Identity Crisis in The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Running head: IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST
IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST
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1
IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a reputed novel by Mohsin Hamid which is purely based
on the devastating incident of 9/11, which changed the lies of the residentials of that country and
paved the way for racial discrimination and most impotently the hatred for the entire Muslims in
the world (Hamid, 2007). The protagonist of this novel is a Pakistani young man, Changez who
has followed the great American dream and become a part of the developed America rather than
being a resident of a developing country Pakistan. This novel is the story of thousands of
Muslims who once associated themselves as the loyal residents of America but transformed
fiercely to save themselves as well as their Islam identities. This is a tale of transformation of a
person who wanted a peaceful life in a territory, where the government with all their forces and
people compelled him to suffer from identity crisis and dependence on peace and leave the
place of his dream.
The critics have defined identity crisis as the feeling of understand or confusion in which
the individuals lose security of their sense due to the change in their expected goals and roles in
the society (Balfour, 2017). In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the protagonist Changez cannot
relate the situation he faced after the attack of 9/11 with the period before it. The values and
beliefs found in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is purely humanitarian in which the author has
pointed out that human is the truth and so also their loyalty and love, hatred is temporary but
affects the lives of the innocents. This philosophy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist has been the
chief factor that can be seen in every turn of the life of the protagonist and the readers ca feel
connected with this.
From the very beginning of the novel the feeling of insecurity and threat can be identified
where the protagonist fails to put trust on anyone around him. There is a complete change in the
perspectives and situation which does not allow Changez to stand properly. All other people