The Reluctant Fundamentalist Impressions
After reading for a few pages, it seemed almost as if the main character of the book, Changez, implicates the reader (us) as the person who he is talking to, and I thought that was a unique aspect of this book, unlike many other books. The American man that Changez is actually speaking to, I thought it was very strange how he was wearing a full suit, especially in a place like Lahore where the weather is extremely humid and hot.
Throughout the reading, I found it even stranger how the American is so jumpy and cautious, sticking his hand into his coat pocket as if he is going to pull out a gun, when approached by the waiter and server of the place him and Changez are at. Though the American man is very suspicious when reaching his hand into his pocket, I believe Changez is playing dumb by saying things like “there is no need to pay the waiter before the meal,” and I think that Changez can read the American like a book.
It is very obvious that the American has some sort of gun under his coat, and I know that Changez realizes that as well. When Changez began recounting his experiences with his interview with Underwood Samson, I thought right away that Changez would not get the job as he lost his temper when the interviewer Jim started probing into his economic status and life back in Pakistan. Instead, I was surprised when Jim was actually impressed with Changez’s temper, and revealed that he also was a Princeton alumnus and the first person in his family to attend college as well.
Nearing the end of the interview, I was surprised once again how Changez could predict the value and profits right on the spot of the imaginary company that Jim told him to value. After reading about Erica, I would have found it extremely awkward if I were Changez, learning that Erica’s first true love was now deceased. For some reason, I am not surprised after reading that Changez had ranked first in his Class. I was impressed that Jim’s house reminded Changez of The Great Gatsby, because in my opinion, from what I pictured after reading The Great Gatsby, the house must had been amazing. Pages 51-100) I understand that Changez is attracted to Erica and would most likely not mind “getting with her,” but I still find it awkward when reading (I know for a fact that I would feel awkward if I was attracted to a woman that loved a man who had recently died of lung cancer). If I was Changez, I would have felt very out of place when Erica explained that the detailed sketch of the island within an island picture, was a picture her late boyfriend, Chris, had drawn.
I found it amusing when Changez went against Muslim traditions and accepted wine from Erica’s father at dinner, and when the American asserts that drinking is a sin according to Islam, I found it funny when Changez replied with “so, for that matter, is coveting thy neighbor’s wife. ” I was impressed when Changez held his own after Erica’s father “bashed” Pakistan about it’s crumbling economy, tyrannical government, how the elites had “raped that place well and good,” and about it’s religious fundamentalists. I would have snapped if someone disrespected my country like that.
At this point, I look forward to what Changez says when the American reaches his hand into his coat. If I was the American, I would have noticed by now that Changez is not dumb enough not to realize that there is a gun under the coat, but I suppose he is also playing along as well. When Changez reminisces about “flying foxes,” I couldn’t picture myself in a pleasant state at all. I’ve seen what flying foxes look like, and they are extremely large for a “bat. ” They average at about 3-4 feet tall, and have heads that resemble foxes.
If I were to see a flying fox in person, I would immediately faint… or run for my life. I found it very strange after I read how Changez smiled at the site of the World Trade Center towers collapsing. I understood why the American got angry of course, but when found it someone peculiar that Changez was happy and took pleasure in seeing the American military bombing Iraq. I felt a bit sad for Changez when he had to be stripped searched at the airport, and how the other passengers on the plane were unsettled at the sight of him sitting on the plane with them.
After reading how Changez and Erica probably had the most awkward experience in bed ever in history, I found it even weird how Changez asked Erica to tell him what it was like to make love to Chris… even if it did seem to put her at ease. I would have felt extremely uncomfortable, especially since Erica cried as well. At this point, I began to realize that Changez is in some sort of denial. His newfound lifestyle, “love,” and work all seem too good to be true in my opinion (except the “love of course, being Erica).
After reading how Changez was panicked at the images of his neighbor country being invaded and attacked, and how he drank himself to sleep, I knew he beginning to “crack. ” (Pages 101-150) When Changez told Erica to pretend that he was Chris, I felt that was probably the strangest, and most awkward thing I have ever read. How Changez felt it to be violent, as if Erica’s vagina was a wound and he kept imagining he smelled blood, all of it was very gross, and I agree with the American that it also disgusted me.
