Stereotypes In The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The majority of what a child learns is taught by their mother who implements morals and a basic understand how the world works; this is a stereotypical ideology of what a mother’s role is. These understandings are what shape the different perceptions we experience in social, career, and romantic situations as mentioned in A mother’s Role In a Child’s Development report by HealthUnits. By personifying this stereotypical norm as the government in The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid we can bring a new understanding to the book's ending which leaves many questions unanswered and provokes the reader to speculate about the ending because the purpose of certain characters and their intentions aren’t mentioned. Changez and the stranger are …show more content…
it was your bearing that allowed me to identify you” (Hamid, 1-2). In this instance, the tables have turned and it put America’s child in an inferior position. The aggression that America encouraged is proven to backfire when Changez uses stereotyping as a tool to his advantage; despite using it, he isn’t aware that he is being hypocritical. When he is being interviewed by Jim for a job at Underwood Samson he gets defensive quickly when Jim asks about his financial status (8). He perceives the questions he’s being asked as being designed to attack him when in reality Jim is trying to prove that Changez is “hungry”(12). What the reader witnesses is Changez being hostile and aggressive as a result of “...lack of this attachment ” from his mother (Reporter). Changez narrates his journey of self-understanding by reconnecting to his motherland and breaking away from the toxic environment he lived and values his stepmother taught …show more content…
The reasoning as to why this remark was made is because Changez knows something the reader doesn’t or thinks he knows something. For all, he knows the stranger could have been reaching for a gun or just scratching himself. Ultimately it’s never disclosed to the reader what actually is under the stranger's jacket. This uncertainty plagues both the reader and changes all the way to the end of the book because of Hamid’s decision to include and exclude certain details. When Hamid walks the stranger back to his hotel, he mentions that the waiter from the restaurant happens to be in the same area and that the stranger reaches in his jacket again but this time Changez hears metal (184). These details raise a lot of questions such as is Changez and the waiter ambushing the stranger? Is the waiter even important at all to the story? Is the stranger a secret agent or businessman? Is he reaching for a gun or his business cards holder? These questions are left answered and the specific roles of each character