The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel written by Mohsin Hamid in 2007. It’s organized in 12 parts and I’m going to analyze the first three paragraphs of the part one:

The story begins with a question; the intelligent reader understands the narrator voice asks it. The question is formal and the narrator uses an old American: he uses the vocative “sir” instead of  “you”. Besides the intelligent reader understands that the two characters don’t know each other. But the narrator voice reveals he was keeping an eye on his interlocutor stating he noticed the American was more than looking. More over Changez, who is going to be revealed as the protagonist and the narrator voice of the story, realizes that his American interlocutor is frightened by his beard. So, he assures the American he is a lover of his country and he just wants to offer him his services. The structure of the speech and the lexical choices of the narrator voice make the speech appear artificial. In fact, the narrator voice is too respectful and it seems he is deceiving his interlocutor. If the intelligent reader pays attention to the structure of the speech he can understand the narrator voice could be eastern.

In the second paragraph the narrator voice gives information about how he understood his interlocutor was American. Changez denies some hypothesis the American could have formulated. Interlocutor’s questions don’t appear in the text, but the narrator voice gives the reader information about what the American said or asked. So, the text is all based on the direct speech of the narrator.

The narrator voice seems to know many things about the costumes of the European and American Pakistan tourists. Besides he knows Americans very well and the intelligent reader could make the hypothesis Changez had been in such Country. The speech is well structured and reveals the protagonist is an educated person. He talks like the speech wouldn’t be formulated in that moment but before. The narrator voice charms his interlocutor and the reader too. In fact the interlocutor is frightened not just by Changez’ beard, but also by his way of talking. The speech is made of rhetorical elements and there are many anaphors of the negation term “no”, “nor”…

The second paragraph has the structure of an argumentative text. The narrator voice denies all the hypothesis of the American and just in the end reveals the element which let him understand his interlocutor was American. This element was his bearing.

In the third paragraph the reason why the American is in that place becomes the topic of the speech. The paragraph starts with a question, it is much less formal than the introductive question of the first paragraph. This confidence demonstrates that a bond is establishing  between the two interlocutors. But Changez continue to call the American “sir”, this means that however there is a distance between them. Changez’ knowledge about the story of the bazaar reveals again the intelligent reader he is an educated person. His way of talking is not casual but it is structured following important rules of the speech and it makes his speech charming for the reader and the American.

The intelligent reader could have the impression the meeting between the two characters might be not accidental. Because Changez seems very interested in his interlocutor and his observations make the intelligent reader understand he was keeping an eye on the American.

The three paragraphs are linked by the introductive question, present in every first line of them. The question keeps the conversation active and it urges the reader keep reading.

The book is all based on the direct speech of Changez and this choice doesn’t allow the reader to have an objective idea of what happens. So, the narrator’s voice choice gives the reader a not complete vision of the events. But just a subjective view on them. In the end the reader has no idea about the physical aspect of Changez and can understand his personality just reading what he tells about himself. On the other side the reader knows the interlocutor only by Changez’ eyes.