The Reluctant Fundamentalist Analysis

“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” is written by Mohsin Hamid, and is about a Pakistani man, Changez, who dreams about working in America.

Changez, the main character, invites an American man into a restaurant and begins telling him his story from 1997 up until around 2003. He tells him about how he went to Princeton University and got a good job in a valuation firm in New York, and how he met a woman named Erica on a holiday, and fell in love with her. It has been his dream since he was a child to work for the US, and so he feels happy with himself and his life. Although he is not American himself, no one spares him an extra look and he is accepted in the country for being who he is. Many people lost their lives when the Twin Towers in New York’s

Although Changez has always dreamt about living and working in the US, he becomes confused about himself after a while. He faked being American, wanted to fit in with the others, and at one point even pretended to be Chris to help Erica. He was pretending to be someone he definitely was not, and even started to see things the “American way”, as stated earlier. After 9/11 happened, he was treated like an outcast because of his appearance and it made him feel like an outcast. It made him confused about himself and when he lost Erica and his job, he felt as if he had lost everything. What were his dreams? Where does he go, what should he do? He didn’t know where he belonged anymore and he wasn’t sure of what to do about his future.

When he lost his job and his girl, everything he had dreamt of, he lost himself and his identity. He was confused about his life until he had a talk with Juan Bautista, who made him realise that what he wanted to do was to travel back to his home country. There he continued studying and became a lecturer, and he started to feel more like himself again. Changez started feeling at peace with himself and seemed to know how to take care of himself. He got his identity back