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The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 15, Issue-I, February 2024 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
The Language of Assumptions and Perceptions: A Stylistic Study of
Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Dr Arpana Jha
Assistant Professor,
Department of English,
Central University of South Bihar, Gaya.
Article History: Submitted-29/01/2024, Revised-22/02/2024, Accepted-23/02/2024, Published-29/02/2024.
Abstract:
The novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid, has marked its presence
in the global literary scene because of its severe critique of the neo-imperial superpowers and
the rising religious fundamentalism. The novel presents two sides of the world –of a developing
country like Pakistan and its people and the developed countries like the US, through the eyes
of a Pakistani youth who goes to the US on a scholarship to Princeton and works in a multi-
national evaluation firm. His return to Pakistan after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US makes
him ponder over and reflect upon how the developed nations now make assumptions about
Muslim people and how appearances and generalisations about them guide their perceptions.
This research paper attempts to explore how Mohsin Hamid has given expression to the people
about whom assumptions are made. This study will analyse the author’s narrative techniques
in giving these people voices through the protagonist and express their concern and sense of
identity through confident stylistic choices. The research methodology employed to examine
these techniques will include certain concepts and parameters from Narratology and Stylistics
to create an interdisciplinary exploration of the world of fiction presented by Mohsin Hamid in
the novel.
Keywords:
dramatic
monologue,
homodiegetic
narrator,
modality,
linguistic
foregrounding.
Introduction
Our perceptions about people, places, events and cultures are often tinged with
assumptions, shaped by our past experiences, both personal and influenced by external sources
such as social media, texts, and visuals. The oversimplified image of a person from any Islamic
country as a terrorist, for instance, or that of a person from the US as an apprehensive
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individual, has become a prevalent norm, particularly in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Mohsin
Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), is set against this backdrop, with the
theme of assumptions, apprehensions and perceptions permeating the entire text. This research
paper, therefore, takes on a crucial role in dissecting these societal perceptions and exploring
how they are expressed in literature, thereby highlighting the importance of understanding and
challenging these assumptions.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the story of a Pakistani youth, Changez, who goes to
study at Princeton, works with one of the highest paying multi-national valuation firms,
Underwood Samson, falls in love with an American girl, Erica, and decides to leave America
after he gets disillusioned by the US response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. His
disillusionment makes him leave the highly paid job in the US, and he chooses to become a
lecturer and a political activist in his native country, Pakistan. He became vocal about
American foreign policy and started disseminating the idea among the youth and the people of
Pakistan. The story takes up from here; the location is a local market eatery shop where
Changez and an American converse. What is very unusual in this conversation is that although
the conversation involves two persons, the spoken utterances are only of the novel’s
protagonist, Changez. The whole novel is experimental as the narrative progresses through a
dramatic monologue.
Dramatic Monologue and Rhetorical Choice
A monologue is a long speech by a single character in a play. However, dramatic
monologue is not related to play but is a lyric poem made famous by Robert Browning. It is
defined by M. H. Abrams and G. G. Harpham as a speech by a single person in the poem ‘in a
specific situation at a critical moment’ where the other characters are present. Still, their
presence is made clear by the speech of the only character who speaks (94). As suggested by
Abrams, the poet’s choice of such a monologue is to create interest among the readers and
make them aware of the speaker’s thoughts and character. Dramatic monologue is self-
revelatory, and this feature makes it different from dramatic lyric. Apart from this, in dramatic
monologue, the single voice presented is not that of the poet but that of one of the speakers.
Mohsin Hamid’s choice of narrating a story through dramatic monologue is apt and significant
for these reasons. When we consider The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the voices we hear are not
of the author but that of the America-returned Pakistani protagonist, Changez. Changez, in the
style of a genuine dramatic monologue, addresses and interacts with the American; however,
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we come to know of the latter’s presence only from the words of Changez. That a second person
exists in the discourse is realised only in the utterances Changez makes where he uses address
markers in the form of second person ‘you’ as in the sentence, “I noticed that you were looking
for something” (Hamid 1). Hamid begins the story with Changez addressing the American
directly, asking, “Excuse me, Sir, but may I be of assistance” (1). Besides, we do not hear the
American speak or contribute to the conversation by replies or comments.
