Over the past few weeks, our ASTU class read “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, a novella by Mohsin Hamid. In short, this book is about a man from Pakistan, Changez, that met an American in Lahore, Pakistan. Changez is talking to the American about his experience when he was living in the United States. What makes this book really interesting is that we get to see how Changez’s life changed in the United States after the 9/11 incident. Before this event, Changez had studied in Princeton, had a crush on a Western woman, Erica, and got a job at Underwood Samson. You could say that he loved America. However, after the terrorist attack, we can see how Changez’s “relationship” with the United States changes completely, up to a point that he decided to go back to Pakistan.

In class we were focusing on the Master and Counter Narratives and the impact they have on us. The master narrative is the “version of the story” that the majority of the people know and remember. In his blog, Diego states that we get to know the master narrative (from the U.S. point of view) through movies from Hollywood and video games. Tracy, coming from the United States, comments her experience on how they remember the 9/11 in her high school. She says that they only focus on the specific day of 9/11, her school never got to mention the aftermath and/or the reasons of the terrorist attack. Aleksei was also “victimized” by the master narrative: when he went to the United States when he was younger, he began to have the “common ideas” post 9/11. However, his father later reminded him that he had Muslim friends, and that they were not like the media claimed they were.

On the other hand, we have the counter narrative. In her blog, Mirella describes this term as “a perspective that has been silenced”. In some way, Suvi agrees with her, since she develops the idea that the story of minorities (such as Muslims, Arabs and people of color) never seem to get told or they never appear in the global media. Azumi communicates clear examples of this. She mentions how events such as the 9/11 and the attacks from Paris 3 years ago get to be commemorated, however, people in the Middle East die every day and the media doesn’t seem to notice these tragic events.

My conclusion will be very similar to the one I had in my last blog, since I mentioned the harshness in which the media targets some countries. I believe that we have to start looking for different perspectives and points of view, so we don’t get carried away by the news and their often exaggerations. Also, to be more informed about what is going on in other countries. This book really had an impact on me, since it was really clear how stereotypes can change our lives completely. The thing is that this change is not in our power completely, it is instead in the majorities’ points of view.

P.S. I really encourage you to read the blogs from your classmates this week, they were very interesting.