The first chapter of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is one of the most important parts of the novel.

Being it the introductory chapter, it gives the reader the first impression of what is going to be told, and especially how it is written.

The style of Mohsin Hamid's writing is clear since the first page: the story isn't told in a traditional way, but by the use of dialogue. More exactly, it consists into a monolgue: even if another interlocutor is immediately introduced, it never partecipates (all his interactions with the speaker are “covered” by protagonist's considerations).

Changez, the narrator (facts are told by a first person narrator), is deeply characterized in these first seventeen pages: not only because of the chapter's subject, which is a summary of his life before New York, but also by the analyzing of his language.

Changez's way of speaking is very confident, even if polite, highlighting his good-manners; the neat and fast way he describes the city (Lahore, one of the largest of Pakistan), and his past marks his big intelligence. Also, the aptitude for understanding his interlocutor's thoughts, underline some abilities so similar to Jim's ones showed during the interview. This, can inspire some sort of future connection between the two characters.

In addition, the frequent considerations he makes (as the one about his zen-state while playing soccer) let the reader understand his personality.

Even the first sentences represent the writer's intention: he is going to “help” the reader, by expressing his convinctions with the tale of a man who is Pakistani, but knows America. He is going to do it in a very colloquial but good-mannered way, as if the reader was the unnamed American interlocutor. The ethnicity of these two characters (one is Pakistani, one American) and the expression “do not be frightened by my beard” lets the reader think of what the novel's theme is going to be.

This chapter ends in a very positive way, giving the reader a big sense of hope for the future of the protagonist's life in New York. This, to show the great part of America, that Changez reminds even after all he passed through. Anyway, the little comments he makes about “present” America (as his defining the interlocutor “bearing”) let understand a split USA's idea.