The main character in Mohsin Hamid’s short novel, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist," is one of those memorable characters that is both charismatic enough to make you really like him and realistic enough to get the reader to empathize with him and what he represents. He has an old-world way of speaking eloquently and constantly being accommodating and complimentary in speech to the listener, a rare mannerism.

Reading this novel, it puts you into the mind of people who believe terrorism is the answer to the corruption they see in the world, particularly America and other first-world countries. The plot of the novel shows the main character, Changez, a young Pakastani man, live "The American Dream" that exemplifies the ideals aristocratic culture respects: elitism, competition, money, and status. He becomes indoctrinated into the culture, but not as an equal. He struggles to live up to the expectations, the American Dream illusion is held in front of him if he performs up to par, but he loses himself along the way. To me, Changez can be read as a metaphor of what terrorists like that (maybe Orlando shooter and the more recent Nice truck driver) feel they go through and how they become disillusioned with what they see they have become.

Changez communicates his life as a modern-day “Janissary," or Muslim boy captured by the Ottoman empire to be trained to fight against their own. Before the September 11 terrorist attacks, he relished his work. Whether or not it benefited him, Changez WAS recruited as one of the best and brightest of his community to be an American financial analyst (he is called a financial terrorist in America in the novel). Similar to how India was the crown jewel of the British empire, Changez was adopted as a Pakistani crown jewel by the upper class and elite… like a foreign crop, by his exotic character, he was expected to make more money for the planter. In this instance, he became just another body to further American ends, and the novel creates a perfect metaphor as to how it works: "'The economy’s an animal,' Jim continued. 'It evolves. First it needed muscle. Now all the blood it could spare was rushing to its brain. That’s where I wanted to be. In finance. In the coordination business. And that’s where you are. You’re blood brought from some part of the body that the species doesn’t need anymore. The tailbone. Like me.'''

Isn't that interesting? Being from Pakistan, a "developing" nation, he is considered a part of the human species the species itself no longer needs. That is a mindset, and it can be theorized that it is what partly motivates terrorists to turn to things like ISIS, Al Qaeda, and violent, violent actions in order to get their point out. Terrorists come from communities that feel they are being exploited to further other people's ends. Everything that they are is considered foreign, obsolete, and useful for its "otherness;" this is most likely similar to a "freak show." No matter how much money Changez made or how high class he became, he was still a foreigner in a world that he felt he didn’t belong in, something his boss Jim pointed out, and something he himself admitted. The fact that he even felt like a traitor to his heritage and resorted to adopting the most dangerous and controversial representation of his people in order to fight against becoming indoctrinated into the American machine speaks for itself.

Much of Changez’ identity comes from his Pakistani heritage. That alone creates not only an obstacle for him in the pursuit of the American Dream, but also protects him from becoming indoctrinated by it. After the 9/11 Terrorist attacks, Changez is made much more aware of the part of his identity that separates him from America, both by himself and by Americans. Airport security hassle him, normal citizens antagonize him the street, and the reaction of the country to 9/11 scares both him and his family in Pakistan. This concept of being treated as just another Middle Eastern terrorist, despite not being a terrorist, eventually drives him back to Pakistan. It can be said that being denied the same level respect as other people simply because of their otherness, yet being exploited for their otherness can drive people to commit acts of terror and rage.

Changez is a character who has a strong pride in his nationality and culture of origin. However, to truly partake in the American Dream, it is known that an individual must adopt the American identity, which does not include ethnic uniqueness. Ultimately, it is realized that to act in the American Dream play, Changez must give in and give up Pakistan. In a way, 9/11 brought to the forefront the pressure many immigrants feel hanging over them when they are visibly foreign and different in America: they must assimilate in order to survive. For Changez, however, 9/11 did something for unique for him, “My colleagues greeted with considerable—although often partially suppressed—consternation by my reappearance in our offices. For despite my mother’s request, and my knowledge of the difficulties it could well present me at immigration, I had not shaved my two-week-old beard. It was, perhaps, a form of protest on my part, a symbol of my identity, or perhaps I sought to remind myself of the reality I had just left behind; I do not now recall my precise motivations. I know only that I did not wish to blend in with the army of clean-shaven youngsters who were my coworkers, and that inside me, for multiple reasons, I was deeply angry” (54).

Changez’ defiance against total assimilation into his American identity exposed what has been the most defining effect of its spell: its transformation and regulation of a person’s individual identity. In America, a person is taught to follow “The American Way” and to be an American first before anything else. However, Changez cannot be an American first; he is an immigrant. Though America gave him a false pass to live the American Dream and to allow himself to be under its spell, Changez could not lie and pretend to be American in order to be happy, as America would have it. Changez may have had a chance to be an American, but America could not lie to him, and he could not lie to America.

It is true we are all equal, and it is true that we all deserve to be given an equal chance to live and prosper. However, the fine print must be read at the bottom of the contract. It is required that one must be of a certain background and a certain disposition. An individual must not challenge the status quo, and if they do, they must fit the axiomatic standard for it to be accepted. That is the great illusion in America; America is made by Americans, for Americans only. Not only that, but only certain kinds of Americans can truly reap the benefits of America’s affluence in the long run. Without realizing it, America and other first world countries that create their social structures like this make themselves both extremely safe for "the elitist culture" and extremely dangerous for everyone else. On a final note, this is not an excuse for terrorists and terrorism; terrorism is an evil mindset that results in the loss of innocent life and the lowering of the level of consciousness on this planet. However, through the lens of the novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," a glimpse can be seen as to why people turn to terrorism when they feel they can't be ordinary people.