Memory and ideology in mohsin hamid’s the reluctant fundamentalist

Abstract

Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, published in 2007, is a novel that focuses on the ideological standpoint of a young Pakistani man, Changez, who seeks for a solid standing ground in his own cultural origins after his educational and professional life in the US that westernized him fully. The novel, narrated within a frame story, is set on a single evening in Lahore where Changez tells his life back in America to an American in a café. Changez’s narration follows the story of his past with flashbacks and he leads the reader through his ideological change. Thus, purpose of this study is to question Changez’s ideological change after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York 2001. As memory traces his own past through what he went under during the 9/11 attacks, his approach to his western acquaintance in the Lahore café changes. This paper, therefore, raises questions as to whether memories change one’s ideology in terms of their political stance, or one’s cultural origins that determine them.