Abstract

Understanding Identity and Power in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Dr. Papanna S

Volume: 15 Issue: 3 2025

Abstract:

Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist explores the transformation of Changez, a young Pakistani who initially embraces the opportunities offered by the United States but gradually becomes critical of American economic and political power. Set against the background of 9/11 and its aftermath, the novel examines identity, migration, belonging, capitalism, imperialism and cultural suspicion. Changez’s movement from Princeton to Underwood Samson and eventually back to Lahore represents more than a personal journey: it dramatizes the difficulties faced by an individual caught between cultural worlds. This paper argues that Changez’s transformation should not simply be understood as a movement toward religious fundamentalism. Instead, the novel complicates the meaning of “fundamentalism” by connecting it with economic ideology, nationalism and unquestioned loyalty to systems of power. Changez’s relationship with Erica, his employment at Underwood Samson, his encounter with the idea of the Janissary, and his conversation with the unnamed American collectively reveal the tensions between assimilation and identity. Through the form of the dramatic monologue and its deliberately ambiguous conclusion, Hamid ultimately asks readers to examine how fear and political assumptions shape perceptions of the cultural Other.

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References

• Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Hamish Hamilton, 2007
• Morey, Peter. “‘The Rules of the Game Have Changed’: Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Post9/11 Fiction.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol. 47, no. 2, 2011, pp. 135–46.
• White, Mandala. “Framing Travel and Terrorism: Allegory in The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 54, no. 3, 2019, pp. 444–59.
• Wang, Eun Chul. “9/11 from the Third-World Perspective: Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist as an Allegorical Novel.” The Journal of English Language and Literature, vol. 41, no. 4, 2015, pp. 65–88.