After reading this, I lost respect for Changez now. Although he is extremely smart, successful, attends Princeton, etc. , I would feel extremely ashamed and disgraced if I was him. I don’t understand how Changez did not realize that Erica needs space. After Erica’s mother told him “She doesn’t need a boyfriend. She needs a friend” I thought maybe finally Changez would get the message and leave Erica alone. After reading how Changez was verbally harassed in the parking lot by a man, I somewhat felt his anger/pain.
When the man in the parking lot said “Fucking Arab,” which ironically he is not, I understood what he was going through because I have been through similar experiences in my life. Instead of being called Vietnamese, which is what I am, because I am Asian, I have been called “Chinese,” “chink,” etc. , so I know what Changez went though. Though it does not effect my any longer, I understand Changez’s emotions because it is most likely the first time he has experienced ethnic prejudice.
When the food arrives and the American asks about the utensils, it made me smile when Changez replied with “allow me to suggest that the time has now come for us to dirty our hands. We have, after all, spent some hours in each other’s company already; surely you can no longer feel the need to hold back. There is great satisfaction to be in touching one’s prey” I liked the last sentence for some reason. I understand that Changez continued to grow his beard to be different from the other Americans he works with, but that only made him more susceptible to prejudice.
Personally if I was him, I would have shaved it off, especially due to the fact that it could impact my job. When Changez goes to visit Erica at the hospital and is greeted by the nurse, I would have felt very unsettled after hearing the nurse tell him that he was what made things harder for Erica by being “the most real” thing she knew, disturbing her own world of her imagination which she felt was more vibrant and tolerable than the real world.
Now, I know for a fact that Changez knows that something will happen soon with the American when he encourages him to “sugar his tongue before undertaking… the bloodiest of tasks. Also when Changez notices that the American has a bulge in his shirt where an armpit holster would be and assumes that the bulge is a travel wallet, it is obvious that Changez knows what the American is really there for. I know that Changez has a successful job, is making a good salary, but when Juan-Bautista asks him “Does it trouble you… to make your living by disrupting the lives of others? ” It would have made me feel bad about myself. By this point I know that Underwood Samson is not only a company that values other businesses, but also takes then over, causing many to lose their jobs.
Personally, I would not feel comfortable working for a company that destroys other’s lives. (Pages 151-End) I was not surprised when Changez left Underwood and Samson, despite his loyalty to Jim, the need for money, and his visa’s dependence on his job. I found it sad that out of all of Changez’s colleagues, only Wainwright said goodbye. I felt a bit sad after reading that Erica had committed suicide. Instead of living through all of her depression, sadness, distraught, I suppose taking her life to “end it all” was her only solution.
I was in someway glad that Changez finally came to terms with the fact that, whatever happened to Erica, “she had chosen not to be part of his story. ” I felt bad for Changez; his only love was not in love with him, and now had committed suicide. Up to this point, I have finally realized that the old Changez, excited about and loving America, is no more. Instead, I feel that Changez is now angry at America, and by teaching/convincing students to disassociate from America and to take part in the movement towards Pakistani international independence, is his way of combating America.
As the American and Changez walked faster and faster towards the hotel, I knew that something was about to happen. I thought at first that the other people on the street were going to start firing guns at any moment, but I was wrong. “It seems an obvious thing to say, but you should not imagine that we Pakistanis are all potential terrorists, just as we should not imagine that you Americans are all undercover assassins. After finishing the book, I believe that that quote somehow relates to the American, because I see the American as an agent sent to murder Changez. Though the end of the story does not say if anyone was killed, I believe that Changez was indeed murdered, and he knew that whole time as he was talking to the American, that he was going to be murdered that night. What I don’t understand is why the American would sit hours upon hours with Changez, listening to his stories and becoming acquainted with him, only to delay himself in his task to murder him.
