The Reluctant Fundamentalist

How does Hamid employ figureism throughout the novel? Is his expenditure of symbolism effective? What is lost and gained through the use of symbolism? The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel in which an the Statesn immigrant Changez is living a dream with a great job, money, and the regal true heath by his side. However after the 9/11 attacks Changezs comprehension on the States shifted, he was forced to question where his everyegence lies and this developed into patronage for America.If you read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, and fail to dig d own the stairs to the surface of the text then the novel will hold an but different meaning to you. Hamid used heavy sybolism to convey meanings and themes that are wear non said outright, and overall altered the impression the novel leaft. era reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist it became apperant that Changezs get laid interest erica symbolized America. Besides the obvious that erica is the last five letters of Am erica, in that location were multiple parallels in the story Hamid built for true heath and the way he portrayed America.When Changez first met true heath he says, She had a presence a naturalist would likely have compared her to a lioness strong, sleek, and invariably surrounded by her pride(22). Changez also comments of the pride America shows with, stickers of flags adorned windshields and windows large flags fluttered from buildings. They all seemed to proclaim We are Americathe mightiest civilization the world has ever known. (79). analogous to America after 9/11, Erica seemed to be, utterly detached, lost in a world of her own she was struggling against a current that pulled her deep down herself(86).Similarly after 9/11 Changez felt that America, retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority(168). The sorrow that Erica felt over the loss of Chris was phonation of the grief America felt after 9/11 and how that prevented some(prenominal) Erica and America from moving on and accepting Changez. When Changez goes to see Erica at her clinic he is told by a nurse that, It did not division that the person Erica was in love with was deceased for Erica he was alive enough, and that was the problem. (133) America, too, was increasingly giving itself over to a dangerous nostalgia, he claimed that he, had always thought of America as a nation that looked fore for the first time I was stuck by its determination to look back. (115) The grief that Erica felt over the loss of Chris was representative of the grief America felt after 9/11 and how that prevented both Erica and America from moving on and accepting Changez. When Changez goes to see Erica at her clinic he is told by a nurse that, It did not matter that the person Erica was in love with was deceased for Erica he was alive enough, and that was the problem. (133) If Erica represents America and their inability to move on from their grief, then Chris is a symbol for 9/11 . When Changez goes to visit Erica in the clinic,the nurse he meets when he first enters tells him that, It did not matter that the person Erica was in love with was This was included to show Cahngezs changing relationship with America and an ersatz way to show how America is broken and how because of Americas inclination of an orbit to look back, and hold on to the past prevented America fro building relationships with outher countriesIf you did not connect that Erica was America you might hink that this was about a Pakistany that came to American and wound up hating and criticisming it until he left. In reality it was about a man, or boy rather, that had big dreams of his life in America, ones that seemed to be culmination true. But just as Erica could not let go of the past, America couldnt let go of the hatred and fear they held for those who seemed un-American.