The End of the World as We Know It

As we come to the closing of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, many different emotions have gone through the reader’s mind. The emotion that is most outstanding is probably a feeling of confusion. What really happens in the end? And in asking this question, we are actually questioning what really occurred that day? Essentially questioning the whole purpose of the story.

By first let’s take a look at the very last paragraph in the novel that makes us doubt the last two hundred pages:

“Perhaps our waiter wants to say goodbye as well, for he is rapidly closing in. Yes, he is waving at me to detain you. I know you have found some of my views offensive; I hope you will not resist my attempt to shake you by the hand. But why are you reaching into your jacket sir? I detect a glint of metal. Given that you and I are now bound by a certain shared intimacy, I trust it is from the holder of your business cards.” (184)

There are different points in this paragraph that can be referred back to in the text. From the last paragraph, and parts of the last chapter, we are told that their waiter is following Changez and the American as they are walking to the American’s Hotel. Why is he following them? Is it that he is there for Changez’s protection or perhaps because he is out to get the American? I believe both can be a possibility, but more than likely he is out to protect Changez. In the beginning of the novel, it is clear that Changez and the American are strangers. Changez approaches the American, and convinces him to follow him to a restaurant to taste Changez’s proclaimed “unparalleled” tea. Is it not a bit strange that an American would follow a stranger to a restaurant? And is it not stranger that Changez offered to take an American he’d just met to such a place? As I was reading this I knew that Changez had some sort of previous knowledge about this American. “I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services”(1).  As the story goes on and Changez begins to tell his story, he describes the American’s behavior here and there. Particularly he brings up the way the American feels when their waiter is around.  Yet again and again Changez reassures the American that the waiter should not intimidate the American. “I observe, sir, that there continues to be something about our waiter that puts you ill at ease. I admit that he is and intimidating chap, larger even than you are. But the hardness of his weathered face can readily be accounted for: he hails from our mountainous northwest, where life is far from easy. And if you should sense that he has taken a disliking to you, I would ask you to be so kind as to ignore it; his tribe merely spans both sides of our border with neighboring Afghanistan, and has suffered during offensives conducted by your countrymen.”(108)

Another aspect to think about is the fact that Changez opens up so much to the American in merely a few moments from meeting him. Why is it that Changez tells the American everything that occurred to him while living in America? Specifically the events after the September 11^th terrorist attacks? I believe that Changez did this on purpose. As stated on the last paragraph of chapter 6; “Allow me to assure you that I do not always speak this openly; indeed, I almost never do. But tonight, as I think we both understand, is a night of some importance.” (92) While this direct quote might not scream it’s obviousness, it does hint that Changez has a specific purpose in telling his story.

As we come to the last chapter, Changez tells the American about his life in Pakistan at the present moment, and how Changez at times suspects he is being followed by some sort of American officer. Of course what goes through everyone’s mind by this point is that the American could possibly be one of those officer’s Changez speaks of. Surely in the last paragraph our expectations are met as Changez’s waiter closes in on him and the American, in order to aid Changez, and the American essentially pulls out some sort of gun, clearly not a business card holder.

So as I was reading the September 11 scene in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, it made me reflect back on that day, and try to re-think some of the things I heard from the people I know who are either not American or does not live in America.  I had the same reaction to those comments as I had to Changez comments. Both of them made me sick,  the fact that Changez was gloating over 9/11 attacks and millions of innocent people dying is a sick thing to imagine but unfortunately I guess that this is a reality that most of us Americans have to deal with when it comes to the September 11th attacks as people from other countries like Changez wanted to see America crumble because they probably think that we act like were better than the other countries of the world and for that reason 9/11 is the reality check that they think we needed.

But what bother me about Changez view of 9/11 is that he lived in America and I guess we can say he was fairly successful in America so why would you be smiling at seeing something like this happen in the country you lived in and was pretty successful in? I can see why others who live in other countries (never lived in America) would feel this way because there is something in their blood that leads to them hating America but when someone who lived in America feels this way, it really baffles me, and actually kinda scary to think that people who are currently living in America could have possibly enjoyed watching 9/11 happen.

September 11th is a day I would never forget for two reasons. The first is the fact that I live in NYC and the second is that my dad work in the WTC but thankfully escaped 9/11 alive even though he was working on the 97th floor the day that it happen. He lost a ton of people from his department and I remember that day back in Junior High School when it happened and I thought my dad was gone because I was thinking noway can he get out since he work on the 97th floor so when I found out he was still alive it felt like a miracle to me. To make things worst was that morning before I left for school, me and my dad had a little argument so when I found out about 9/11 happening all I was thinking was my last conversation with my dad was me arguing with him about something petty but thankfully for me and my family, that was not the final conversation I would have with my dad.