The novel uses many interrogative syntactic forms referring to a second person. When
Changez talks about the company he worked for in the US, he says, “You have not heard of
them? They are a valuation firm” (Hamid 5) or when he addresses his American counterpart
and asks, “What? My voice is rising? You are right” (33). There are several instances of such
syntactic forms of asking questions where Changez is not interested in getting a response to his
questions; instead, he chooses to speak in this fashion to heighten the rhetorical effect of his
utterances. The force of assertion is visible in the scene where he asks a question about
gaudiness, “A little gaudy? Yes, you are right” (47). These questions are not meant to be
interrogative speech acts; instead, they are evaluative, judgemental, and assumptions on the
speaker’s part, that is, Changez. The significance of these interrogatives is that they add to the
illocutionary force and, hence, the dramatic effect of the monologue. This mode of narration
ensures that the Pakistani in the novel gets an opportunity to raise his voice and concern against
the cruel and spiteful treatment meted out to the people from Islamic countries post-9/11 attack
on the US. Changez’s concern for being stereotyped by the US and such developed countries
who make assumptions about others comes out very creatively through the author’s choice of
a dramatic monologue. His monologues are so powerful in critiquing the neo-imperialism and
capitalist power of powerful nations like the US that the latter, represented by the Americans,
is bound to be silenced and listen to Changez. Changez’s speech and thought presentation
express the nature of assumptions made by such superpowers. He mocks the Americans for
forming opinions about developing countries and their people based on appearances. In this
novel, the protagonist points out that the powerful capitalists who, based on appearances,
assume, perceive, and thereby stereotype people of developing countries and act hostile
towards people from specific religious communities. The apprehension of the US is made clear
by Changez when Hamid makes him say, “Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of
America” (1). However, appearances are deceptive- this seems to be what the protagonist wants
to state to the American. Assumptions and presuppositions are made on both sides- the US and
the Islamic countries. The other world sees things differently and has a different way of forming
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opinions about people and countries based on the ‘bearing’ or demeanour or actions of the
people and the countries.
How did I know you were American? No, not by the colour of your skin; we have a range
of complexions in this country, and yours often occurs among the people of our northwest
frontier. Nor was it your dress that gave you away; a European tourist could as easily have
purchased in Des Moines your suit, …it was your bearing that allowed me to identify you,
and I do not mean that as an insult, for I see your face has hardened, but merely as an
observation. (Hamid 2)
That all Muslims having beards are potential terrorists is the perception formed about
Islamic countries post-9/11 attack, which is subverted by the author through Changez when the
protagonist starts keeping a beard on his return to Pakistan, which is a kind of identity marker
for him, but not of a terrorist, instead of a well-educated lecturer and an activist.
The narrator, Point of View and Modality
The narrator in this novel is a first-person narrator, a characteristic of a dramatic
monologue, whom Gerard Genette also calls the homodiegetic narrator (Herman and Vervaeck
92). The narrator, Changez, in our case, is a primary character in a homodiegetic narration, and
the narrative unfolds as he perceives it, divulging his psychological or perceptual viewpoint.
The exciting aspect of a dramatic monologue is that the first person ‘I’ in such narratives is not
the poet. So, we can assume that since the novel’s narrative is in the form of such a monologue,
it is not the author’s voice but almost a kind of ventriloquised voice of the persona of Changez.
While reading a novel narrated through dramatic monologue, many inferences must be made
regarding the nature of this second, so-called ‘unspeaking’ character addressed as ‘you’
throughout the text. Such speculation adds to the pleasures of reading.
Understanding Changez’s point of view may require focussing our attention on the
various linguistic indicators in the novel, especially studying the language’s modality or
attitudinal features. Paul Simpson has analysed different points of view based on the concept
of modality, which expresses the narrator’s attitude and sets the tone and mood of the narrative,
thereby reflecting upon the author’s style (126). He categorised modality as deontic (expressing
duty or obligation), epistemic (knowledge, belief and certainty in the situation), bulimic
(expressing a wish or desire), and perception (degree of commitment). What is interesting to
observe in this novel is that the modality of perception, which is considered to be a sub-category
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of epistemic modality, pervades the entire fiction, communicating a sense of certainty/
uncertainty and various degrees of commitment to or assumptions about people and countries,
based on human perception, usually visual perception.

Linguistic Foregrounding and Location of Power
In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid has made Changez, the Pakistani
speaker, suspect the real motives of the American stranger, who in turn suspects the former of
ulterior motives. There is an implied action in such early passages when Changez says, “Once
more I am raising my voice, and making you rather uncomfortable…” (Hamid 102); and later,
as the marketplace closes, when the atmosphere becomes more ominous and, on the last page,
the auditor becomes frightened, apparently with a good reason. There is a particular fear and
preconceptions to their conversation and an act of reverse ethnic profiling.
In stylistics, one of the basic features of a conversation is the element of turn-taking. In
analysing any dramatic dialogue, there is a concern for establishing who holds conversational
control or conversational power (Gregoriou 135). This can be established by considering each
participant’s number of turns and average turn length. Considering this aspect, Mohsin
Hamid’s choice of narrative technique of a dramatic monologue ascribes conversational power
to Changez as he is the only person to speak. This act can be seen as subversive, where the
latter represents all the voices of a religious community that was quietened earlier and viewed
with suspicion, scepticism, and spite.
