The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel written by a Pakistani author named Mohsin Hamid. The novel was published in 2007 and uses techniques of a frame story – a literary technique which serves as a companion piece to a “story within a story”. Hamid uses dramatic monologue to emphasize the protagonist in the story, Changez hence he places more emphasis on the stories Changez is narrating to the mysterious stranger he is conversing with. The story in a nutshell is about a Pakistani man (Changez) who speaks with a mysterious stranger at a café where he narrates his story about life living abroad in America as he is a stellar student who goes to Princeton who got himself a nice job at a company named Underwood Samsons and falls in love with a Western woman named Erika. However, his relationship took a downfall and his life falls apart after the terrorist attacks of the 9/11 tragedy.

Throughout the novel, Changez creates a “fable of infatuation and disenchantment with America” and he embodies the persona of an American. He has adopted it as part of his identity to only find out that his love for AmERICA might not be what he expected it to be. Interestingly, when doing some research on Hamid and his thoughts on The Reluctant Fundamentalist, he pointed out that he described himself as a “mongrel” and describes his writing as “a novel which can often be a divided man’s conversation with himself”. I particularly enjoyed reading this novel because I have never read a novel which made use of a dramatic monologue in such a way which was very entertaining and mysterious. As I love reading mysterious books, this really caught my attention as the suspense constantly builds throughout the story to only find out that my suspense doesn’t reach up to a climactic point. Hence, I thought the novel’s anti-climax at the end was somewhat odd and dissatisfying. Even though it didn’t exactly give me closure because so many questions were unanswered, I thought it was a very careful and deliberate choice which Hamid made.

I think that reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist has made a bigger contribution to our ASTU class in terms of being a global citizen who is aware of their surroundings and applying them to different contexts around the world. This novel has brought up a key event in history which not only affects the United States but affects other countries worldwide as an example of a security threat and the consequences. Being a global citizen allows us to view these problems by understanding multiple perspectives and being open-minded to what’s happening in the world around us every day.

During the classes that we spent analyzing the Reluctant Fundamentalist, we are reminded of the 9/11 tragedy which served as a focal point of the novel. As we dived deeper into the story told by Changez and the 9/11 crisis, a lot of our discussions in class were centralized around the “master narratives” and “counter narratives” in the 9/11 crisis. Due to the fact that this novel is a post 9/11 book, it reflected certain significant things about America’s culture including its dominance and power in the world. Why, you may ask? It is done through “master narratives” which have been presented loudly to the rest of the world in social media, newspaper, articles online, speeches, movements, etc. In ASTU class, we learned that “master narratives” are generalized and the largest ideas which depict what MOST people think about an event and the biggest way in which remember these events. Basically, it’s what ends up on Wikipedia.

The 9/11 is a representation of the morning of September 11^th on 2001 where there were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks in the United States. An estimated amount of 2973 people died that morning, however there has been a lot of discourse regarding the consequential effects of the event, as there has been massive health effects where over approximately 80,000 people suffered from respiratory health problems because of the chemical and debris exposure. After 9/11, the United States placed their suspicions on al-Qaeda – an Islamic militant organization. This caused the United States to react by declaring the “War on Terror” and invaded Afghanistan. When I think about these events, I understand it through considering the “master” and “counter narratives” of 9/11. I personally think that the “master narrative” of 9/11 depicts it as a catastrophe which is incomparable to what other countries in the world might face as there has been an abundant amount of discourse regarding the post 9/11 era. Through this “master narrative” it has created a symbol of America being victimized on that day. As I am sympathetic towards those who had lost their loved ones during that day, I felt a certain kind of unease. I don’t mean to personally offend any of my fellow American classmates but, I didn’t quite understand why everything that happens in America has to be exposed in a way that seems like it’s bigger than it actually is. America seems to always get the crown and microphone to dominate other countries and make statements about certain things, however what gives them the right to have so much of this power and say?

Also, during our discussions we were talking about the scholarly conversation of memorial services and portraits which were put up on bulletin boards, lampposts and hospital walls. Scholars were asking the question, “why them?” What makes these victims obituary worthy and who would be able to get their number and picture printed on newspapers? This emphasized the “victimization” of America in a way which completely turned against those who were Arabs or Muslims. It left me wondering, what makes the lives of those who were lost in 9/11 more important in comparison to those killed in the Afghanistan war post 9/11? Aren’t there innocents who were killed in that war? In sociology, we often talk about how norms are socially constructed, what we are normalized into thinking in society is a product of human interaction and assumptions. In the post 9/11 era, we produce a culture which is constantly afraid of a terrorist attack through this “culture of fear”. In my opinion, I consider the Arabs and Muslims or people of colour as the “counter narrative” because their side of the story never seems to get told or turned into a public phenomenon recognized worldwide. Often, this is due to censorship or also because those in power get to decide whose stories get to be published and whose stories remain untold.

In Political Science class, we recently discussed the security and insecurity after 9/11 where the emergence of al-Qaeda has been symbolized as the new “evil” by America and lead to massive increases in American military expenditure. Even until today, Afghanistan barely operates as a state because they had the longest war with America which caused America to have power over Afghanistan. Within our ASTU class, the “master” and “counter narratives” related to Sarah Polley’s documemoir where Sarah was the only one who had the power and ability to decide whose narratives were told and which parts of the narrative she wanted to emphasize. She also got to decide whose narratives were less relevant or important, for instance, Harry’s perspective and side of his personal story was never told because it was what Sarah chose. The Reluctant Fundamentalist kept reminding me that the 9/11 incident represented a turning point for Arabs and Muslims who lived in America. In the post 9/11 era, they suddenly became discriminated and interrogated in a way which reminded me of Persepolis and those who were against the Shah. It has even come to the point where they made accusations and assumptions about those who were discriminated against.

A historical event which I am familiar with and hold very close to my heart is the May 1998 Riots in Indonesia.  The “master narrative” of this tragedy were “incidents of demonstrations, mass violence and civil unrest of a racial nature that occurred throughout Indonesia”. These riots were said to have been triggered by rising economic issues including mass unemployment and food shortages. The main targets of these riots were ethnic Chinese where there is an estimated amount of more than a thousand people who died and there were at least “168 cases of rape and material damage valued at more than 3.1 trillion Rupiah. However, the “counter narrative” of the riots were those who were Chinese Indonesian where until today, we are discriminated against because we are a permanent minority and if any Chinese Indonesian has attempted to rise in political power, they would be challenged through demonstrations and the majority would want to overthrow their power at whatever cost. Even today, it is an extreme challenge for Chinese Indonesians to express their voices as we are often neglected.