NAME : Tanveer Ahmad
Roll No : 19264
Class : Bs 7th (B) MORNING
Submitted to : Mam Saima AYAZ
* Identity crisis of Changez in novel reluctant fundamentalist
The main character in the Reluctant Fundamentalist Changez struggles to find his identity
within the western culture. Changez is a Pakistani who graduates from Princeton University and
leter on joins a company on the name of Underwood Samson. The story takes place in Lahore
where Changez meets an American tourist and he tells him his story of how he loses his love,
job, identity and sense of belongings.
“Excuse me sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened
by my beard :I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something ;more than
looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission and since I am both a native of this city and a
speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services”.
In the above paragraph we can clearly see that what a writer is going to identify in the novel
and that is the Identity crisis of one of the main character from the novel which is Changez.
Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist captures the impact of cultural hybridity on non-
white immigrants in America, and how it eventually leads to their identity crisis, through his
protagonist, Changez, a Muslim, non-white Pakistani immigrant in America. In The Reluctant
Fundamentalist, Hamid presents America as a neo-colonial power which has adopted the
attitude of a colonialist country. Even after Pakistan gains its independence, it still lives in the
shadows of American neo-colonialism. Changez is aware of the wide gap between his country
and America and understands how inferior Pakistan is in relation to America:
“Now our cities were largely unplanned, unsanitary affairs, and America had universities with
individual endowments greater than our national budget for education. To be reminded of this
vast disparity was, for me, to be ashamed. Feeling ashamed, inferior and inadequate, he
Roll No : 19264
Class : Bs 7th (B) MORNING
Submitted to : Mam Saima AYAZ
* Identity crisis of Changez in novel reluctant fundamentalist
The main character in the Reluctant Fundamentalist Changez struggles to find his identity
within the western culture. Changez is a Pakistani who graduates from Princeton University and
leter on joins a company on the name of Underwood Samson. The story takes place in Lahore
where Changez meets an American tourist and he tells him his story of how he loses his love,
job, identity and sense of belongings.
“Excuse me sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened
by my beard :I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something ;more than
looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission and since I am both a native of this city and a
speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services”.
In the above paragraph we can clearly see that what a writer is going to identify in the novel
and that is the Identity crisis of one of the main character from the novel which is Changez.
Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist captures the impact of cultural hybridity on non-
white immigrants in America, and how it eventually leads to their identity crisis, through his
protagonist, Changez, a Muslim, non-white Pakistani immigrant in America. In The Reluctant
Fundamentalist, Hamid presents America as a neo-colonial power which has adopted the
attitude of a colonialist country. Even after Pakistan gains its independence, it still lives in the
shadows of American neo-colonialism. Changez is aware of the wide gap between his country
and America and understands how inferior Pakistan is in relation to America:
“Now our cities were largely unplanned, unsanitary affairs, and America had universities with
individual endowments greater than our national budget for education. To be reminded of this
vast disparity was, for me, to be ashamed. Feeling ashamed, inferior and inadequate, he
