The Reluctant Fundamentalist

1. The Reluctant Fundamentalist Chapter 12 Shannon & Kayla

2. What Happens • Have left café • Changez talks about how and when he left America • Changez discusses working as a university lecturer • Walking back to American’s hotel • Talks about Erica, oncoming war/invasion • Talks about time as a university lecturer, about his protests against America

3. Developments • Changez - new job is spoken of, his anti-American sentiments more pronounced • American - more nervous • Waiter – seemingly worried for Changez

4. Memories • Speaks about Erica and how he misses her, he creates entire fictional days surrounding her memory, “I would rise at dawn without having slept an instant. During the preceding hours Erica and I would have lived an entire day together.” • Speaks of the presumed war that was meant to happen between India and Pakistan, and how the ‘war on terror’ happened instead

5. Fundamentalism • ‘War on terror’ – America’s drive to find the culprits of the 9/11 attack • “This I reason was why America felt justified in bringing so many deaths to Afghanistan and Iraq and why America felt justified in risking so many deaths by tactically using India to pressure Pakistan.”

6. Nostalgia • Nostalgic about his time with Erica and some of his time in America, though his sorrow over losing Erica is much more highlighted. His feeling of loss over Erica is a metaphorical symbol of how he misses the better parts of America, and therefore all he seems to show towards America in this chapter is hate.

7. Identity • Changez identifies himself as quite open-minded and understanding of different cultures, but this chapter suggests otherwise • “I’m no ally of killers; I’m simple a university lecturer, nothing more nor less.” • Changez reveals some previously unmentioned/unexplored anti-American sentiments that make him seem as though he feels more spite toward America than is usually portrayed

8. Appearances • The American appears more nervous than usual as they are walking through dark alleyways, Changez on the other hand seems more aloof and calm than usual, perhaps he has come to terms with what he believes to be his fate

9. Question What do you think happened at the end of the novel? Why? Reader’s perspective will colour what the ending really is to them. The author, Moshin Hamid, purposely leaves the ending open to make readers create their own ending. Personally the two endings that we have discover depend on if you take the American or Changez’s side more into account. The American’s view could be seen as typically Western, whilst Changez’s could be seen as the non-Western perspective. In the American’s view Changez could be the terrorist, and the men behind them could have attacked him, whilst Changez’s view could be that the American pulls out a gun an attempts to shoot or does shoot Changez.