I try not to think about 9/11 often because I usually get real sad when thinking about it because I remember all the people we know that died in these attacks so I always try to keep my mind off 9/11 until the time when the anniversary come around but The Reluctant Fundamentalist have made me begin to think about that horrific day yet again. I just wonder how Changez other people who had the same reaction as he did would feel if a family member or friend that they knew had past away in 9/11? Would they still have the same reaction just because they despise America so much? I hope not and I just wish Changez would have put himself in the shoes of those family members who lost love ones on that day before he crack that smile and made those comments about how 9/11 brought America to its knees.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist- 9/11/01 by Jelani Eudelle

The writer of The Reluctant Fundamentalist addresses the different struggles that Changez goes through.  One of the struggles is how he felt when he learned of 9/11 and another struggle is how he was treated and experienced as a non-American despite the fact that he lived in New York for four and a half years.

As people watch the towers fall, the most common reactions was probably shock, horror, or fright and the following behaviors was crying, screaming, or a sense of loss.  Changez had an unusual action while watching.  Instead of staring in shock, he smiled.  He’s not like Hitler of course, a crazed lunatic but like he said, his reaction was perplexed.

I don’t blame him for feeling that way.  I didn’t feel anything after hearing what happened.  I don’t know why I felt so detached.  It was like hearing news of a distant relative that you know but sort of don’t know died.

I knew that the towers falling were a momentous event because it meant that America was vulnerable, America is weakening as Changez puts it “…the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees.” I think that is why Changez did not feel sad or shock or frightened.    He had that in your face grin plastered.  He knew that Americans believed that they were so great and condescending attitude because they didn’t understand what it meant to struggle, struggle as an outsider.   He mentions the American condescension when he has dinner with Erica’s parents.  Of course, they probably don’t know how hard it is to struggle, to arise above all odds.  Those who have come to America dreamt of the vast wealth of America and want a piece of it.  When they arrive, they realize that they too have to work just as hard when they were back in their mother country to survive.

Another struggle he felt was how un-American he was when he went to Manila.  I don’t think it is uncommon for someone who is not Caucasian to feel un-American.  I never really felt American despite my growing up in New York for my whole life.  In my narrow and naïve opinion, what being American meant was being a Caucasian family living in the middle of a corn field with a house with a white picket fence.  Of course, I’m sure there is more than that to be American.

September 11, 2001 is a date that will be secured in our history books as one of the worst moments in our lifetime.  I’ve chosen to write about this poem “Photograph From September 11” for a few reasons, but particularly because this day was the only day in my life that I was ever late for work, and this event will haunt me for the rest of my existence.

I worked in Tower Two of the World Trade Center as a “temp” before going on my annual acting tour.  I was a receptionist for a group of eight in the payroll department for Marsh and McLennan, one of the biggest insurance companies in the world.  Marsh and McLennan held 7 floors in Tower One and 16 in Tower Two.  At the time their headquarters was at 66 6th Avenue in New York City, but there was not enough room to hold everyone so it was pertinent to find some significant space for their employees that were coming in from other cities, other countries, etc., so spaces were taken up through the WTC.

At the time I lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn and my living room window faced downtown Manhattan.  I woke late, but not too late to still be on time.  I would always watch “The Today Show” while getting ready for work and through the television screen I saw a replay of the first plane that hit Tower One (at the time Katie Couric was informing the viewers that it was believed to be a small private plane).  I immediately looked out my window and saw the smoke permeating from the scene.  I was mesmerized, I don’t know why, but kept staring at it.  At the time the crash looked bad from where I was, but not to the severity that would essentially come.

I now had put my make-up mirror to the window so that I could observe the hopeful progress while still getting ready for work, and unfortunately the sensationalism wouldn’t let me take my eyes off that horrendous site.  I heard a noise that sounded like a jet far too close to be in this area, and I witnessed the second plane hit.  My television immediately went to static and I was terribly afraid, in shock, and as all the writers that have tried to capture the words for this day, there were none.

