In recent class, we started talking about the 9/11 event and the book called The Reluctant Fundamentalist. As a young student who came from Pakistan and studied in Princeton, the main character Changez’s love towards American tended to change after the coming up of 9/11. This book drives our attention on the topic of identity. Changez is a young man who came from Pakistan, but at the same time, he was also influenced by the USA. His attitude towards the USA is changing over time, and Changez’s perception towards his own identity is also changing. I feel really a lot of details in the book telling the audience about the cognition about his own personal identity while reading the book.
The role Erica is quite interesting in reflecting Changez’s identity. In class, we talked about that as a girl from a rich family in New York, she is seen to be a representation of America. She is portrayed as a girl who was beautiful and charming and is always the centre of people, just like what the American to Changez. It is a dream girl just like New York was a dream place to Changez. However, this girl was suffering from psychological unstableness due to the death of her boyfriend Chris and could not find a way help herself out from the past. In this way, Erica reflects what America looks like in Changez’s heart. It appears to be attractive and modern in the very beginning, but Changez quickly realizes that it also stayed in the past without moving on after the taking place of 9/11.
Other than this, the way Changez treats Erica also shows what is rooted in his heart about his personal identity. Changez emphasizes for several times that he is an American in book, and he is coming from New York. However, he himself is not confident with that identity because he knows he will never be an American. He is so polite and careful while dealing with Erica and is somewhat afraid of doing anything further than status at present that he supposes may break their relationship. Changez, unconsciously, shows his feeling of being inferior to the Americans, through his way of socializing with the Americans. Like what is told in chapter 2, the first thing he did when he saw Erica was to hold the bag for her. (Hamid, 17.) This is a detail that reflects Changez automatically put himself at a lower position while facing Erica. And for most of time, Changez tries to keep cautious in their relationship. In the same chapter, when the conversation between him and Erica was disturbed by others, he stayed and waited until Erica found another time to continue the topic. (Hamid, 20.)
Changez also reminds me of the issei and nesei we learnt in Obasan who moved to the USA and were originally from Japan. They generally kept their culture of their origin and mixed it up with the American culture and it was still hard for them to be accepted as Americans but at the same time, they were not Japanese any more. Changez, similarly, cannot find himself to be defined as People lost their identity while experiencing the moving through different places and cultures.
