term usually associated with religious fanaticism. Usually, this is what comes to mind when there is mention of a fundamentalist. However, in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist starring the protagonist Changez, a Pakistani Princetonian who is a top-ranked employee at a prestigious New York valuation firm, turns out not to be an Islamic fundamentalist, but a reluctant fundamentalist of US Capitalism. Hamid challenges readers to reevaluate their preconceived notions and prejudices of people different
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a taut and engaging piece of fiction, exploring the growing chasm between the East and the West. Mohsin Hamid has used a rather unique narrative mode- the dramatic monologue –and used it skillfully to weave an account of a young Pakistani’s class aspirations and inner struggle in corporate America. Throughout the novel, Hamid maintains a tense atmosphere, an atmosphere of imminent danger and radical violence. What results from the two devices is an allegorical reconstruction
poem ‘September 1, 1939’ and Mira Nair’s film ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ (2012), respectively expose the dehumanising framework of tyranny and its affect on differing facets of humanity. Both mediums challenge domineering ideologies surrounding supreme power and attempt to empathetically engage audiences through the horrors surrounding significant political events of history. Likewise, Auden’s ‘Epitaph of a Tyrant’ and ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ constructs single, complex characters that embody
Based on the effects and aftermath of the World Trade Centre bombings, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid uses an engaging monologue to tell thought provoking story of a young Pakistani man’s journey to self discovery and addresses the ramifications of the controversial nature of nostalgia inflicted upon characters and nations. The novel explores the notion of nostalgia in various ways. Through the characterization of Erica, Hamid conveys the self-destructive nature of nostalgia
I found The Reluctant Fundamentalist to be a very intriguing film staring Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, and Live Schreiber. The story is set in Pakistan in the midst of an investigation into the kidnaping of an American professor, who was teaching at the local university. The viewer follows the story of a young Pakistani man as he climbs the corporate ladder in New York City. This story is witnessed in flash back form while the Pakistani man Changez Kahn, played by Riz Ahmed, tells his story to an American
The Reluctant Fundamentalist provides insight to the story of a Pakstani immigrant who comes to America pre and post 9/11. Changez has a tendency to waver between indentifying himself has Pakistani or American, discuss how Changez’s sense of identity changes throughout the novel? From the beginning of the novel or technically his retelling of his account Changez is respectful and admires both Pakistan and America. Throughout his experience at Princeton, Changez would put on airs about who he was
How does Mohsin Hamid use ominous details and imagery to enhance the atmosphere and create suspense in The Reluctant Fundamentalist? The Reluctant Fundamentalist written by Mohsin Hamid, tells the story of a young Pakistani named Changez, who arrived at Princeton at the vulnerable age of 18. Four years later he graduated “without having received a single B”(4), and began working at the elite valuation firm Underwood Samson. Changez was, in the beginning, infatuated with the idea of the American
“Time only moves in one direction. Remember that. Things always change” (Hamid 96). In the book The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid portrays a young international student from Pakistan named Changez. Changez comes to the United States to fulfill the American dream, but America is about to let Changez down. He starts with every immigrant’s interpretation of the American dream: get rich and be able to provide for their family. Later, he changes his perspective briefly to America being a
Moshin Hamid’s purposeful ambiguity forces the reader to consider various point of views. A viewpoint that stuck out so dramatically to me while reading his novel, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, was the strong parallel between Eric’s character and Changez’s relationship with the United States of America. Changez first moves to America as a college student on a scholarship he received from Princeton University. After graduating college he moves to New York City to accept a prestigious job offer
might have two or more. Everyone is born into different families, communities and cultures with certain values that are naturally inherited. So what defines an identity? This interesting topic is discussed in the 2007 award-winning novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, written by Mohsin Hamid. Born in Pakistan, Hamid received an education at the Princeton University and got a job from a management decisions evaluating company in New York after he graduated. Hamid chooses to tell his own story by writing
unfamiliarity, life as an outsider in a new land lends to actions conducted in solidarity influenced by uncomfortability, anger, loneliness, and resentment. Mohsin Hamid tells a quiet, yet eerily powerful story through his post-9/11 monologue, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” Introduced is the narrator, Changez;
Vygotsky, a notable Soviet psychologist, once said, “Through others, we become ourselves” (“Vygotsky’s Revolutionary Theory of Psychological Development,”2010). Such a telling statement describes the journey of Changez, the narrator in The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid. Changez is a young and impressionable Pakistani who struggles with being a stranger in America. When Changez reflects on the events of his life before and after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, the reader is invited
that anger on anyone who looks like a “terrorist.” What does a terrorist look like? The generalization and stereotype at the time was a Middle Eastern man, and this was a problem for Changez, the main character, in Mohsin, Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. (2007) Changez was from Lahore, Pakistan and moved to the United States to pursue a Princeton degree at the age of eighteen. Changez’s story is told by him to a man, an assumed American man, at a small Café located in Lahore. This man, Changez
or age but it seems to be an ongoing process. There are several factors that ultimately come to affect this process which bring changes to ones identity over time. In the novels Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward, Bone by Fae Myenne Ng, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid the factors that seem to affect the protagonists range from death
the nation. Citizens who condone this type of patriotism – those who condone violence inflicted upon other nations other than their own show that they are complicit with a terrorist regime. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, written by Mohsin Hamid, resonates
Identity crisis according to the novel “Reluctant fundamentalist”? IDENTITY CRISES; A period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or role in society. Crisis According to novel: According to the novel we observe identity crisis from the very beginning when Changez was in UnderwoodSamson for the jobinterview. There he tried not to mention about his true identity; which is that he was a Pakistani on
The influence of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness on Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is obvious. Since Hamid's work represents a new Heart of Darkness, the similarity between Hamid's novel and Conrad's novel can be seen in almost the whole novel. This study aims to detect the effect of Conrad's Heart of Darkness on Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist by reading the background of the two authors, the circumstances that led to write both works, by examining the narrative and symbolism
Most people, at some point in their life, experience an internal divide that, in the grand scheme of things, is insignificant. A common one that a person might experience is trying to eat healthy while eating out at a restaurant. The health-conscious part of a person might push for him or her to eat a salad, but the food lover inside of him or her might push for the rich, carb-filled pasta dish. In this scenario, while the individual does experience a tug between two sides, it does not have a meaningful
When people read, they are taken to another person’s world and forced to see things through a new lens. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Hamid attempted to use the feelings already inside the reader to create the world. In “Enduring Love of the Second Person,” Hamid writes “to try and show, after the terror attacks of 9/11, how feelings already present inside a reader – fear, anger, suspicion, loyalty- could color a narrative so that the reader, as much as or even more than the writer, is deciding
him; while a fundamentalist politician Matthew Harrison Brady prosecutes. The story takes place in Hillsboro, which is a small town in Tennessee. Cates is merely trying to teach to his class that there is more to life than just what the Bible teaches. He is not trying to be nonreligious; rather he is just teaching his class to think outside the box. The town’s people think that Cates is trying to push devilish thoughts through evolutionism. Matthew Harrison Brady is the fundamentalist hero to the