Jessica Weiss on Hamid vs Nair "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"

      Fundamentalism is shown in an extreme and obvious way in Nair's film, whereas in Hamid's novel I didn't quite understand what the title meant until near the end. For money-making and Hollywood-pizaz purposes, I suppose Nair wanted to make the controversial even more glaring. Changez is anally searched at the airport, handcuffed by police, and called Osama by a white guy in a truck who was probably guilty of deflating his tires. All of these are results of stereotypical Western ideas about Middle-Eastern-looking, beard-bearing men directly following the 9/11 attacks. The viewer was meant to feel outraged and shocked, and not subtle so. In the novel, Hamid describes a less dramatic version, or, perhaps, because the reader is reading about the events as opposed to viewing them, they seemed less extreme. For example, Hamid doesn't go into extensive details about the Changez's detainment at the airport. It is obviously a result of Changez's ethnicity because it was too coincidental that similar events happened around the same time to many people looking similarly to Changez. It is understood by the reader that it was unfair because we come to know Changez's character, and he is obviously no threat. We don't specifically read that he is anally probed, though it is believable as a sort of thing that could happen.

      In the novel, the question of why was Changez a reluctant fundamentalist came to my mind often. I remember reading about the fundamentals of business when he is first hired at Underwood Samson, but I don't recall reading much else about fundamentals until the very end of the novel. A riot broke out where he and some of his students were protesting, and Changez landed in jail. He was later associated with one of his students who was accused of being a zealot, a Muslim fundamentalist, but Changez believed it wasn't true, despite that amount of press it got. In my opinion, the purpose of the book being titled “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” is because Changez decided to go home to be with his family who was in danger, to just live and not prosper because he was mourning Erica. The fundamentalist were his family. IT was a reluctant journey because he was brought up to live the American dream, and for a period he was prestigious and rich.

      Ultimately, from both the novel and the film, I took away a sense that other countries such as Pakistan focus on an international American Dream. As a teacher in Pakistan, Changez lectured to his students that America was not the only nation capable of being so great. He wanted for Pakistan the things he loved about America. Changez saw America killing ruthlessly in the war on terrorism. He believed Pakistan was better than that, and could be a place to prosper just as America was, if only Pakistan could rely less on outside sources for domestic and foreign affairs (179). When I went to Delaware County Community College, I met many diasporic students who left places like Russia, Japan, and India to come to America for a chance to be a student and find a prosperous job just as Changez did. I think international students become diasporic, because once they've had a taste of a prosperous place like America, they can never go home and view their house, their family, or even their own values in the same way.