I immediately went to my phone and had no connection.  I spun around in circles, walking from room to room, looking through every window that faced downtown NYC, unknowing, unknowing, unknowing of what to do.  I was crazy.  I had seen this, couldn’t believe this, alone and had no one to express this to, and I was crazy because I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO! And I couldn’t do ANYTHING!  And then on top of everything the first building fell.  As I forced myself to believe I was dreaming the second one wasn’t too far behind.  No phone, no friend, only my cats who were sleeping snuggled against one another.  I wasn’t going to wake them up, but it wasn’t long until they were both aware of this enormous cataclysm, as when the buildings fell, the smoke and the ash I could see were coming directly at us.  It was snowing on September 11, 2001 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and the world was in a state of shock.

That day I lost every one of my friends that I worked with, and I wasn’t there to be with them.  This is the guilt that I will carry with me throughout my lifetime; not a malicious or childish act out of jealousy or insecurity.  And this guilt is involuntary.  No matter what I do, it will be with me forever.

I had no idea when I decided to write on “Photograph From September 11” that all this would have come up so easily.  Perhaps I need to talk about it every so often.  Only my family and closest friends have heard of my experience on that day, and when one of my friends suggested reading “Atonement,” I think he was trying to help me rid myself of this feeling of responsibility for my friends whom I had lost that day.  Perhaps it is a good start, since I’m now sharing the most intimate experience of my life with a group of strangers. 

If any of you read this blog, I thank you for indulging me.  It has been so easy to write it, perhaps purging myself a little…and Wislawa Szymborska has helped me too.  I don’t remember when I first read her poem, “Photograph From September 11,”but I remember reading it several years ago, and it immediately gave me a sense of connection to my friends whom I had lost.  I know it wasn’t too long after the Towers fell; I really don’t know when it was that I first read this poem, but before we were assigned this wonderful book of poetry, I had read it before, and I’ll try to do it justice.

In essence, my blog on this poem will be much shorter than my very long prologue to it.  It really is very simple to understand.  Szymborska’s sensitivity to the photograph she is describing is one of horror, emotion, and reality.  However she stays that off by keeping the several personalities who she sees in the photograph with the dignity of accepting what was to be for them, and other than expecting a miracle of being saved, each of these persons (living beings who had families and friends) leapt in a forever positive and a respectful manner, perhaps learning what it’s like to fly for a few seconds, and never having to land.  One of the most modern, touching poems I have ever read.

I have never written a blog post before and am not quite sure where to begin, so please bear with me. We will see where we end up when we get there.

How does one express or understand the enormity of the world? How do we know what the intangible feels like? Or what non-sentient constructions think about life? Or ask whether there is life outside of our planet?

Well Wislawa Szymborska writes about all these unusual subjects In Monologue of a Dog as well as describing war from an aerial view, giving the alphabet its own thoughts, and making statistics interesting.

Szymborska addresses many difficult themes in more manageable terms, like assigning each variable in a quadratic equation the appropriate quantity. She breaks down walls that seem unbreakable. She makes us think in new ways by giving us unique vantage points of scenes that would normally go unnoticed.

By the time I reached the end of her final poem, I found myself having reached a catharsis. One poem in particular resonated with me:

“The Three Oddest Words

When I pronounce the word Future,

The first syllable already belongs to the past.

When I pronounce the word Silence,

I destroy it.

When I pronounce the word Nothing,

I make something no nonbeing can hold.”

The meaning of the word contradicts the saying of the word itself. Such a simple subject seen from a new perspective must be meant to cause us to ask new questions. What if every time we speak we are contradicting our meaning? What if the very act of naming something negates it?

Szymborska seems to express so much within what is never said, within in the “Zeros”, the silence of the unanswered question. The space left for you to fill in yourself. She gives us just enough to get us thinking, but not enough to simply have the answers.

I believe she writes to inspire thought, and in my case has achieved her goal quite well. So if you have thoughts or ideas as a result reading her poems, then please comment and we can start an interesting discussion.

Guilt is a grave emotion one might endure for the course of an entire lifetime.  Depending on the offense one might commit and the lasting effects that the individual bestows on another (or on them) may or may not determine if forgiveness is ever or even an option.  None of us are without our own faults, and many times through these imperfections we will make mistakes and sometimes the consequences of these gaffes can never be resolved.  Hopefully if the error in our judgment is an unpleasant mishap (without malice), generally we might expect forgiveness; yet if our error is one of premeditation, presuming to injure another being (albeit physically or psychologically), then forgiveness is up to the one whom we have maimed.  More often than not without any professional type of therapy, the guilty party as well as the offended may never quite understand the reasoning of the one who has been slanderous or the depths regarding the succession of what transpired to compel one to execute such a malicious act.  Immaturity is no excuse.  Most of us, if we are brought up in a wholesome family faction, we know right from wrong.  However sometimes if family and the connection to it is so unimportant, and one’s fantasies are one’s realities, then one can (and may often) rely only on one’s own discretion.  And as a child, this can be a recipe for disaster. 

