Problems of National and Cultural Identity in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid, published in 2007. In particular the investigation will focus on the identity journey of the novel's protagonist, Changez, who, in the first part of the book totally embraces American society and its principles, hiding his native Pakistani identity. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the Twin Tower and the Pentagon completely change Changez's point of view and reveal his inner conflict about national and cultural identity. Changez's story explains the difficulties that a Muslims man meets in the USA, the most powerful western empire, after being attacked and brought to his knee by an eastern terrorist group. Changez is feeling lost in a country that he called home and his identity is falling apart; it is difficult for him to choose between his American and his native Pakistani identity. The first chapter analyzes the direct consequences of the terrorist attacks for Arabs living in America: growing islamophobia, war on terror and government's measures, cases of prejudices and violence, as well as hate crime rates regarding the years following the terrorist attacks. To understand the aftermaths of 9/11 for Arab Americans I rely on Khaled Beydoun's American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear (2018); Lori Peek's Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11(2010); and the Human Rights Watch report ¿WE ARE NOT THE ENEMY¿ Hate Crimes Against Arabs, Muslims, and Those Perceived to be Arab or Muslim after September 11 (2002). The book The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the subject of the second chapter: the author, Mohsin Hamid, is introduced along with his process of writing the novel. Hamid, in this unique work, also refine the definitions of trauma novel and Bildungsroman by adding to it the ethnic component. After that, Changez's path is examined; with particular attention at the concept of identity. The main reference texts consulted to understand The Reluctant Fundamentalist are Katie Daily's Rejection and Disaffiliation in Twenty-First Century American Immigration Narratives (2018); Quratulain Shirazi's article ¿Ambivalent identities and liminal spaces: reconfiguration of national and diasporic identity in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist¿ (South Asian Diaspora, 2018); and Mohsin Hamid's article ¿Slaying Dragons: Mohsin Hamid Discusses The Reluctant Fundamentalist¿ (Psychoanalysis and History, 2009).