Month: March 2016

Good afternoon readers,

          In this week’s blog I be discussing the novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid. First off, I’d like to say that I really enjoyed this novel and that Hamid’s work took me off guard. The novel ends leaving readers with many mixed emotions and many unanswered questions. In this post I’m going to be discussing the impact of Erica’s death. Erica is a main character throughout the novel who is both the main character’s, Changez, love interest, and dearest friend. Heavily burdened by the death of her highschool boyfriend, she struggles to find meaning in her life, eventually taking her own, or at least it is heavily alluded to that she does. Hamid rights with such purpose throughout his novel, therefor I do not believe he purely wrote this in to develop pathos. Perhaps her death is a physical representation of Changez’s love for America dying. Or maybe Hamid’s meaning is even more complex, and the death of Erica represents 9/11s impact of Muslim people in United States of America, resulting in the event isolating Changez. But why? Personally I believe Erica’s death is incorporated in the novel both in order to mirror and balance the dominant themes of 9/11. By balance I am referring to how Hamid perfectly renders both the political and the personal aspects of the novel and the relationship between them. I would suggest that Erica’s death is used as a tool to create the balance.

          What troubles me most about Erica’s death, is that it is unconfirmed. The doubt created brings Changez a miniscule amount of hope in Erica’s possible reappearance. Changez explains how he emails her year after year until finally her account is disabled. He also desperately reads her manuscript for “the conviction that [she] was dead or alive”(pg. 167). What does Hamid aim to show the reader by leaving Changez tortured by the unknown?

Works Cited

Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Orlan

Good afternoon readers

        In my ASTU class we have been discussing the first chapter of Klay’s novel “Redeployment”. The chapter we read was about a returning soldier, Sgt. Price, and his experience with the difficulties of returning home and finding normality with his wife Cheryl. Klay states that the major aim of the novel is to promote conversation between veterans and civilians. Klay discusses current issues of absence of speech, and most importantly addresses the root of the issue mutually shared between those who serve and those who do not: soldiers not wanting to talk and civilians seemingly unmotivated to genuinely and truly connect with the soldier’s experience abroad. Klay discusses how generating conversation is vital to our cultural understanding of war and I think Klay is aiming to reduce rash aggressive political decisions by creating an understanding of the consequences.    

        This reminds me of my Father and his relationship with my grandfather. My grandfather returned from WW2 silent, lost and disconnected, much in the way that Klay depicts redeployment in his novel. It took years for my father and him to develop conversation on the topic of WW2. Even though I never got the chance to truly know my grandfather, the impact he had on my father was massive. As a result he has taken a keen interest in the history of the world, specifically war. Over the years my father has developed a strong pacifist approach to life and understands much of the implications of war. A state of mind I believe Klay deems extremely important. I wonder if an increased understanding of the influences and affects of war were promoted in High School would result in the creation of ideals aligned with Klay’s.

Once again, thanks for reading,

Chase

Works Cited

Klay, Phil. Redeployment. Penguin Group, 2014. Print.