And Briony Tallis is just such a child.  Crushed over a “school-girl crush” which will obviously be unreciprocated, Briony Tallis turns an entire family’s life upside down which will never be attuned again.  Whether or not this is her reasoning for implicating Robbie for the rape of Lola, Briony’s accusation is unmistakably a criminal offense.  True, it is not that the Tallis family is a jubilant family initially, but the Tallis family appears to be a family of accepting “of what is” without questioning.  Briony who lives within her own fantasies carries on as though she is an adult (and although not an adult, but one who needs to be in control, assuming that she is one) takes it upon herself to direct others lives through her own fantasies which is enough for her to create a “real” monstrous life for the ones that she actually cares for.  And honestly, I wonder if she knows what it is to care for anyone.

After a few years of suffering over her excessive fallacy, realizing the damage she has caused, Briony instead of attending Cambridge, decides to enroll in the nursing school her sister Cecilia attended.  She wants to be forgiven; not only by Cecilia and Robbie, but she wants to forgive herself as well.  By scrubbing down floors, washing blankets, making beds, and scrubbing bedpans on a daily basis should surely overthrow this guilt she possesses.  But it doesn’t, and in fact it never will.

Near the end of this novel, Briony decides to rewrite history.  And I was insulted.  I guess it wasn’t really Briony writing this, but  McEwan who decides to have Briony writing this “fantasy” chapter.  After reading about Robbie’s circumstances while at war and who I learned of Robbie’s character to be, I was certain that Robbie Turner was a very conscientious, thoughtful, selfless, and a very good soldier, not to mention a very good man.  In the “fantasy scene,” where Briony, Cecilia and Robbie reconnect after several years, McEwan is now bringing back to the novel the writing from the youthful fantasies of Briony.  An example to contradict the “fantasy scene” would be that from Part II in this novel where Robbie contemplates wishing that he can forgive Briony: “He did not think his resentment of her could ever be erased.  Yes, she was a child at the time, and he did not forgive her.  He would never forgive her.  That was the lasting damage.”  Robbie is struggling with this.  He isn’t dismissing the possibility of forgiving Briony, but he can’t, and it is understandable.  And yet still this is a very kind disposition for one who has had their life stolen away from them.  However in the later chapter, the “fantasy chapter” near the end of the novel when Briony, Cecilia and Robbie are in the small apartment and when Robbie states, “I’m torn between breaking your stupid neck here and taking you outside and throwing you down the stairs”…it just made no sense to me that Robbie would become so erratic.  His thoughts at the end of Part II were one of regret and sadness that he couldn’t forgive, and now he is threatening violent harm?  I didn’t buy it.  And secondly, what made this Part II of this book so tender and loving (my favorite part until the final chapter) was that no matter how desperate Robbie’s circumstances became, he kept remembering Cecilia’s promise that she would wait for him.  And what made this part of the book more intense for me, is that I was certain Robbie knew he was dying, but was fighting with all his might, with all his mind, with all his fevers, with all his delusions from the fevers, that he was going to make it back to Cecilia no matter what he had to face!!!  His determination and his love for her were more than admirable. 

(An insertion – a rewrite 11/16/10)  It appeared today in class that a few of you were aghast with me for saying that I was insulted with the “fantasy chapter,” where Cecilia, Robbie and Briony were trying to connect on how to exonerate Robbie, but it had already occurred to me that Robbie was dead from Part II.  And for me, that is why I loved Part II so much…his desire to return to Cecilia, the horror he had to endure to reach her, and yet that didn’t stop him.  On the second page of Part II (page 180), after seeing the leg in the tree, after vomiting up ahead of the two corporals, “He made use of this moment alone to look at his wound.  It was on his right side, just below his rib cage, about the size of a half crown.  It wasn’t looking so bad after he washed away the dried blood yesterday.  Though the skin around it was red…”  Robbie had an infection, and through Part II of the novel, Robbie had fevers (because of infection), and became delusional at times (because of the fevers and infection), and Robbie was smart…he was planning to be a doctor someday after all.  Surely he knew he was in need of antibiotics.  I believe Robbie and I both knew he was going to die (clarification…I do know this is fiction).  To reiterate…why I got so upset with the fantasy scene.  I felt as though I was being duped.  And I was right.

