![]() ![]() Instead, the frame is executed as a direct-address monologue to the unnamed American, whose unstated actions and statements must therefore be inferred only from Changez’s responses-much like a stereotypical TV sitcom phone call extended to the length of a novel (What’s that, Sam? You say you want to come over after dinner? Sure!). Importantly, however, the reader receives only one side of the conversation, and no third-person description of the action. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is built upon a frame-story, in which Changez, the novel’s narrator and principal character, is having an extended conversation one evening with an American visitor to Pakistan. ![]() ![]() ![]() The narrative conceit of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is critical to how the American’s character is portrayed. ‘The American,’ as I will call this character-for he is never named-is essentially an implied person, whose characteristics and motives must be derived from the statements of Hamid’s narrator, Changez, a professor in Economics who has expressed anti-American viewpoints. In Mohsin Hamid’s 2007 novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, one of the book’s most important characters never really appears on stage or speaks. Home > Character Analysis > 'The American,' The Reluctant Fundamentalist 'The American,' The Reluctant Fundamentalist ![]()
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