the reluctant fundamentalist book sparknotes

I also appreciated the way Reshmi incorporated ideas and questions from other sources such as book reviews and literature discussing the events of September 11.

Throughout the seminar, I enjoyed having my ideas and assumptions positively challenged by my co-participants. The implication is that Americans are spoiled teenagers.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a central idea seems to be that Americans don’t question themselves enough, and we are very nostalgic about the past.In his writing, Hamid is tackling issues of class and the potential collapse of capitalism.Her role is to help us see that unless America mends its ways, it will disappear. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the character Erica symbolizes America.In his works, Hamid gives us multiple perspectives and wants his readers to draw their own conclusions about the story.How does a Pakistani male understand women and power?įrom these questions and more, we brainstormed several ideas:.What do the ideas of inclusion and exclusion mean in theory and in practice?.How is Hamid challenging me with his multiple ideas and questions?.What does it mean to be rich? Is it only about money?.Who is qualified to speak about and define “the war on terror?”.Particular points of discussion that arose through our time together included the following questions: This seminar took place over the course of two Saturday mornings-an abbreviated version of the typical six-week seminar-and covered a wide range of topics, including the author’s background as a Pakistani, a Pakistani-American, an immigrant, an “outsider,” and a gentle but truthful critic of American culture in the 21st century.

My fellow Delve participants and I each received a ticket to the lecture as part of our seminar tuition. Hamid was one of five authors in Literary Arts’ 2015-2016 Portland Arts & Lectures series, and he spoke at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Thursday, April 28. This very stimulating seminar, facilitated by Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, considered two novels- The Reluctant Fundamentalist and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia-and a few essays by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid.

The reluctant fundamentalist book sparknotes