THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

The first chapter of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” is the most important one because the reader can understand what are the themes of the novel and how the text is written. The main function of this chapter is to introduce the protagonist, Changez, and in general his life in New York. Changez is a Pakistani man, he was born in Lahore and he studied in America. This State represents the perfect life for Changez, a dream and during the story the protagonist will determine himself a lover of America.

Changez is the only one who speaks and tells the story from his point of view; the reader can’t see or hear the interlocutor but he knows is present; the interlocutor is an American man. The speaker reveals his feelings and the reader can see what happens only through the Changez’s eyes and not from American’s one.

Reading the novel the reader immediately understand that the speaker uses highly formal language, indeed, he uses word like “may I” or “sir”.

Moreover, the message of the first chapter is that all culture are different and Changez have had the lucky to experience two of them (the Pakistani one and the American one).