Danger of Nostalgia in Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Collision of Past and Present in Hamid’s Novel

Hamid's novel demonstrates the danger of being locked in the past,

implicitly arguing for the necessity of a radical way of looking forward.

In Mohsin Hamid’s 2007 novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a young Pakistani man named

Changez speaks to an unnamed, silent American over dinner at a café in Lahore. Changez’ story

interweaves the political and the personal, and illuminates the danger of being locked in the past.

Erica’s Obsession with Chris

Erica is consumed by the memory of her dead boyfriend, Chris. She had a complete breakdown

after his death, refusing to eat or talk to people, and seems still unable to move on.

She often talks to Changez about him, and he notices the pull of her memory: “I would observe that

she was utterly detached, lost in a world of her own. […] she was struggling against a current that

pulled her within herself, and her smile contained the fear that she might slip into her own depths,

where she would be trapped, unable to breathe” (86).

Erica’s memories seem to be more vivid and compelling than her real life, in which Chris is dead.

Her memories are depicted as something menacing and dangerous, somewhere she might not only

get lost but might also drown.

The Effect of Erica’s Obsession on Her Relationship with Changez

Erica’s obsession with the past manifests itself in her inability to make love to Changez. The first

time he tries, she is “silent and unmoving”, and he eventually stops (89). They instead talk about

Chris.

The only time they succeed in making love is when Changez tells Erica to pretend that he is Chris.

This allows Erica to retreat further in her mind, away from real life. The act, indeed, is tinged with

violence and death.

Erica does not “move her lips or shut her eyes” when Changez kisses her, so he shuts them for her,

as one would shut the eyes of a corpse. As he recalls the experience, Changez remembers “the near-

inanimate smoothness and coolness of her flesh” (105); Erica does not move, and her skin is cool,

rather than warm and alive.

Changez “watched her shut eyes, and her shut eyes watched him” (105). It is clear that this event is

happening deep inside Erica’s mind, perhaps evoking other powerful memories. And as if she is

drowning, or being pulled under, the undertones of violence and death continue.

She feels rigid as he enters her, and Changez is reminded of “a wound, giving our sex a violent

undertone despite the gentleness with which I attempted to move” (106). He smells blood, as if he is

injuring her.

He then describes her as shuddering “grievously, almost mortally”, as if she was in agonizing pain

or dying. Erica, who often needs medication to sleep, falls unconscious without it and sleeps like a

child, or like a corpse.

The Victory of the Past

This consummation drives Erica further into the abyss of her own mind instead of bringing the two

lovers closer. She ends up retreating to a clinic for asylum.

Changez, looking back, wonders if he “sensed, even then, that I had done Erica some terrible harm”

(106). As the nurse at Erica’s clinic tells Changez, “it did not matter that the person Erica was in

love with was what the nurse or I might call deceased; for Erica he was alive enough […] in her

mind she was experiencing things that were stronger and more meaningful than the things she could

experience with the rest of us” (133).

For Erica, the past wins; the clinic provides a place where she can peacefully live within her

memories, but soon she renounces the present entirely, and kills herself.

Changez’ Obsession with Erica

Changez understands that Erica was dangerously submerged in and seduced by the past, but he

proves himself just as vulnerable to the past’s power. He continues to obsess over Erica, even after

she is dead.

He compulsively searches each issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly for any mention of her; he

emails her for months until her account became inactive; and he sends her a letter each year, on the

anniversary of her disappearance.

After moving back to Lahore, he does not pursue any new relationships, and is uncomfortable with

the idea of telling his mother about Erica: “our relationship could now thrive only in my head, and

to discuss it with a mother intent – admittedly in my own best interest – on challenging it with

reality might do it irreparable harm” (176).

Just as Erica’s vivid memories of her love with Chris proved more appealing than reality, Changez’

memories of Erica remain more engaging than the romantic options of his present life.

Effect of The Reluctant Fundamentalist on the Reader

The ending leaves it unclear whether the story Changez tells the silent American has any impact,

and whether the novel ends in violence or understanding.

But the novel can also be read as a conversation with the reader, and then the ending could be

considered unfinished as well as ambiguous: left for us, living through these collisions of present

and past, and of personal and political, to learn from the past and look forward to create a better

future.

Ultimately, by demonstrating the danger in both personal and political spheres of being locked in

the past, the novel implicitly argues for the necessity of a new and radical way of looking forward.