erica comments “feels solid.” Despite this, he is clearly out of his element and...
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...Set in the years following 9/11, The Reluctant Fundamentalist tackles, through the engaging, articulate words of its narrator Changez, what it is to be a Pakistani living in the suspicious, terrorism-altered Western world. The novel is brief, and the narration takes place during the course of one long evening in a Lahore café. The reader, addressed as ‘you’, takes on the persona of an American businessman or CIA agent – the exact occupation and reason for his presence in Lahore is never made clear – and is approached by a bearded young gentleman, who invites himself to join ‘you’ at ‘your’ table. Over the course of cups of tea, snacks and a delicious evening meal, the stranger, who introduces himself as Changez, becomes a friend, describing his life during the years he lived in America, interspersed with snapshots of Lahore life. Changez arrives in America as a student of Princeton University, where he studies for a business degree, graduating with high honours and successfully gaining a training contract at top valuation firm Underwood Samson. Upon graduating, before his employment begins, he goes on a celebratory holiday to Greece with some wealthy university friends, among them a girl named Erica. Changez soon falls for Erica, but has to content himself at first with being simply friends – Erica is still mourning her first boyfriend, who died from cancer a year earlier. Back in New York, Changez accustoms himself to his working life with alacrity, displaying excellent financial...
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...The protagonist of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a deeply introspective character whose story is an emotional rollercoaster. Changez is a Pakistani man who comes to America in pursuit of his own “American Dream,” and while working to achieve his dream he slowly begins to hate himself. Hamid’s novel is the story of the rise and fall of Changez’s relationship with America. The novel takes the form of a dramatic monologue, with Changez as the speaker addressing a mysterious American man, whom we learn very little about except that he is suspicious, and that he may be hiding something under his shirt. His story addresses his time in America from the beginning to the end. He watches himself turn into a modern day janissary of the American Empire, and this sickens him to the point where he can no longer live in America. The pressure of being a Pakistani man living in a post 9/11 United States drive Changez to the point of self loathing, where nothing but the comforts of home and family could repair his internal damage. Changez has the inability to overcome the nostalgia that follows with traumatic events in his life, and for this reason he becomes a reluctant fundamentalist, unable to live in America and follow the American principles of greed and capitalism. The late Benjamin Franklin once said, “The U.S Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.” Changez understands this truth and works...
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...Mohsin Hamid’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’, is a framed narrative that explores the inflective journey and internal struggle for a sense of inner contentment. The author tackles these incredibly complex themes through the confronting story of a young Lahore man. Adapting himself towards a patriotic American society and diluting his personal contentment through the suppression of his own Heritage. Hence Hamid’s intentions behind the allegorical name of ‘Changez’ for ‘Change’. Hamid makes it quite clear early on in the text, that Changez is quite an unreliable narrator. Changez claims to the ambiguous American that he immediately felt at home in New York, however this is completely untrue as he also establishes his alienation from those around him, conveying the early stages of perversion to Changez’ sense of contentment. “The world around me was like a movie, and I was watching it, rather than living in it. It didn’t strike me at first, but it came from feeling out of place.” Studying abroad at Princeton University, Pakistani protagonist Changez is already faced with socialist and cultural disparity the moment he arrives at Princeton. Aiding the detachment he possesses from other students economic status, he adopts three on campus jobs, to maintain the mask of a Princeton persona. “At Princeton, I conducted myself in public like a young prince, generous and care free. But I Also quietly acquired three on campus job, in infrequently visited locations, so such a persona could...
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...Who is the reluctant fundamentalist? “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” is a tale of where two different cultures clash. The novel is told through the point of view of a Pakistani by the name of “Changez”, who has a cross-culture love who speaks with a complete stranger (American). But ultimately the question that arises when one reads this book is who the reluctant fundamentalist is? The most obvious answer is “Changez” is he really the only one? To determine whether or not Changez is a fundamentalist, one must decipher his past and consider his changes since. But strangely enough for a book with the title, “reluctant fundamentalist” Changez mainly refers to the fundamentals of finance, his time in America, his elite training at Princeton and employment at the company Underwood Samson. At Princeton, Changez was an overseas student who worked harder than the majority of others due to his “hunger” for greatness. After Princeton he joins Underwood Samson in the hope to become an acceptable, high-class American. Underwood Samson is based on meritocracy that doesn’t changes its ways. The culture of Underwood Samson forces the people to work to the best of their abilities and ignore anything else- merit is all that matters, forcing one to become an economic fundamentalist- whether you like it or not, live with it or quit. The corporate world that Changez once desired required him to wear a suit and shave to fit in. In Erica’s sphere, he must prove his worth by mentioning both Princeton...
