Comparisons

Read the extract and think about the question - forget about the reluctant fundamentalist


Attitudes to the situation (linked to the question)

• The narrator
• Characters
• The Writer

Support it with evidence


The Extract


Yanko

• Doesn't conform
• Has to prove himself to be accepted
• Threatens violence
• Still not accepted regardless
• Difference in cultural makes acceptance hard
• Indifferent
• Willingness to fight
• Takes new culture and marriage seriously

Amy

• Keen
• Doesn't care what people say
• Attraction and temptation of the exotic

Narrator

• Empathises Yanko's foreignness

Villagers

• He can't do anything right
• Dislike not based on anything sound
• Prejudiced, disapproving
• Fear, uncertainty

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

• Erica attracted by his foreignness
• Changez stays true to foreignness in courtship
• Wears formal dress when meeting parents - clash of culture - shows seriousness towards relationship
• Erica Fascinated by foreignness - not necessarily wanting a relationship
• Attracted to - politeness, foreignness (writing)
• Don't end up together - Chris is in the way - Erica never loved him?
• Erica never loved him - sex can't do it - has to abandon cultural identity  - only way is pretend to be chris
• Violence and racism after 9/11 - imagine if with white woman would be worse
• Dad makes assuptions

End of each paragraph bring in extract - 2 sentences

Passage - love crossing cultural divides

Attitudes


Amy Foster


"When she heard him... whistle... she would drop whatever she had in her hand... and she would run out to his call."


"There it stands - Yanko Goorall- in the rectors handwriting"

• Doesn't care about what society thinks she wants to marry him
• Suggestions they were married
• Knows what she wants and doesn't care about the consequences

Yanko


"He seemed to think his honourable intentions could not be mistaken"

• Seems trustworthy, honest and genuine
• Threatening
• Is there feeling? Or is it just tradition no joy in the description of him

Farmer Smith


"Promised to break his head for him if he found him about again"


"told the girl she that she must be mad to take up with a man who was surely wrong in his head"

• Disapproving, trying to stop them marrying
• Warns her off

Society


"how - shall I say odious?- he was to the countryside"


"for a hundred futile and inappreciable reasons"

• Judge him
• No good reasons to dislike only his foreighness

Mohsin Hamid on the Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Ending

• The point at which the reader becomes aware that they have been creating the novel as they read
• To engage and reflect the readers politics
• Books are a way in which people are able to create

Fundamentalism

• Fundamentalist ideologies are ideologies that say here is something that is intrinsically right
• He is reluctant to be part of a company that is based on fundamentals
• The belief systems are parallel (terrorists and appraisers)
• Both destructive
• We are all born with a sense of empathy that rebels against fundamentalism

Underwood Samson

• Changez not empathising with the American but trying to put his feet into a pair of shoes he has already put out
• Hamid worked as a management consultant and learnt about different ways of influencing people
• Narrator that says one thing and means/thinks another (beggar scene)
• Idea of an unreliable narrator but Hamid wanted an unreliably unreliable narrator - know he is unreliable but don't know when

First Draft vs the Actual Novel

• First draft finished in July 2001
• Originally all about janissary idea
• Written as a quiet fable - agent didn't really like it
• Two months later agent had changed his mind
• About a man who must decide between embracing his hybridity or trying to re-purify himself
• What complicates it is that the hybridity is coming about in a corporate world that tries to deny empathy
• What changed was that 9/11 happened
• 9/11 and the connotation of violence
• Although even in first draft had idea that growing a beard would be off putting to people
• Tried to keep 9/11 out of the book - didn't want the politics to swamp the novel

Writing Process

• Wanted to make it reasonable even by people that don't read
• One way he did this was to make it tense and compelling
• Also made it small
• Wrote over 1 thousand pages of manuscript - became 180 page book

The Title

• Title suggests one thing and is another
• Does come to be perceived as a religious fundamentalist despite nothing about him being particularly religious
• Only mention of religion is when says thank you god after getting the job
• So far as we can tell he is a secular humanist
• Changez finds himself among people of Arabic descent that found themselves suddenly being perceived as potential fundamentalists
• "Reluctantly he comes to be seen as a fundamentalist"
• Title suggests a certain meaning
• The idea of fundamentalism came from Hamid's own experiences as a management consultant
• Something Quasi spiritual about it - look at the world through these eyes

9/11

Changez "Smiled" - italics draws attention to it

• It is a moment that exposes Changez's cultural identity - even though at this point he is trying to be one of them he is not at heart
• Cultural arrogance - enjoys seeing America brought down
• Symbolic attack against American culture and identitiy

Multicultural Society - positive or negative

Pros

• Different perspectives and outlooks
• Less ignorance of other cultures - promotes understanding
• Try different things - Music, food, films literature
• Gets rid of stereotypes
• Unites us
• Helps trade and business - connections between countries
• Stops war? Once relationships develop is there no longer conflict?

Cons

• Clash - different cultures beliefs and traditions
• Resentment between cultures - feuds
• Religious pluralism
• People still believe the stereotypes and so treat people in a certain way
• Beliefs incompatible
• Belief immigrants take over jobs - breeds resentment and hatred

Chapter 1

Questions - 

What we learn and the impressions of the characters

Narrator's personality / how he comes across

Narrator/Changez

• Not American
• Has a beard
• Was in America for four and a half years
• Well mannered
• Slightly bitter
• Emotionless
• No empathy?
• Well Spoken
• "Hungry"
• Family used to be rich but not any more through no fault of their own
• Very hard working
• Committed 
• Religious
• Smart

Narratee

• American
• Wearing a button-down shirt and a suit with a single vent
• He has short hair and is strong looking
• He is uneasy
• Anxious / suspicious / judgemental

What are the main themes that are going to be dealt with?

• Religion
• Judgement 
• Bias
• America and American's shortcoming / faults

Impressions of locations

Cafe

• Shoddy
• Not well looked after

Princetown

• At first thought was a "dream come true"

How is the narrator's voice constructed?

Complex punctuation to simulate speech