This is it bloggers, I can’t believe this is the last blog ever. So to end off the year of blogs, I will be talking about Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
I absolutely love symbolism and allegorical means of telling a story, because it really makes me think. Sometimes I ponder the possibilities of what a certain symbol could mean, even if I go too far off on a tangent. I love the process of deciphering a symbol: this equals this, so therefore this symbol could represent this idea. For example, the doorknobs in Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close all appear in grandpa’s chapters. If it is just showing the doorknob, it inclines me to think the door is closed. What else is “closed”? Grandpa is “closed”. He has lost the ability to speak because of his trauma that he is trying to “unlock” throughout the story (this is a sneak peak to my essay).
Naturally, I was intrigued in the idea of Erica and Underwood Samson being symbols for America. America had quite the infamous reputation during the Cold War for trying to “help” countries become democratic. The brief period between the denouement of the Cold War and 9/11, the US actually became fairly inactive, only advising and supporting wars. And once again after 9/11, Bush and his neo-conservative policies plunged the US back years in terms of international relations. This is key, as this is precisely what Peter Morey and even Ilka Saal bring up in their essays. Morey looks at Erica being a symbol, as she has the potential relationship with Changez, possibly the symbol for America’s change. This potential relationship between East and West is looming, but Am(Erica) disappears into the “dangerous nostalgia”, rejecting the opportunity to concretely establish a relationship with this foreigner (Changez or Pakistan). Similarly, Saal argues, “the US forfeited the opportunity to reflect on injury…” (454) after 9/11. This can also be seen in Hamid’s novel by the US deciding not to intervene when Pakistan is threatened by India. This is the key symbol in Erica that I hadn’t even connected while reading the book. After reading Morey’s article, it was such a pivotal moment in my understanding of the story. It truly made me question whether or not any of the story was meant to exist or if it was all an allegory to criticize the US. This is exactly the type of symbolism I love to encounter, speculating the allegories, though I find it more satisfying knowing the author truly intended it instead of making possibly-irrational things up. If you’d like to do your monthly comment on my blog, I’d be interested in hearing what you thought about these symbols: was it too much? Did they serve their purpose?
Finally, to wrap up the last ASTU 100 blog ever, I’d like to thank every one of my fellow bloggers and Dr. Luger. It was a pleasure to be a global citizen among you, and I look forward to seeing what academic futures are in store for us!
As always, blogging off!
Ryan
P.S. The title is an obvious symbol for finishing the ‘race’ that is ASTU.