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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Chapter 5. A turning point. A possible cause of Changez’s dissatisfaction with the United States is revealed. The events of 9/11 are foreshadowed in the café. Comparisons between first world and third world countries are made. Allusions .

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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  1. The Reluctant Fundamentalist Chapter 5

  2. A turning point A possible cause of Changez’s dissatisfaction with the United States is revealed. The events of 9/11 are foreshadowed in the café. Comparisons between first world and third world countries are made.

  3. Allusions • James Bond – only better (ppp72-73) • Grease/1950s – compares slums of Manila to 1950s America (p73)

  4. Animal imagery and metaphors • Bats • Frogs • Flying foxes • Butterflies • Fireflies • ‘they belonged to a dreamier world incompatible with the pollution and congestion of a modern metropolis’ pg. 71 • ‘But the bats have survived here.’ pg. 71

  5. Comparisons between nations • Economically, Manila sits somewhere between New York and Lahore. In a way it shows Changez to be caught between two worlds, much like Manila itself is. • Comparing NY to Lahore isn’t a problem for him- but the fact Manila is wealthier (because of US influence) disturbs him. • Foot race analogy.

  6. Shame • The result – “I attempted to act and speak, as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American” since he wanted to share the respect Filipinos had for his American colleagues. In a sense, he wants to be one of them though admits “I was often ashamed.” • Jeepney driver pg. 76 • ‘I felt like I was play-acting’ pg. 77

  7. Erica & Jim • She is distant, a world away. • Rock pools • ‘They’re like little worlds. Perfect, self-contrained, transparent. They look like they are frozen in time.’ pg. 78 • He “did not belong” but he “never stopped swimming” and is the embodiment of the American Dream – he has risen from poverty to great financial success. (p80) • Changez doesn't’t feel the same way – though finds a similarity in that he was “at the candy store” when his families fortunes declined. • This prompts him to reflect on the nostalgia of his family for their past success. It “was their crack cocaine… and my childhood was littered with the consequences of their addiction.” (p81)

  8. Disturbances • There are a number of “impressions” that darken the mood • The driver of the jeepney (pp76-77) appears hostile • Recognizes a colleague as “foreign” (p77) and admits to feeling a “shared sort of Third World sensibility” with Filipinos. • The Bats • A symbolic occurrence. • American finds them “creepy” but Changez marvels at how they survive as “urban dwellers” and are never involved in a collision. • Flying Foxes on the other hand “lacked the rader” and “hurtled to their deaths against Lahore’s newer offices and plazas- structures that rose higher than any had before.” • What events comes to mind from this imagery?

  9. The American • Changez compares himself and the American to the bats – “They are successful city dwellers, like you and I, swift enough to escape detection and canny enough to hunt among a crowd” (p72) • Changez remarks that the American is “remarkably well-traveled for an American—for a person of any country, for that matter.” He wonders aloud what “business” brings the American to Lahore. (p73) • What is Changez’s perception of the American?

  10. Night falls • Changez tells the American “I wish to warn you before I proceed.” (p82) • He offers the American a drink, who declines. • How does the change to night and pause in the narration affect the mood?

  11. 9/11 – p83 • Why does Changez smile as the towers fall? • He is “remarkably pleased.” • He is “caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees.” • He is happy that America had been exposed and threatened. • Though he states he is “no sociopath” and is perplexed that he is “pleased at the slaughter of thousands of innocents.” • The American is now disturbed and “clenches is hand into a fist.”

  12. Changez • How is Changez’s differences magnified after 9/11? • He has to feign shock (p84) • He is stripped searched at Manila (p85) • He is separated at NY airport • “my team did not wait for me” so his trip was “very much alone.” • Changez notes the American is angered but not surprised and seems to “know at least something about me” and hopes he can be “persuaded to speak!”

  13. Danger: Predator vs Prey • ‘But why do you flinch?’ pg. 86 • ‘and yet you seem to know at least something about me.’ pg. 86 • ‘uncanny skill of a skeet shooter’ pg. 87 • ‘what brings you to Lahore…’ pg. 87 • ‘Let us, like the bats, exercise our other senses, since our eyes are of diminishing utility.’ pg. 87

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