The linguistic vitality of the text strengthens the novel. The world of assumptions,
stereotyping and hostility in the backdrop of global changes, rising capitalism and pervading
religious fundamentalism is created through the choice of verba sentient (words denoting
thoughts, feelings and perceptions). Words such as noticed, looking for, guess, identify,
poisoned, suspected, etc. abound throughout the novel. Another technique that Mohsin Hamid
employs in this novel is linguistic deviation, which has a significant psychological effect on
the readers. If a part of the novel becomes deviant, it becomes noticeable and perceptually
prominent (Short 10). The psychological effect is said to be foregrounded, and one of the ways
that the author chooses to do so is to italicise a word and even sentences in the text multiple
times. An instance of such graphological foregrounding through deviation is noticeable when
Erica looked at Changez on the beach in Rhodes: “… I am being dishonest; it was more than a
moment – she turned her head to the side and saw me staring at her” (Hamid 23). In italics, the
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word ‘more’ seems to add time to the moment, which felt like an eternity to Changez. Words
like nostalgia, look back, specific pronouns like ‘it’ ‘you’, predatory delicacies, becoming
change, wanted, bearing, emotion, foreign, intimate, now, gravity, intoxication, etc. are
italicised. Hamid has italicised the sentences to emphasise the pride, anger and threat of the US
after the 9/11 attack. In Changez’s rants, “They all seemed to proclaim: We are America—not
New York, which, in my opinion, means something quite differently—the mightiest civilisation
the world has ever known; you have slighted us; beware our wrath” (79). The italicised phrases
in these lines express the angst of a country that has been wronged and believes it can diminish
and destroy any power/country/group that tries to harm it. After this event, Jim suggests that
Changez “Focus on the fundamentals” and act accordingly (98). This worldly advice is
italicised. When Changez meets Erica’s family, they assume that being a Muslim, Changez
does not drink, but when the reply is contrary to their belief, her parents think, “So, of course,
he drinks” 53. Moreover, this, again in Hamid’s style, has been italicised.
After returning to Pakistan, Changez starts ‘observing’ things around him and his
household. Things had changed for him. Everything seemed to be archaic, shabby and obsolete.
Gloominess took over him, and he found himself looking at everything from the point of view
of an ‘unsympathetic American’ (Hamid 124). Then, Changez goes through moments of
introspection; his inner turmoil and the political developments outside are all in conflict. There
are moments of reflection that make him realise how his perception of his household, people,
and country had changed through the years of living in the US. His years of study at Princeton
and the critical evaluation practised at Underwood Samson were instrumental in making him
the man he was and had changed him beyond recognition. Self-reflection and introspection
brought him back, and he started reacclimatising with his environment. These changes are
artistically presented through parallelism as a tool of linguistic foregrounding. Everything is in
the mind. The same things, the people and the household appear differently to anyone the
moment one comes to terms with the inner turmoil and starts seeing things from a different
perspective. Changez, too, starts appreciating the grandeur and charm of the place he was born
and brought up. His perception changes, and he becomes more generous in analysing and
evaluating everything around him. He reflects, “There are adjustments one must make if one
comes here from America; a different way of observing is required. I recall the Americanness
of my gaze when I returned to Lahore that winter when war was in the offing” (124). Drawing
parallels in the protagonist’s state of mind allows the author to present his protagonist as
evaluating himself, critiquing himself, in a true spirit of dramatic monologue.
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Comparisons between the two worlds abound throughout the novel. At the novel’s
beginning, Changez compares the American and Pakistani students in terms of their intellect
and the competition they face for getting admission through scholarships at Princeton. In terms
of critical acumen and knowledge of the discipline required by the firms or companies that
come for placement, the performance of international students is relatively far above that of
their American counterparts.
Conflicting worldviews of the US and Pakistan are presented throughout the novel
through structural contrasts regarding intellect, food, lifestyle, behaviour and culture.
Changez’s comment, “Four thousand years ago, we, the people of the Indus River basin, had
cities that were laid out on grids and boasted underground sewers, while the ancestors of those
who would invade and colonise America were illiterate barbarians” (20). He expresses his pride
in his civilisation by comparing it with the US.
Mohsin Hamid considers the novel an invitation to enter the story, and the reader’s
interpretation is final. This seems to be why he provides an open end to The Reluctant
Fundamentalist, where the action ends abruptly without resolving conflicts. The novel ends
with the American putting his hand inside his pocket, and the characters look at each other
suspiciously. Assumptions, at this point, work at two discourse levels — the first, the
assumptions made by the two characters as to what will the other do and how the other will
respond, and the second, the assumption by the readers of the novel as to how will the two
characters respond to each other in the situation they are placed in.
Conclusion
Mohsin Hamid, in his novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, presents the assumptions
formed by the superpowers about people of certain developing countries and particular
religious backgrounds based on a single instance of a terrorist attack. They make sweeping
generalisations that people of such countries are all religious fundamentalists and possible
terrorists. Hamid explores these assumptions and perceptions through the character Changez’s
point of view and becomes the representative of the hostility perceived by the people about
whom such perceptions are common. These innermost feelings of being perceived in a
particular fashion have been very well delineated through the narrative technique of dramatic
monologue, rhetorical devices like interrogatives, and linguistic foregrounding through
parallelism and linguistic deviation, to name a few.
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Works Cited:
Gregorio, C. English Literary Stylistics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Hamid, M. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Penguin Books, 2008.
Herman, L. & B. Vervaeck. Handbook of Narrative Analysis, 2nd Edn, University of Nebraska,
2019.
M. H. Abrams. & G. G. Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms.10th Edn. Wadsworth Cengage
Learning, 2012.
Short, M. Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose. Taylor and Francis, 1996.
Simpson, P. Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge, 2004.
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