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  • Essay / The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid: Making Americans Quiet

    Following a tradition in anything is easy. The pattern is defined, the style defined. Only your originality is required and that's it, you go with the flow. But it is certainly very difficult to go against the grain, to shake up traditional codes and to dare to create your own methods and ways. You risk everything. You're never sure what might result from your change in direction, or how the world might react to that change. But that’s the challenge! Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayMohsin Hamid, in his famous novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, proves bold enough to carve out a distinct path for himself to walk on. He chooses a strange method in the world of writing, giving the one-sided point of view of his Pakistani protagonist while skillfully withholding the reactions of one interlocutor, the American. He seems to have had many things in mind before daring to publish his work and we can observe that this silencing of the American (read "America") becomes the strength of the novel rather than a limitation as would be the case. no matter what traditional, stereotypical writer. Whatever reasons Hamid had in mind for silencing the American, readers initially feel a sense of satisfaction. This need to be heard, to benefit from freedom of expression and to have a platform where they could raise their voice (albeit in a very technical way) has been a repressed desire among all types of colonized or ex subjects. -colonized. The reader greatly appreciates this silence because he feels satisfied from within, not only having a sort of catharsis through Changez, but also feeling powerful against the ever-dominant suppressor. It does some postcolonial readers good to realize at the end of the novel that this would give America no "opportunity to respond to the growing criticism leveled against it." The novel thus becomes something more effective than a reflecting mirror for America. Readers witness Changez's level of satisfaction when reading the episode of the collapse of the Twin Towers and Changez's reaction: “I looked at one – then the other – of the twin towers. of the World Trade Center in New York collapsed. And then I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my first reaction was to be remarkably happy” (Hamid 43). But at the same time, the American's actions bring readers back to fear. “Your disgust is indeed evident,” Changez comments, “your large hand has, perhaps without you realizing it, clenched into a fist,” but even that is settled immediately with Changez's explanation of his feelings. He then admits his own sense of bewilderment at his sense of pleasure at the slaughter of thousands of innocents. He reflects: But at that moment, my thoughts were not on the victims of the attack – death on television moves me most when it is fictional and happens to characters with whom I have built relationships over several episodes – no, I was caught up. in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to its knees (Hamid 43). Noting that these remarks only reinforce the discontent of his American listener; Challenges Change: But surely you cannot be completely innocent of such feelings yourself. Do you feel no joy at the video clips – so ubiquitous these days – of American munitions destroying your enemies' structures? (Hamid 43). Another reason for the success of this method is undoubtedly the involvement of readers. By silencing one side, Hamid.