In this text I’m going to analyze an excerpt of chapter 3 of Moshim Hamid’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”. The protagonist, Changez is describing the New Districts in Lahore.

The narrators uses the dramatic monologue to silence his interlocutor, the stranger. This way the reader can face some events like the World Trade Attack and America relationship with muslim’s states through an Eastern sight.

Changez tries to find similarities between Lahore and Manhattan. He moved there to study in a local University. The intelligent reader understands that actually the similarities are differences. This because the narrator serves himself of irony to describe events. The irony is tangible by the presence of the exclamation mark in the sentence: “Like Manhattan? Yes Precisely!” The stranger could be surprised by the comparison because it is very unusual. Nobody would compare a Pakistan’s district with Manhattan. Even if it is so rich. The contrast between the two sides is anticipated by the opposition created by the “mounted man” and “the man on foot”. It makes focus on “the poor versus the rich” opposition. The poor represents Pakistan while the rich Manhattan.

The narrator tries to describe his feelings while living in New York when he used to hear his mother-language or to eat food typical of his country.

The irony is a device used to make the reader understand that while he used to live in America he tried to overcome the sense of nostalgia through his senses.

Moshim Hamid wants to make clear how American people behave with foreigners: they integrate new people only if they behave like Americans. They also pretend them to seem like American people. Who moves there has to leave his habits and traditions.