What Really Happens?
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 11th 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.
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