The Reluctant Fundamentalist

As a result of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 that destroyed the Twin Towers, America begins its War on Terror, a political campaign that has a personal effect on Changez due to the fact that his family lives in Pakistan. Furthermore, he is viewed as an “Arab”, and treated horribly in America. Despite his professional success in New York, Changez is torn between his allegiance to America—the life he has built there and his relationship with Erica—and his allegiance to his homeland, Pakistan because of these issues. When Pakistan agrees to aid America in their War on Terror, the government receives threats from the Taliban. To make matters worse, Changez sees Afghanistan, a neighbor of Pakistan, invaded by America one night on TV, an act which infuriates him. The War on Terror transforms Changez, and other Muslim people living in America, into the “enemy” and Changez reaction to it illustrates the difficult position Muslim people occupied during this time and the discrimination they suffered.  

Throughout the novel, Changez describes both Erica and America in terms of their relationship to the past, which he considers to be one of nostalgia; a condition which romanticizes the past. . The events of 9/11 exacerbate this nostalgia for both, so much so that, by the end of the novel, Erica’s disappearance is synonymous with the disappearance of the America that Changez once knew and longed for. Nostalgia plays a powerful and dangerous role, inciting public displays of vandalism and abuse, as well as displays of national pride for a bygone and “pure” time in America’s history, a romantic version of the past whose validity Changez questions. Indeed, he compares the nostalgia sweeping the country to a cinematic experience in which America’s imagined past is nothing more than a beautiful fantasy, a black and white film. 

If fundamentalism can be defined as pursuing one’s beliefs to an extreme degree, the elite business world of New York that Changez fought so hard to become a part of is another example of fundamentalism. In this light, Changez is a reluctant fundamentalist in the corporate world as well as in the political world; this is evident from the fact that he felt at odds with the blind drive of his coworkers, Underwood Samson’s demand for maximum efficiency and the fact that projects were completed without any thought as to who might be affected, as in the case of the Valparaiso project and Juan-Bautista’s publishing company. Changez is shown to be a reluctant participant in capitalism through his constant questioning of the system and his role in it. And yet he continues to work for Underwood Samson and is good at what he does. The novel leaves the reader with the feeling that, regardless of whether Changez chose to leave or stay with Underwood Samson, the choice would be made with some measure of reluctance.