The Reluctant fundamentalist quotes

Question 1

Changez about symbolism of 9/11

Answer 1

‘I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees’

Question 2

Changez thinking 9/11 wont personally impact him

Answer 2

‘I suspected my Pakistaniness was invisible, cloaked by my suit’

Question 3

Changez flying home from Manila business trip post 9/11

Answer 3

‘I flew to New York uncomfortable in my own face’

Question 4

Symbolism of beard

Answer 4

‘perhaps you have drawn certain conclusions from my appearance, my lustrous beard’ (chapter 5 frame narrative)
‘Do not forget to shave before you go’
beard is a ‘symbol of my identity’

Question 5

Changez post 9/11 realising things will change

Answer 5

‘the impending destruction of my personal American dream’

Question 6

Racist attack post 9/11

Answer 6

‘fucking arab’

Question 7

Changez about Erica in Greece

Answer 7

‘She attracted people to her; she had a presence, an uncommon magnetism’

Question 8

About Erica being broken

Answer 8

‘I feel haunted’
her eyes: ‘Something broken behind them, like a tiny crack in a diamond’

Question 9

Changez + Erica’s fragile relationship

Answer 9

• ‘I was afraid any movement on my part might dislodge our connection’
• ‘Pretend I am him’

Question 10

Changez leaving home after threat of war

Answer 10

‘this made me a kind of coward in my own eyes’

Question 11

Changez as a product of American capitalism

Answer 11

• ‘I was a modern day janissary’
• ‘I no longer thought of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee’
• ‘he did not accept American Express’
• leaving princeton : ‘I was a perfect breast’

Question 12

Changez struggling with hybrid identity

Answer 12

• ‘I lacked a stable core’
• ‘I was not certain where I belonged’
• ‘my own identity was so fragile’ (therefore pretends to be chris)

Question 13

Changez describing belong in New York

Answer 13

‘I was, in four an a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker’

Question 14

Hybrid identity symbolised through clothing

Answer 14

Changez wore a ‘kurta of delicately worked cotton over a pair of jeans’

Question 15

Importance of culture to changez

Answer 15

‘Books are loved in my family’

Question 16

Erica to Changez about being himself

Answer 16

‘I love it when you talk about where you come from, you become so alive’

Question 17

Changez’ politeness

Answer 17

• ‘Excuse me sir, but may I be of assistance?’
• Underwood Samson liked his ‘natural politeness and sense of formality’
• Erica says she’s ‘never met someone our age as polite as you’

Question 18

American sense of superiority

Answer 18

• Changez’ Princeton friends conducted themselves ‘as though they were its ruling class’
• Erica’s father addresses him with a ‘typically American undercurrent of condescension’

Question 19

Changez’ reaction to America declaring war on pakistan

Answer 19

‘I began to tremble with fury’

Question 20

Attitudes of America post 9/11

Answer 20

‘America became gripped with a self righteous rage’
‘Your country’s flag invaded New York after the attacks’

Question 21

Changez sexualising Erica (desire for success/ American dream)

Answer 21

‘I felt at once both satiated and ashamed’ (after trying to have sex) Ch8

‘the failure of [Erica’s] garments to cloak the memory of those naked breasts’
Ch2

Question 22

Changez in final frame narrative

Answer 22

‘you should not imagine that we Pakistanis are all potential terrorists’
‘I see from your expression that you do not believe me’