The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Introduction
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a story about a Pakistan man who gets infatuated with America and his subsequent disillusionment. In the explanation of Changez, who is the protagonist, Hamid has employed the use of allegory in a bid to illustrate to the Americans on the perceptions of the global community about their country. Additionally, the use of allegory was done in an attempt to subvert standardized viewpoints and understanding of the 9/11 event as propagated by the American media through a rather non-Western perspective. Through his explanation, Hamid has adopted a first-person narrative to contribute to the post 9/11 event by mobilizing an array of political issues through the creation of a series of allegories that focus on different encounters and types of travel and terrorism. The representation of these allegories is centered around the interaction between the protagonist – Changez – and the people he encounters on his travels in Greece, America, Chile, and in the Philippines (Hamid 112). Hamid has used an array of guests and hosts in Changez’s travel interactions to act as allegories of diverse nations as well as the inherent relationships between nations in the global space. However, the aspect of unreliability in the narrator caused conflicts and ambiguousness in the travel allegories. As Kirti Kamboj explains, the story sounds more of a flawed and misplaced piece yet compelling allegorical essay that has made a successful attempt to challenge the post 9/11 event and country by contrasting it with the idealized perspective of America before the event through Erica’s lenses and after the 9/11 event. The Reluctant Fundamentalist provides an allegorical and realistic narrative with the aim presenting the character from a metaphorical perspective while providing the reader with the ability to identify with the character and become part of the novel – though in an ambiguous manner – in a bid to propagate the political, cultural, and terrorist concerns highlighted in the novel.
Allegorical Narrative in The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Hamid presented a meta-allegorical project whereby the first-person narrative was used to portray the inherent allegory in the array of uncertainties posed by the post 9-11 environment. In this narrative, the reader assumes the position of a silent American stranger whose actions are not seen nor heard. However, taking into consideration the fact that the piece has adopted a dramatic monologue by using Changez shows the author’s successful attempt to make the reader an active part of the narrative in that the narrator takes notice of the listener’s guesses, reactions, and thoughts. As such, the reader is placed in a position where he/she must deal with Changez’s character and the preemption of themselves as created by Hamid through Changez. It is this feeling of an omniscient narrator and active participation that gives the reader a clear reflection of the allegorical perception created by Hamid (Hamid 54). Reading through, one realizes the allegorical vagueness of this essay from the title, The Reluctant Fundamentalist in that it lures a prospective reader to assume the protagonist as a reluctant terrorist. However, the term “fundamentalist” is actually meant to portray transnational corporatism and to refer to the politics propagated by the protagonist while assuming an economic aspect of domination which is the reason behind the inequalities evidenced in the globalized community. This shift and ambiguousness are typical of this narrative, an aspect that is equally evidenced in the term “reluctant” which does not mean a defiant in fundamentalist activities but rather, the manner in which the narrator behind Changez’s story manages to manipulate an array of ideologies, terminologies, and discourses to convey the intended message. In relation to the terms “reluctant” and “fundamentalist,” the author has increased the intricacy in the essay due to the ambiguity between Changez the narrator, and Changez the character (Hamid 90). Instead of presenting a narrative that is unified about the relationship that Changez has with America, the narrator instead meanders between different frames and discourses in a bid to construct Changez as a subject of post-colonial politics, American imperialism, neoliberalism, colonialism, and globalization, among others. However, although it is clear that Changez is a victim of American imperialism and globalization, he is also a beneficiary of the same.
Despite the vagueness, Hamid has also made a successful attempt to represent a rather blunt form of allegory whereby the life of a Pakistan man adopts a quick transformation from a financial analyst who is pro-American to a militant who is anti-American. The representation of Changez’s private life and love story with Erica (Am-Erica) who represents America can be considered a perfect representation of the public society and culture. In the initial stages of his life, Changez experienced gradual change and growth including employment opportunity and love story in New York city which changes with Erica due to her attachment to her late ex-boyfriend. At this, he realizes the parallel betrayal America and Erica, which acts as an awakening moment causing his return to Pakistan. Interpreting this scenario from the bigger scope shows a transformative growth whereby a young American-Pakistan man evolves into a nationalist and anti-colonial radicalized individual (Hamid 86). With this scenario in mind, one can interpret the third-world scenario as an allegory of the American culture or as a representation of the religious-cultural allegory of the Muslim that is equally vague. Of these, the allegory that comes out most clearly is that whereby Changez’s private life and destiny is portrayed as an allegory of the betrayal and alienation that is experienced by Muslims in the country after the 9/11 and around the world. Changez’s failed relationship with Erica and consequent betrayal as she gets attached to her late ex-boyfriend is a representation of the pain that Changez has to endure due to betrayal by America. In this, he sees himself as a modern-day janissary who has been trained and employed against his own people by the American empire after he thinks about the apparent invasion of his kinship. Although Hamid avoided portraying a direct representation of the terrorism and Changez’s feelings, it instead, promotes an alternative discourse where the argument is intended to act as a reprieve of the activists who are mistaken for terrorists such as Changez.