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...ENGL124 Literature Analysis Nov.11 2014 The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel written by Mohsin Hamid, set in the year following 9/11, constructed through a conversation between a Pakistani named Changez and an unnamed American in a café in Lahore.. The Reluctant Fundamentalist uses a variety of narrative strategies that contribute to the novel’s atmospheric world. This essay is going to focus on the metaphorical and symbolic techniques used in the novel and analyze the connection between them. It will also elaborate how does the metaphor relate to the first-person narrative in the novel and how do these two methodologies work together to derive the deeper meaning of the author’s intension. After analyzing the use of metaphor in the book, we could see better the real meaning and power of metaphor used in literature. The book is riddled with allegory and metaphor. Take names as the most significant example in the novel. First of all, let’s talk about the name “Changez”. While several reviewers have assumed that “Changez” is too obvious a name for a character in this situation, Hamid has pointed out that it doesn’t signify “change” but is instead “the Urdu name for Genghis, as in Genghis Khan.” He elaborates: It’s the name of a warrior, and the novel plays with the notion of a parallel between war and international finance, which is Changez’ occupation. But at the same time, the name cautions against a particular reading...
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...“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? Identity is as much about public perception as it is self-perception. In Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist the reader is confronted with this fact in a bid to understand what it means to be American and Pakistani. 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. Through the use of a dramatic monologue Changez is able to explore how he sees himself as he attempts to clarify his experiences in America. The use of allegory further enhances the story as Hamid also questions the identity of America and Pakistan as nations and provides a controversial ending to trap the reader in their own perceptions. Hamid depicts Changez’s identity as being fluid and constantly changing. As the novel is a dramatic monologue, Changez provides the American with a detailed account of his shifting identity. Hamid uses this to show identity is as much a conscious decision as it is unpredictable. At first, Changez is friendly and plays up this element of his personality for both his American guest, by “offering [his] services”, and his companions in Greece, as he could “not prevent myself from carrying her backpack.” Indeed, it is this facet that attracts both Erica and gives the reader some reason to empathize with him. Changez presents himself...
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...THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST – MOHSIN HAMID 1. SETTING LAHORE: * Decline from a majestic, imperial capital * Poor, funded * Rich history: withstood invasions, occupations – implied strength * Represent a fallen empire OLD ANARKALI: * Important for the way it changes throughout the novel * Beginning of the evening: * busy, well lit, bustling with people, amicable * Changez and American newly established relationship: decidedly friendly * Night progresses: * Surroundings: more complex and dangerous * Relationship: more complex and fraught * Night advaces: * Deserted * Changez falling out of love with America, tension between Changez and the America increase, question integrity NEW YORK CITY: Change throughout the novel * Freedom, empowerment, pleasure * Boundless possibility for Changez * Before 9/11: empire, awe-inspiring * After 9/11: dangerously powerful and reactive ‘beast’ because of NOSTALGIA ATHENS: Rhodes: metaphorical wall * The seat of a fallen empire * Separate the East and West, Changez and Erica * Symbolize America’s future fall MANILA * In the East, but more like New York, making Changez resentful, angry and ashamed * Where Changez started to change, realizes that he is play-acting * Separate Changez from America to have a Third World’s view of the 9/11 attacks VALPARAISO * Sense of melancholy, fallen empire * Remind Changez of America’s interfering and...
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...The Reluctant Fundamentalist suggest that nostalgia is more harmful than fundamentalism. To what extent is this true? Mohsin Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, depicts the dangers of both nostalgia and fundamentalism. One would presume that fundamentalism especially that which leads to militant terrorism, would, without doubt, have far more devastating consequences than nostalgia. Yet Hamid forces his readers to consider how nostalgia can be destructive for individuals and nations and if not kept in check and how it can contribute to and exacerbate feelings and emotions. Hamid is warning his readers not to be complacent about nostalgia. Just like, fundamentalism, it is capable of irreparable damage. Nostalgia is harmful for the individual if one becomes obsessed with the past. When the present is a struggling, the future is a murky place, people often look back into the beautiful and happy past. Such feeling can become irresistible, like “crack cocaine”. The dangerous situation that Hamid points out is Erica’s love for Chris. So wonderful the past of Erica with Chris beside was that she can never forgets him and keeps pulling herself into the world, where they live happily with together. “A guy with long, skinny fingers” becomes her home, where she feels she belongs. That is why, often, “she was utterly detached, lost in her own world”, seeming “otherworldly”. “She was disappearing into a powerful nostalgia”. Her own story, her own way of drowning into the past is...
