The Reluctant Fundamentalist

During the spring term of freshman year, we read Mohsin Hamid's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." I wrote an essay on the storylines coerce him into a frame of a fundamentalist despite his efforts to achieve the American dream.

"I'd rather be an outcast than to be inside feeling like an outsider," said Peprah Boasiako. This quote represents the dilemma of numerous immigrants in pursuit of the American dream, where they search for their happy median between their national identities and the increasing urge to "fit in" to American society. Mohsin Hamid's Reluctant Fundamentalist well captures such psychology of Changez, a Pakistani immigrant in New York. Changez does manage to become a successful Princeton graduate working in a major consulting firm, Underwood Samson, but is consistently pushed back not because of what he can do, but because of where he is from. The book depicts the events that happen, one after another, that change Changez from a potential representative of the American dream to a "reluctant fundamentalist." This paper will examine three major storylines that allow this to happen, which are interactions he has with Erica, a white American female, constant internal debates pertaining to where he truly belongs, and hatred towards him just because of his own identity, his own birthplace.

Changez's later discovered helpless attempts to help Erica from her depression, as well as potentially having her reciprocate his devotion someday, serve as an analogy that represents his efforts to have America on his side. Erica comes from a rich, domestic American family, is smart and supported enough to graduate from Princeton, and easily draws all kinds of people towards her. She does not have to clarify her identity as Asian, Indian, or Black American, but rather, would be considered completely fine to simply call herself an American. Changez's relationship with Erica is a perfect analogy of his relationship with America. Changez even has to pretend he is not himself, just to get a glimpse of her love. Changez recalls lying down with Erica in her house, but Erica unwilling to proceed due to her nostalgia towards her deceased boyfriend Chris. Changez tells the listener, "'Are you missing Chris?' She nodded, and I saw tears begin to force themselves between her lashes. 'Then pretend,' I said, 'pretend I am him'" (Hamid 105). This symbolizes Changez, or ultimately a foreigner chasing the American dream, giving up his entire identity and self to become Chris, who symbolizes the past "glories" of America when the American dream was more selective. As we later realize that Erica is a personification of America, it is clear that even after ceasing to be who he is, Changez still cannot have his love reciprocated, both from Erica and from America. This eventually leads to him being dismayed and realizing that his expectations for this country were too idealistic, taking him a step closer to being a "reluctant fundamentalist."

Changez goes through a series of crises questioning his identity. Is he Pakistani or is he American? Obviously no individual can be classified into exactly one category, but because Changez comes from a marginalized society – because Changez is an immigrant from Pakistan, because he is a member of the Muslim culture – people are prone to seeing and quickly judging Changez as a "foreigner", a "Pakistani American", and most of all, a potential "fundamentalist." No one in the book sees him simply as an "American", let alone "Changez" himself. At first, Changez simply wants to fit in, even with the cost of disregarding his own identity and past. This makes him hostile to people who he thinks are inferior, which likely comes from a thought that he could have had a similar fate: "Perhaps it was for this reason that I did something in Manila I had never done before: I attempted to act and speak, as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American… So I learned to tell executives my father's age, 'I need it now'; I learned to cut to the front of lines with an extraterritorial smile; and I learned to answer, when asked where I was from, that I was from New York" (Hamid 65). Later, however, when a colleague asked Changez a question and he turned to answer, Changez recalls, "I felt in that moment much closer to the Filipino driver than to him; I felt I was play-acting when in reality I ought to be making my way home, like the people on the street outside" (Hamid 67). These reflect his barely sustained attempts to suppress his own identity and simply blend into the American dream he has worked so hard to obtain. He gets tied back to his own culture, and continues to debate between where he comes from and where he wants to go, consistently redefining and redefining himself. This eventually creates the grounds for him to choose one option and stick to it.

Changez's decision to stand for his own country triggers his transformation into a "reluctant fundamentalist." He realizes that choosing a path between being a Pakistani and an American is not only for the sake of creating a presentable identity, but also because standing for one culture, at least in the perspective of the rest of society, means standing against another. Although Changez being a pro-Pakistani does not make him an anti-American, and vice versa, the status quo Changez is situated in the book forces Changez to conform to this rule. Simply by existing, Changez is "hated", intentionally or unintentionally. When Changez visits Erica's house for a meal, Erica's dad says, "'But the elite has raped that place well and good, right? And fundamentalism. You guys have got some serious problems with fundamentalism'" (Hamid 55). This means that because Changez is a Pakistani, people assume that it is justified for them to simply make generalized comments about his country, not to mention that these comments are solely based on the American perspective. When these contradictions continue to happen, Changez does not have any choice but to turn against his own country and stand with the American viewpoint, or to give up the American dream and protect his own identity as a Pakistani, even with the risk of being labelled a fundamentalist. This is ultimately the reason why he becomes a "reluctant fundamentalist" in the end, even though he started off as a successful Princeton graduate.

This paper explored three major storylines that influenced Changez's development from a live example of the American dream to a proud pro-Pakistani labelled as an "anti-American" and a "fundamentalist." Throughout the story, Changez realizes that his efforts towards fitting in may not guarantee him anything and could be taken selfishly, especially based on his interactions with Erica. His work experiences sometimes tempt him to act as if he is no longer connected to his origins, but soon makes him feel alienated from his own community within the American dream that he has worked so hard for. The dichotomy between choosing his ideals and standing firmly to his own culture leads him to decide that he would protect the cultures and the country he was raised in, readily face the wrong labels that are thrown into him, and cease trying to change himself for something that is so ambiguous he may not know when even he is actually going to fit in. Changez's story represents the dilemma countless immigrants face, and presents the readers with a strong narrative that proudly concludes with standing his own grounds at the end.