Peter Morey, 2011, argues that there has been a basic shift in attitudes surrounding cultural difference in the post 9/11, “Age of Terror”. Morey argues The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a hoax narrative that destabilizes the cultural certainties that emerged in trauma narratives in literature following 9/11. “Culture talk” is a theory that essentially boils a culture down to one “essence” that is used to define the entire culture. Morey suggests that The Reluctant Fundamentalist forces readers to think beyond stereotyped “us and them” categories, or the one essence that is used to define each culture.
