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Blumes

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Blumes is currently reading

Voyage to the Volcano (Magic School Bus Science Chapter Books, #15)

by Eva Moore

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(page 17 of 96)
— Mar 30, 2024 05:36AM

Feb 02, 2021 05:44PM

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

by Mohsin Hamid

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Blumes said: " The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mosin Hamid, is a novel about a man who travels to the US from Pakistan to go to university at Princeton and tries to build a successful career. He wants an American life, a pretty girl, a successful job, and wealthy The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mosin Hamid, is a novel about a man who travels to the US from Pakistan to go to university at Princeton and tries to build a successful career. He wants an American life, a pretty girl, a successful job, and wealthy looks. We read this book because it is an illuminating example of someone being torn between two cultures and also being excluded by his second homeland when he is discriminated against after the events of 9/11. The book explores themes of discrimination, exile, and honoring one’s country of origin and cultural legacy.

Changez is the main protagonist in the novel. While at Princeton, where only two other Pakistani students were in his class. Changez experienced college as a magical place, where everything looked so perfect. After college, he goes to New York City to work for a company that determines other companies’ values. Changez meets a girl and they have a romantic relationship, however, she is suffering from the trauma of her boyfriends’s recent death which puts a strain on their relationship. The issue of status arises in the novel quite often as well, for instance when Changez is at the office lunch room, he notices how the businessmen are seated separately from the cable company workers. He says, “If English had a respectful form of the word ‘you’ as we do in Urdu. I would have used it to address them without the slightest hesitation,” (Hamid p. 98). Then, the horrific events of 9/11 occurred when the Twin Towers in New York City were struck down by passenger planes. Changez’s whole world also changed with this traumatic event, as he was then viewed as the enemy by many of the Americans he encountered. This was very isolating for him. He suffered a lot of discrimination and abuse from colleagues and even people on the street or at the airport.

Once Changez gets fired from his job he returns to Pakistan and ends up talking to what seems to be an American tourist at a café and Changez explains to him his story. The American seems nervous because he doesn’t speak the language, plus he thinks there are terrorists all around him in this country (Pakistan). Changez shares the fullness of his story of going to the States and then having to choose to return to his home country, sharing the choices that he is now making to embrace fully his country’s strict fundamentalism, despite having lived in the United States where the freedom to choose is ubiquitous. The fact that the author chose to name his protagonist Changez, a name very close in spelling to the word “changes,” could signify the changes that Changez has to go through as he navigates this very tricky path between two worlds and finding himself home in a different way than he was home before he lived in the U.S. After some terrible things happened at the office due to a job not working out for a company sale, Changez’s boss says to him, “Don’t let it get you down, Changez. Time only moves in one direction. Remember that. Things always change,” (Hamid, p. 96). This shows that Changez is more of a person and does not always appreciate his boss as much as he thinks.

I highly recommend this book for ages 12 and over, due to some mature content regarding the traumatic events of 9/11 and the mature depiction of romantic encounters between Changez and his girlfriend, Erica. The book is easy to read and an excellent insight for anyone who has ever felt like a fish out of water or displaced from their home. ...more "

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(page 209 of 209)
"Towards the end of the book we learn lots of things about every character. The very end of the book is extremely interesting in the way the author tells us the story. When the american reached to pull something out I got suspicious. Whatever the american pulled out could have been so many things bad or good. The author left us the readers to interpret it ourselves. I personally think it was a gift or card." — Feb 02, 2024 06:29AM

Feb 04, 2024 01:44PM · see review