THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

Chapter 3

In the third chapter the protagonist, Changez, starts to "feel at home". Travelling he feels a Newyorker, but he does not feel American. In the first lines of the chapter Changez recognises many similarities between New York and Lahore: "I was never an American, immediately a New Yorker". On the other hand the novelist wants to underline how American is different from Pakistan.

I a first moment Changez is proud of his situation: he wants to live his "American dream" working at Underwood Samson.

He feels at home for many reasons:

- he hears Urdu speaking in taxis

- he smells his home country's food in a restaurant

- he hears a song to which he had danced at his cousin's wedding

These reasons help him to adapt to the new culture, cultural schock is gradually reduced by cultural identity.

The narrator does not understand why Pakistan, which is an English Colony as well as America, is poorer than it. While America was colonized by barbarians, the population of the Indus River was already living in developed cities. Changez is angry with Pakistan because it was not able to exploit its development.

The main topics of the third chapter are:

- globalization

- American capitalism: ranking model

- America's development

- upper/lower class

In conclusion the most important structural element is the setting: indeed America/Pakistan, New York/Lahore, together with Underwood Samson are the central analysis of this chapter.