The structure is made by title, language, layout and the function of novel component parts.
The title "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" alerts the reader that the protagonist doesn't accept fundamentalism. In the novel there are two types of fundamentalism: religious fundamentalism and economic fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalism means respecting the rules of religion rigidly. Economic fundamentalism means respecting the rules of economy rigidly. Changez, the protagonist, il reluctant to both kinds of fundamentalisms. He is reluctant to religious fundamentalism because he drink alcool and his religion forbids it and he is reluctant to economic fundamentalism because when he goes to Philippine to work he relizes that he doesn't accept American fundamentals.
The protagonist uses English to speak to the other man for two causes: because his speaker is American and because English is the language of mediation.
The novel is a dramatic monologue: one man narrating his life to a stranger while the two men eat dinner and walk around the city of Lahore. The reader doesn't know who, or what, the other man is. The reader knows only that the other man is American. The reader doesn't know also why Changez wants to talk to him. This is why it is a dramatic monologue: the protagonist addresses and interacts with one but the reader knows of the auditor's presence and what he says and does only from clues in Changez's monologue.
The structure of the novel creates a doubling effect so that the reader feel the narrator is not only talking to the unknown man, but also that he is talking to him.
The first part introduces a narrative technique and the narrator reveals the setting and the use of language.
In the second part the narrator introduces Erica's character.
The following two parts have the function to introduce Changez's life in New York.
In the fifth part the World Trade Centre bombing determinates the change of the setting and the beginning of Muslim's persecution.
The last two parts conclude the story with Changez's return to Pakistan.
In my opinion, thanks to the linguistic technique of dramatic monologue, the narrator is able to bring the discussion to the end he wants. The narrator already knows what he wants to talk and doesn't leave the other man a choice of arguments. The American interlocutor of Changez is a victim because he is forced to listen him.
Through this structure, the narrator wants to reflect the reader on a different point of view of America: Pakistani point of view.
The cons of its narrative strategy is ambiguity. It is present especially in the first and last chapter.
In my opinion the choice of those name is very important because the name "Erica" remember the sound of "America", the name "Changez" remember the sound of the verb "to change" and the name "Chris" remember the sound of "Christianity"; and so the intelligent reader can understand the character even by their names.
The conclusion is that the dramatic monologue lets the function of novel component parts came to surface.