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 destructive nature * America is ‘peripheral’ like Lahore and Valparaiso * Where he chooses to become an exile, his loyalties

2. CHARACTERS
CHANGEZ
* Novel’s narrator and protagonist * A Pakistanis from Lahore, graduated at the top of his class from Princeton * He had little money, under financial aid, working three-off campus jobs * Polite, sophisticated, he was raised in high society * Get a job at Underwood Samson – an evaluation firm, earning 80 thousand dollars a year * Fall in love with Erica * Before 9/11: He is poised to ascent to the ranks of the American corporate elite. He feels like he is a young New Yorker with the city at his feet. * He goes out with Erica * In Manila, he acts more like an American and realizes he is play-acting. * After 9/11: he smiled * He is treated with racism * When coming back to Lahore, he feels that he has become an entitled and unsympathetic American, a foreigner. * Morality troubles him: people may lose jobs because of his valuation * In Valparaiso: he realizes he is a modern-day janissary thanks to Jaun-Bautista * His love for Erica is rejected, Erica leaves him. * He quits his job, goes back to Lahore, works as a university lecturer and does his best to stop America
THE AMERICAN * Nameless * Sits with his back against the wall, constantly watchful, has a bulge in his jacket where a holster would be * Question whether Changez is telling him the truth * At the end, the American reaches for something metallic in his jacket.
ERICA
* Social magnetism, wealthy * Wants to be a novelist * Erica’s love for Chris prevents her from becoming intimate with Changez, both physically and emotionally * An illness of spirit * Represent the detached from reality and self-absorbed part of America
JIM
* Changez’s boss at Underwood Samson * Dirty poor background * Accomplished his American dreams, become very rich * Supportive of Changez in the most adverse situation * Professional, able to evaluate people, not emotional in work
WAINWRIGHT
* Changez’s colleague and friend at Underwood Samson * Blackman, outsider but he fits in
JAUN-BAUTISTA
* Runs music business * Affect a strong change in Changez * His kindness toward Changez is surprising

3. NARRATIVE STRATEGIES
DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE * Insight into character * Hear other side of the story, add a new dimension * Put reader in the American’s position, invite reader to make judgement, fill in the missing truth * Aware of subjectivity
NAMES
* Changez * Genghis Khan: conqueror, attacked Muslim. Changez is not extremist, he’s got a bit of a warrior, making reader question whether he is capable of violence and fighting against America * Changes: trouble and motivate him: at first he loves America but the he turns into a protestor against America. He disgusts foreign eyes through which he looks at his house. The September attacks changes his life. * Underwood Samson * U.S economic: good side: meritocracy, luxurious but dark side: moral problem, value human cost, economic fundamentalism * Violent nature: Changez ‘unsheathing’ (sword) his credit card at Pak-Punjab Deli, superiority * Erica: America: outwardly: wealthy, glamorous, popular but inwardly: flawed, warped up in problems, detached, nostalgic. When Changez pretends to be Chris to make love with Erica, Changez can’t be accepted in America without pretending to be something or someone that he is not, forgetting his root.
FOILS
* The America: emphasize, highlight Changez both a pacifist, innocent and with power * Erica: initially gets what Changez wants * Jim: poor boy, not nostalgic, succeed his American dream with money, fame, power and house * Wainwright: an outsider but fit in while Changez falls out of love with America
KEEP RETURNING TO PRESENT TENSE
USING FACTUAL EVENT – psyche of Western readers
HINTS AND IMAGES * The waiter * Predator and prey images * War and death images * Hints