As much as I disliked Briony after her major faux pas, in the final chapter of this book, I care for her more than probably anyone else does, again as I did in the beginning of this novel.  She is an older lady now, resigning to the fact that there is nothing more she could have done or can do now to put right the past, and must now just have to accept her life as it was, and is at this moment.  There is a tranquil quality in how she now carries herself (perhaps it is her dementia, but I don’t believe that), and there is almost a classy inferiority that she now possesses where I begin to do a little forgiving myself.  And this chapter was the twist for me.

What would Wallace have said about this experience, I wonder.

4-6 Pages.  Due December 2

1. Write a longer review of any of the books from the course, like the one that I posted on the blog.  If you choose to do this assignment, please do not review White Teeth again, and please choose a different work from the one that you wrote about in your first formal paper.

2. One might read David Foster Wallace’s essay, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” as simply a piece about the peculiarities of the cruise ship experience.  But one might also claim that he is trying to describe a larger problem within contemporary American society and using the cruise ship as a metaphor.  What do you think that problem is?  How does Wallace’s comedic style of writing help him to communicate his preoccupations?

3. Zadie Smith’s White Teeth explores two competing impulses, both frequently celebrated within our public discourse: the urge to promote cultural diversity and expose people to a variety of different ethnic traditions and the urge to preserve one’s own inherited culture in the name of authenticity and thus to resist the influence of other traditions.  What does Zadie Smith have to say about these urges?  Does she advocate one or the other?  Does she critique either?  Does her book offer some recipe or model for surviving the challenges of a multicultural world?  If so, what is it?  Or does she avoid taking a strong position, and if so, why does she avoid doing so?

4. In The Gay Science the philosopher Nietzsche remarks:

This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!

Zadie Smith references this notion of “eternal recurrence” multiple times in White Teeth.  Does this strike you as an accurate description of the philosophical position that her novel is seeking to underscore?  Why or why not?

5. A central theme in Ian McEwan’s Atonement is time, and the various ways in which we experience it.  Time is one of those phenomena that is so constantly present to our minds, that we think we can grasp it rather easily.  But can we?  What new ways of understanding the passage of time does Atonement offer us?

6. As Robbie Turner is retreating to Dunkirk, he recalls the world before the war: “A dead civilization.  First his own life ruined, then everyone else’s” (204).  Is Atonement about the death of a civilization?  How so?  What exactly has been lost?  And how does Ian McEwan attempt to capture that loss?

7. In his poem, “In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” W.H. Auden famously proclaimed: “For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives / In the valley of its making where executives / Would never want to tamper.”  If poetry makes nothing happen, then what can it do?  What does the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska do?  Is Auden’s statement applicable to her work?  How so?

8.  Mohsin Hamid asks us to imagine that the text of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a monologue delivered by a Pakistani to an American in a café in Lahore.  What kind of relationship does the novel construct between the speaker and listener?  What sort of reaction is the narrator seeking to elicit, and how do his modes of address elicit this reaction?  How does this narrative framing device influence our responses to the text, as readers?  And what is the relationship between this device and the larger themes that Hamid is exploring?

9.  In an interview printed at the end of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsim Hamid remarks, “I feel I have written from a stance that is both critical of and loving toward America.  I hope that readers will feel my affection and see that my intent is not to gloss over the very real pain of September 11 but rather to reconnect parts of my world, and myself, that have grown increasingly divided.”  Is this what the Hamid’s novel accomplishes?  If so, how?  If not, why not?

The style of the book feels very fresh and had a sort of fantastical. As I stated in my presentation the book had a Tolkien feel to it. The way that McEwan describes the events keeps the reader wanting to know the events that are going to happen next.

The environment plays a big role on the characters. Taking note of the location of the house is another big detail. It is a big ugly house literally in the middle of nowhere. This affects a lot of the characters development in the story. Briony for example became an introverted writer keeping to her imagination as much as possible. Being secluded during her summers has limited her social skills and has made her very naïve to the world around her. She is very selfish that wants everything her way and she usually had it until her cousins came and she had to deal with the competition. Or when she sees the incident in between her sister Cecelia and Rob she lets her imagination get the better of her and she makes up the three different point of view from her on imagination instead of actually trying to find out what really happened.

Cecelia on the other hand probably had the same problem as a child. This is shown through her interactions with Robbie. She mentions how she has an awkwardness when ever she speaks with him. Even though she has an awkwardness she also handles him very harshly. I could imagine when she was younger she was also an introvert. She is a bibliophile that probably delved into books as a child and kept to herself. When she left to college she probably relished the freedom and became her own person. She started to smoke, she became messy, and she became probably even more modern because of the freedom and the education.