The Reluctant Fundamentalist Chapter 11 By Brooke Hayley

The Reluctant Fundamentalist Chapter 11. By Brooke, Hayley, Alex and Molly.

Chapter summary • In chapter 11 on the plane back home Changez thinks about America’s foreign policy and interventions in other country’s. • Changez gets fired from his job although his boss Jim is accepting of the fact and lets him go without a struggle. Changez travels back to his apartment with his box of belongings on the subway, it was a different experience for him, he is now no longer so cosmopolitan, now more menacing. America has changed him into a person he never imagined some may say it brought out the best out of him.

Chapter summary • Changez visits Erica at the clinic but she has disappeared, she left a pile of clothes on a headland above the river, he goes to see her mother and she gives him the manuscript. • Changez remembers the firefly him and Erica watched as it tried to battle its way through the night of skyscrapers.

Character development • Changez: Realises where he belongs and that the job he is doing isn't right for him. • Erica: Distant herself completely from everyone around her including Changez. • American guest: Constantly aware of his surroundings and very cautious about who he is speaking to and what those around him are doing.

Memories explored The memories explored in chapter 11: • Changez remembers the firefly's he saw with Erica. • Changez found it hard to wrap his head around the fact that Erica was no longer around and that he could longer call her his. He also found it hard not knowing what had happened to her. • He forcibly gets himself fired from Underwood Samson to ensure that he is able to return back to Pakistan and realises this life isn't what he had thought, and isn't what he intends to want for the remainder of his life.

Identity Changez goes through a dramatic identity change when he comes to the realisation that the person he is becoming is someone he feared to ever be. It revolves around him losing his job because he realises its not the person he wants to be anymore.

Question 1 What do you think the firefly on page 188 represents? How does this reflect Erica’s feelings about herself? We believe that the fire fly is a representation of “Erica” and portrays the idea that she has disappeared just like the fire fly did in the sky that night. It means that she is no longer present with Changez and the question remains on whether or not she will return or be gone forever.

Question 1 This shows that Erica is no longer the confident outgoing women she once was the day Changez met her. She has come a long way since then and things around her as well as her past has had a dramatic impact on the person she has become, she feels as though there is no point on being happy now that a person she loved and loves is no longer with her, as well as her sense of disappointment in the person she has become.

Question 2 Why doesn’t Changez try to keep his job? Changez doesn’t try and keep his job because he realises that his job is not something that he feels is a benefit to society more a negative impact on those around him. He doesn’t feel the sense of belonging in America like he once did. He doesn’t want to live this life anymore and realises this is his only chance to get back to his hometown where he belongs.