The Reluctant fundamentalist quotes Flashcards
Changez about symbolism of 9/11 Chapter 5
‘I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees’
Changez thinking 9/11 wont personally impact him Chapter 5
‘I suspected my Pakistaniness was invisible, cloaked by my suit’
Changez flying home from Manila business trip post 9/11 Chapter 5
‘I flew to New York uncomfortable in my own face’
Symbolism of beard Chapter 5
‘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’
Changez post 9/11 realising things will change Chapter 7
‘the impending destruction of my personal American dream’
Racist attack post 9/11 Chapter 8
‘fucking arab’
Changez about Erica in Greece Chapter 2
‘She attracted people to her; she had a presence, an uncommon magnetism’
About Erica being broken Chapter 4
‘I feel haunted’
her eyes: ‘Something broken behind them, like a tiny crack in a diamond’
Changez + Erica’s fragile relationship
• ‘I was afraid any movement on my part might dislodge our connection’ Chapter 6
• ‘Pretend I am him’ Chapter 7
Changez leaving home after threat of war Chapter 9
‘this made me a kind of coward in my own eyes’
Changez as a product of American capitalism
• ‘I was a modern day janissary’ Chapter 10
• ‘I no longer thought of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee’ Chapter 3
• ‘he did not accept American Express’ Chapter 3
Changez struggling with hybrid identity Chapter 10
• ‘I lacked a stable core’
• ‘I was not certain where I belonged’
• ‘my own identity was so fragile’ (therefore pretends to be chris)
Changez describing belong in New York
‘I was, in four an a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker’
Hybrid identity symbolised through clothing Chapter 4
Changez wore a ‘kurta of delicately worked cotton over a pair of jeans’
Importance of culture to changez Vhapter 10
‘Books are loved in my family’
Erica to Changez about being himself
‘I love it when you talk about where you come from, you become so alive’ Chapter 6
Changez’ politeness
• ‘Excuse me sir, but may I be of assistance?’ Chapter 1
• Underwood Samson liked his ‘natural politeness and sense of formality’ Chapter 3
• Erica says she’s ‘never met someone our age as polite as you’ Chapter 2
American sense of superiority
• Changez’ Princeton friends conducted themselves ‘as though they were its ruling class’ Chapter 2
• Erica’s father addresses him with a ‘typically American undercurrent of condescension’ Chapter 4
Changez’ reaction to America declaring war on Afghanistan (Pakistan’s neighbour)
‘I began to tremble with fury’ Ch7
Attitudes of America post 9/11
‘America became gripped with a self righteous rage’ Chapter 7
‘Your country’s flag invaded New York after the attacks’ Chapter 6
Changez sexualising Erica (desire for success/ American dream)
‘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
Changez in final frame narrative
‘you should not imagine that we Pakistanis are all potential terrorists’
‘I see from your expression that you do not believe me’
Changez as the good immigrant (success at Underwood Samson Chapter 3)
‘I worked hard - harder, I suspect, than any of the others’
Importance of accent Chapter 3
‘an anglicized accent may in your country continue to be associated with wealth and power’ Chapter 3 frame narrative
Changez deciding what to wear to meet Erica’s family Chapter 4
‘I wanted to dress as I imagined they would be dressed’
Trope of immigrant desire to belong
Erica’s father implementing stereotypes chapter 4
‘You drink?’ - assumes he is a Muslim
‘You guys have got some serious problems with fundamentalism’
Underwood Samson attitudes Chapyer 3
‘We’re a meritocracy’
‘If you do well, you’ll be rewarded. If you don’t, you’ll be out the door’
Anderson’s imagined communities in Chapter 3
Wainwright- ‘Beware the dark side, young Skywalker’
Man in Pak-Punjab deli - calls changez ‘my friend’ , ‘spreading his arms in welcome’
Edward Said’s theory of orientalism
Chapter 2 - Changez is ‘well-liked as an exotic acquaintance’
Chapter one frame narrative
‘Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America’
Symbolism of the American stranger and Changez
Described by Hamid in an interview to be the two parts of himself
Changez worshipping Erica when first meeting her in Chapter 2
She was ‘stunningly regal’, her hair like a ‘tiara on her head’ (illusion of power)
Chapter 6 - sexual consummation of relationship
Erica’s body ‘rejects’ Changez. Climactic coming together as America rejects Changez post 9/11
Chapter 12 Gilbert as exotic accquaintance
‘The entire village had come out to play dog with gecko’ (relating experience to home)
• ‘If any one of those people had a stick long enough, I swear they would have poked us with it’
Chapter 7 Changez adopting a Western identity
I had become Jim’s fair haired boy’
Chapter 9 Changez beard symbolism
‘Do not forget to shave before you go’
Changez acting like his American associates Chapter 5
‘I learned to tell executives my father’s age “I need it now”
Chapter 5 Erica’s obsession with rock pools
They are ‘little worlds’ that are ‘perfect, self-contained, transparent’ until a ‘wave crashes in’ leaving ‘new fish’ behind
American stranger Ch12 frame narrative
• ‘I hope you will not resist my attempt to shake you by the hand’
Threat of violence ‘a bulge manifests itself through the lightweight fabric of your suit’
Erica on Changez’ politeness
Ch2 ‘I’ve never met someone our age as polite as you’
Changez metanarrative
Chapter 8, unreliable narrator: ‘it is the thrust of one’s narrative that counts, not the accuracy of one’s details’
Apply Buadrillard’s theory of postmodernism to TRF
A metanarrative is created through intertextual references, e.g Changez describes himself as a ‘veritable James Bond’
Decolonisation struggles in TRF
Changez preaches ‘disengagement from your country by mine’, advocating for challenging America’s neocolonialism to his students in CH12
Changez appropriation of colonial languages
‘My natural politeness and sense of formality [..] proved perfectly suited to the work context in which I now found myself’ Ch3
Frame narrative - ‘an Anglicised accent may in your country continue to be associated with wealth and power’
Changez valorisation of cultural identity
Evident in Changez’ monologues about Pakistan, highlighting its long standing history, sense of nationalism
e.g Ch1 frame narrative - ‘you would have been surprised by the sweetness of his speech, if only you understood Urdu’
Princeton ‘could not make me forget such things as how much I enjoy the tea in this, the city of my birth’
