Changez Moving To America

Changez appears to maintain his ethnic identity for his first few years in America. Meeting Erica and accepting a job offer from Underwood Samson & Company were turning points in Changez construction of his identity. His job and his love interest connects him to America. He says, “I was, in four and a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker” (Hamid 33, emphasis in original). New York is viewed as a global city, it is highly populated and extremely diverse compared to the rest of America so it seems reasonable that he would feel more at home here as opposed to New Jersey. It seems strange that moving to a more diverse city prompts Changez to begin to assimilate American culture. Working with Underwood Samson leads to

This is proven by the fact that he still, despite what Erica and America have done to him, admits to still loving them both to the stranger at the café. Near the end of the novel he even states that he lost a part of himself to Erica. Erica is the beautiful, wealthy, young Manhattan socialite, the definition of the American elite. To obtain the beautiful, white American woman that people gravitate towards would check another box on the figurative America dream checklist. He already has the ivy league education and the Wall Street job, having her would complete the set. In addition to her status as an all-American girl she gives him the ability to gain entrance into events that he would have been barred form. He says, “I was being ushered into an insider’s world – the chic heart of this city – to which I would otherwise have had no access.” (Hamid 56). Like immigrants gravitating to America with the belief that they will have access to resources and opportunities that they otherwise would not have Changez seems drawn to Erica for similar reasons, by conquering her he conquers America. When Changez moved to New York city he gained the status that his family in Pakistan were in the process of losing. His first few interactions with Erica reflects the ongoing struggle between is Pakistani identity and his slowly emerging American identity. When he visits Erica’s home for the first time he