Mimicry in The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mohsin Hamid's novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is a powerful and brilliant novel that reflects on the narration of its main character Changez. Changez is a young, learned Pakistan who moves to New York to work at a high-status financial analysis organization. He has realized his American goal until 9/11 upsets New York. The novel via Changez has significantly utilized mimicry in almost the entire work. This paper echoes the use of mimicry, its role in rousing Changez to initiate his identity in the USA, his relationship with Erica, and the way principles of mimicry advance as the novel evolves.
The use of mimicry appears in several instances in the novel. For instance, Changez studies the art of masking his natural (Pakistani) identity to evade being scrutinized. He is reluctant to inform the people of America that he comes from Pakistan. He imitates the norms and behavior of American people to avoid being racially abused. The subject of colonial fiction to imitate the colonizers extracts Changez outcast. He rejects his native culture to gain self-glorification. Nonetheless, imitating American behaviors and norms restates his otherness while his real self varies with his adopted colonial self (Zhenzhao and Ross 226). One instance Changez mimics the American is when he visits the Philippines and attempts to demonstrate as a New Yorker. Unfortunately, how Americans are treated is distinct from the treatment he receives.
Furthermore, he brags about his job, another mechanism to help him gain more sense of security. When he visits his girlfriend, he meets a disrespectful gatekeeper making him assert his job's nature which leads to some desired impact (Salmeen 34). Under the camouflage shield, mimicry is a common issue that Changez embraces to gain a sense of security and avoid being racially abused in the novel. However, his attempt to mimic the colonial culture turns into hatred later in the novel.
Mimicry has played a significant role in motivating Changez's desire to launch his identity in the USA. Apart from performing as a spur in Changez's acculturation, mimicry further discloses the uncertainty of the colonial discourse and deauthorizes the position of subjectivity of Americans (Zhenzhao and Ross 224). Additionally, mimicry challenges the ethnocentrism of Americans, epistemic violence, and impels the reader to see marginalization as a privileged postcolonial motif. The Americans have portrayed that they have negative attitudes toward the Arabs. They perceive Arabs to be terrorists, and that is why Changez is called a (fucking Arab) by an unknown person on the street (Bhat 451). Therefore, it is clear how mimicry has played a crucial role in facilitating the de-authorization of the colonial machinery.
On the other hand, Changez is abandoned while trying to become an American. For instance, he disrespects conventional morality standards to strengthen his love affair with Erica. Besides being obsessed with his girlfriend, Changez delights in the possibility of entering the fantasy realm (Zhenzhao and Ross 228). He asserts that his joy concerning the new adventures in his life has never been more prominent. He is sexuall...