“I was in my room, packing my things. I turned on the television and saw what at first I took to be a film. But as I continued to watch, I realized it was not fiction but news. I stared as one — and then the other — of the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center collapsed. And then I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased […].” (Hamid 72)
Through his travels, Hamid has constructed an allegory of the third world whereby the continuous travels between different nation-states are used as a representation of the allegorical inherent interactions while revealing Changez’s confusing and uncomfortable position as a mobile subject. In the beginning, Changez travels as a student to the United States, later to Greece in the face of a tourist, and as a corporate executive in Chile and the Philippines. In each of these instances, Hamid represents Changez as well as the people he meets as allegorical figures to epitomize an array of political commentaries about neoliberalism, colonialism, and post-colonialism. Changez’s figure is non-static and changes continuously such as to represent different things depending on travel and purpose (Hamid 73). Tourism is employed as an allegory which takes the place of a meta-allegory global culture post 9-11 whereby the adopted the frame narrative and rather unreliable narrative voice creates the aspect of paranoia and textual uncertainty in a bid to represent allegorical representation of the fear of 9/11 terrorism era. The American tourist is represented in the frame narrative a CIA sent to assassinate Changez, a mere tourist, or a terrorist agent in a mission to advance assassin goals of America in Pakistan. Through the frame narrative, Hamid has managed to explore – through a formal sense – the inherent uncertainties and instabilities that are facilitated by globalization. This aspect is achieved through the representation of the exchange that occurs between the American tourist and the narrator, as one that is filled with anxiety. In equal measure, the adoption of an array of conversational approaches such as politeness, threats, and placation is used to ensure the maintenance of control and suggest the narration as a response to the articulated paranoia.
Reading Hamid’s allegory from face value, one can judge the inherent parallelism between the hostility of Jeepney’s driver moments before the representation of the televised 9/11 event can be assumed to represent the eruption of the resentment harbored by America’s victim in a revenge act. In this scenario, one can also interpret the situation as one where Changez becomes a victim of symbolism that was portrayed earlier in the guest/host allegory (Hamid 71). As such, one can assume the narrator’s allegory in this instance at face value and as an anticolonial representation of terrorism in that, it is seen as a form of resistance to America’s victims of power abuse. As Changez is unable to determine the cause of animosity by the jeepney’s driver towards him, he makes guesses with the term “perhaps” to show the uncertainty of events (Hamid 72) In this scenario, he views himself as American rather than Pakistan which introduces an allegorical contradiction. Although he dislikes the abuse of power by the Americans, he behaves like one and enjoys his power over the jeepney’s driver and other people, as well as the inherent alienation from his colleague who is American (Hamid 72). In this position, he is visualized as an American who lacks a sense of third-world sympathy and sensibility and the disadvantages that Pakistans and Filipinos face due to American privilege from a cultural and historic perspective. Taking into consideration the inherent allegorical exchange that ensues between the jeepney driver and Changez as well as the adherence to neoliberal principles can be seen as a representation of the division along economic lines rather than racial lines and an equivalent retaliation against the neoliberal system where Changez is a participant rather than a beneficiary.
Conclusion
By this far, it is evident that Hamid made a successful allegorical representation of Changez through an array of scenarios. Although Kirti Kamboj felt that the individuals were a mere representation of events with stories that lacked emotional resonance, it is clear that Hamid managed to convey the message by making a contrast of a flawed post 9/11 America and idealized version of the United States before the event. As such, it is positive to conclude by affirming the theses that The Reluctant Fundamentalist provides an allegorical and realistic narrative with the aim of presenting the character from a metaphorical perspective while providing the reader with the ability to identify with the character and become part of the novel – though in an ambiguous manner – in a bid to propagate the political, cultural, and terrorist concerns highlighted in the novel. Through the representation of Changez self-acceptance and rejection of America post 9/11 in a bid to embrace the Pakistani culture shows that the aspect of identity is often founded on the core reality of the notion of “home.” The allegorical representations have accounted for the ambiguities in that the better part has adopted a fault-line between terrorist discourse and the media, cultural, and political discourse. The text has also provided insights on the sentiments and motivations of an individual in the West who has been seen as “fundamentalist” and as a way of reflecting America in a different manner from the ideal.
Works Cited
Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Orlando: Harcourt, 2007. Print.