Reluctant Fundamentalist Journal Entries

19 April 2011

The Reluctant Fundamentalist Journal Entries

(Pages 1-50) 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
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