The main function of the first chapter of "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is to introduce the protagonist, Changez, and his life in the USA. He is talking with an unknow guest in a tea bar in Lahore. The readers can’t hear him but it is possible to know what he does thanks to the narrative technique used: the dramatic monologue. In this way the reader sees the story only from the eyes of a young Pakistan guy, Changez, and so the American point of view is silenced. This choice is a focal point which characterized the entire novel.  Changez is a good observer and he immediately recognizes where the interlocutor comes from: he is from America. Changez is a “lover of America”, he lived also there.   However his interlocutor seems to be frightened in front of him because his physical appearance. The universal themes in this chapter are stereotypes and the Changez’s confidence in the American Dream. Indeed Changez shows the Western and the Eastern stereotypes, while as regards the America he is attracted by "the perfect life". In the first chapter the reader can’t caught the novelist’s real intention, but he only understands the denotative meaning: Changez is a Pakistan man who travels to America for his good marks.