Facing Strangers in Ourselves: Delivered Others in The Reluctant Fundamentalist ∗

Abstract

Moshin Harmid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist narrates how Muslin Americans encounter their difficult situation in America after the 9/11 incident. Changez, the protagonist, deals with his hybrid identity in the neoliberal American society, and reacts to his impediments after the 9/11 incident when the American society abjects his Islamic otherness. I propose there are two parallel but paradoxical forces interacting with each other to deconstruct and reconstruct Changez’s oscillating identities. One is the system of the delivering others (in David, Palumbo-Liu’s term), which functions according to neoliberalism and multiculturalism. The other is his mental awareness, which may derive from his Pakistan background. This mental force keeps him realizing his otherness in American society, and pushing him to return to his root. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the parallel forces interact with each other to influence his identity construction. I intend to adopt several theories of hybridity to examine Changez unstable identity. Moreover, the paper also articulates how Changez’s mental awareness of his otherness has been triggered and interact with the delivery system, which alters its tactics to redefine and treat the others after 9/11 incident. [186 words]