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...Throughout Mosin Hamid’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” there is a continual undercurrent of tension, with the main point of focus centred on Changez’s shifting identity. This being said, Changez is not the sole focus of the framed novel, with a mix of character’s actions and emotions building up the rise in tension. As the novel is told to us through the words of Changez, he is obviously considered to be the protagonist; the source of a large part of the angst which resonates from the text. Another prominent character in the novel, Erika, pulls away from the complete focus on Changez, adding in on another of the main sources of tension, as well as a part of the reasons for Changez’ change in identity. Another cause of tension comes from The American as well as the waiter, who occur outside of Changez’ narrative and add an undercurrent of mistrust. These characters add to the strain in the text, bringing in suspicion and highlighting many of the issues that Changez raises in his narrative and left ambiguous to allow for interpretation. From the obvious similarities between Changez’ name and change, it can be seen that Changez himself is a symbol for change. These changes that Changez experiences coincide with his shifting identity. From the outset of his narrative within the novel, Changez can be seen to be ‘hungry for success’, eager to chase after his goals, and willing to do just about anything to succeed. Changez can also be viewed to be extremely proud, and although Jim...
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...The protagonist of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a deeply introspective character whose story is an emotional rollercoaster. Changez is a Pakistani man who comes to America in pursuit of his own “American Dream,” and while working to achieve his dream he slowly begins to hate himself. Hamid’s novel is the story of the rise and fall of Changez’s relationship with America. The novel takes the form of a dramatic monologue, with Changez as the speaker addressing a mysterious American man, whom we learn very little about except that he is suspicious, and that he may be hiding something under his shirt. His story addresses his time in America from the beginning to the end. He watches himself turn into a modern day janissary of the American Empire, and this sickens him to the point where he can no longer live in America. The pressure of being a Pakistani man living in a post 9/11 United States drive Changez to the point of self loathing, where nothing but the comforts of home and family could repair his internal damage. Changez has the inability to overcome the nostalgia that follows with traumatic events in his life, and for this reason he becomes a reluctant fundamentalist, unable to live in America and follow the American principles of greed and capitalism. The late Benjamin Franklin once said, “The U.S Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.” Changez understands this truth...
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...Amerika i knæ Sproget er godt og plottet veldrejet, men den løftede pegefinger mod Vesten bliver trættende i længden. Ligesom symbolikken er lidt tyk i det. Således hedder Hamids muslimske hovedperson Changez (changes – forandringer), for styrkeforholdet i verden skal vendes og USA ned med nakken. Og Changez’ kæreste fra Manhattan – der er hvid, rig og meget psykisk syg – hedder Erica – ((Am)erica – fik De den?). (Am)erica er i øvrigt langt ude og suicidal og står ikke til at redde. Nå, tilbage til cafeen i Lahores basar, hvor Changez i sin monolog erindrer sig selv og sin tavse amerikanske tilhører om sin tid i USA før 9.11. Her tog den unge pakistaner eksamen med udmærkelse fra Princeton University (som Hamid selv) og havde en lovende karriere i en kapitalistisk virksomhed, der værdisatte og dermed ofte ødelagde andre virksomheder, især de sympatiske i de fattige lande. Changez selv holdt af at bo i den etniske smeltedigel New York, men hadede det USA, der ligger udenom, og da han på tv ser muslimske terrorister flyve passagerfly ind i World Trade Center, overvældes han af glæde: »Når jeg siger Dem, at jeg følte glæde ved drabet på tusinder af uskyldige, så gør jeg det med en dyb følelse af forundring (...) mine tanker (var) ikke hos angrebets ofre (...) nej, jeg blev fanget af symbolismen i det hele, det faktum at nogen helt åbenlyst havde tvunget Amerika i knæ«. Fuldskæg Glæden bider sig fast, og Changez gror fuldskæg, sådan som Koranen vist foreskriver. Og...
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...Moshin Hamid The Reluctant Fundamentalist PENGUIN BOOKS THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST ëA fantastic piece of work, superbly considered and controlled, with a lovely stillness and wisdom at its heartí The Times ëMasterful, a multilayered and thoroughly gripping bookí Metro ëAn elegant, artful, haunting novella ñ a deceptively simple narrative that is in fact deeply ambiguousí Observer ëTerrificí New Statesman ëChangezís voice is extraordinary. Cultivated, restrained, yet also barbed and passionateÖ brilliantly written and well worth a readí Seattle Times ëDeeply provocativeÖ rich in irony and intelligenceí Sydney Morning Herald ëSome books are acts of courageÖ Extreme times call for extreme reactions, extreme writing. Hamid has done something extraordinary with this novelí Washington Post ëOne of the strongest books published in Britain this yearí Irish Times ëAn excellent achievementí The News (Pakistan) ëThe tone is spot-onÖ a thoughtful and sophisticated novel that has the courage to wear its political conviction on its sleeveí Time Out ëTaut and absolutely absorbingí Toronto Star ëA truly impressive feat. Hamid pulls it off grandly in a style reminiscent of the Russian mastersí Hindustan Times ëThereís an almost delightful allegorical symmetry to the flow of events, as well as a sensuousness and finish that might belong to some other form of art: music, perhapsÖ The result is a cool equipoise that is not possible in ìreal lifeîÖ but no less moving or true for having achieved...
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