Film Screening Worksheet: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Introduction:

Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) tells the story of Changez, a young man from Pakistan who moves to the United States for education and work. After graduating from Princeton, he lands a prestigious job at a New York financial firm and begins a romantic relationship with an American woman, Erica. At first, Changez embraces the American Dream, admiring the country’s wealth, opportunities, and culture. However, the 9/11 attacks become a turning point in his life. He experiences racial profiling, alienation, and rising hostility towards Muslims, which makes him question his place in America and the values of the capitalist system he works for.

Disillusioned, Changez returns to Lahore, where he becomes a university lecturer and begins speaking against U.S. foreign policy and its impact on the developing world. The novel is written in the form of a dramatic monologue, with Changez narrating his story to an unnamed American stranger in a café in Lahore. Its open and ambiguous ending leaves readers unsure whether Changez is a threat or simply misunderstood, forcing them to reflect on themes of identity, power, love, loss, and the meaning of fundamentalism—not only in religion but also in nationalism and capitalism.

Themes:

1. Identity & Alienation – Changez struggles between being Pakistani and “becoming” American.

2. Power & Imperialism – The novel critiques U.S. global dominance, especially after 9/11.

3. Love & Loss – Erica symbolises both America and unattainable love.

4. Ambiguity & Perspective – Unreliable narration forces readers to question truth and bias.

5. Fundamentalism – Not just religious; it’s about extreme devotion to any system (capitalism, nationalism, etc.).

Style & Technique:

• Written as a frame narrative: Changez’s monologue to the silent American.

• Uses second-person address (“you”), pulling the reader into the role of the listener.

• An open-ended conclusion leaves space for interpretation.

Critical Reading & Reflection

Ania Loomba, in her discussion of the “New American Empire”, argues that globalisation after the Cold War and particularly after 9/11 reshapes older colonial patterns. The United States projects itself as a defender of democracy and freedom, yet it often exercises power through military interventions, multinational corporations, media, and economic dependency. This shows that globalisation cannot be understood simply in terms of a “centre” dominating a “margin”. Instead, the margins themselves become active sites of negotiation and resistance, challenging and reshaping the flows of global power.

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, in Empire, push this argument further by suggesting that globalisation has dissolved the clear-cut centre–margin binary altogether. They describe empire as a decentralised and networked system of sovereignty, where power is distributed across states, corporations, international institutions, and technological systems. No single nation exclusively holds the “centre”; instead, power circulates through overlapping global networks. Likewise, resistance does not emerge only from the periphery but also from within the structures of Empire itself.

Together, these perspectives reframe globalisation as a fluid, interconnected system rather than a one-way flow from coloniser to colonised. They invite us to see globalisation as a space where power and resistance are dispersed across multiple nodes, moving beyond the traditional centre–margin dichotomy of empire.

Ania Loomba – “New American Empire”

• The post–Cold War and post–9/11 world reshapes colonial hierarchies.

• The U.S. claims to spread freedom and democracy but often imposes control through:

  • Military power (wars, interventions)

  • Economic dependence (IMF, trade, debt)

  • Cultural/media dominance

• Globalisation is not a simple centre–margin flow; margins actively resist and reinterpret power.

Hardt & Negri – Empire

• Globalisation creates a new, deterritorialised power structure.

• Empire is:

  • Decentred → no single nation is the absolute centre.

  • Networked → states, corporations, media, and global institutions share power.

• Resistance is also networked: it arises from within the system, not just from the “periphery”.

 Reflection on The Reluctant Fundamentalist through Loomba and Hardt & Negri

Thesis Statement

The Reluctant Fundamentalist dramatises how globalisation, identity, and post-9/11 geopolitics must be understood not as a simple “centre–margin” struggle but as a complex network of power, hybridity, and resistance—precisely as theorised by Ania Loomba’s “New American Empire” and Hardt & Negri’s Empire.

Word Reflection

Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist is deeply enriched when read through Ania Loomba’s idea of the “New American Empire” and Hardt & Negri’s theory of Empire. The novel follows Changez, a Pakistani man educated in the United States, who initially thrives in the world of American capitalism but gradually becomes disillusioned after the events of 9/11. Loomba highlights how the United States presents itself as the champion of freedom and democracy but simultaneously enforces dominance through economic dependency, military power, and cultural control. Changez’s employment at Underwood Samson—a firm that values profit over people—embodies this economic imperialism, while his racial profiling and alienation after 9/11 reflect the hidden hierarchies embedded in globalisation.

Hardt and Negri’s Empire pushes the analysis further, suggesting that globalisation no longer operates through a fixed “centre” dominating a passive “margin”. Instead, it creates a networked and deterritorialised power structure, involving corporations, states, financial systems, and global media. Changez is not simply oppressed by an external centre; his very identity is shaped within these overlapping structures. His hybridity—as both a Princeton graduate and a Pakistani citizen—shows the instability of belonging in a globalised order. Erica, the woman he loves, symbolises America itself: unable to let go of its trauma (9/11), she cannot embrace Changez, just as America struggles to accept the “Other”.

Ultimately, Changez’s return to Lahore and his critique of U.S. foreign policy suggest that margins are not powerless—they become sites of resistance within Empire’s networks. Thus, Loomba’s and Hardt & Negri’s frameworks illuminate the novel as a text about empire, hybridity, and the contested politics of globalisation in the post-9/11 era.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist through Loomba & Hardt & Negri

Framework / Theme	Key Points in The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Loomba – “New American Empire”	- The U.S. projects democracy but enforces dominance (military, economic, media). - Changez’s firm = symbol of economic imperialism. - Alienation post-9/11 = globalisation’s hidden hierarchies.
Hardt & Negri – Empire	- Power is decentralised, networked, and deterritorialised. - Corporations, states, and media shape identity. - Resistance also emerges within these networks.
Hybridity & Identity	- Changez embodies hybridity, torn between Lahore & New York.
Erica as Allegory	- Erica symbolises America: the trauma of 9/11 and the inability to accept the “Other”.
Margins as Resistance	- Lahore becomes a site of critique and resistance against Empire.

 Contextual Research – Mohsin Hamid & The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Author & Background

• Mohsin Hamid (b. 1971, Lahore) studied at Princeton and Harvard, living between Pakistan, the U.S., and later the U.K.

• His writing reflects questions of identity, migration, empire, and globalisation, rooted in his personal experience of being both an insider and an outsider in America.

Timeline of Writing the Novel

Before 9/11 (Late 1990s)	After 9/11 (2001 onward)
Draughted a novel exploring globalisation, ambition, and hybridity.	Reframed the story around suspicion, Islamophobia, and U.S. imperial dominance.
Changez as an immigrant striving for success in America.	Changez is a disillusioned critic of American power and policies.
Optimism of cultural blending and assimilation	Alienation, rupture, and resistance in post-9/11 geopolitics.

Hamid began The Reluctant Fundamentalist before the September 11 attacks, intending to write about globalisation and the immigrant experience. The early draft reflected optimism about cultural hybridity and individual ambition, themes drawn from his own time at Princeton and in corporate New York. However, 9/11 dramatically reshaped both world politics and Hamid’s narrative direction. In its aftermath, Muslims and South Asians in the West were increasingly marginalised and subjected to suspicion, surveillance, and hostility. America’s self-image as a land of opportunity clashed with its role as an aggressive global power. Hamid revised the novel to reflect this tension: Changez evolves from an admirer of America to a critic of its imperial stance. The significance of this timeline lies in how the novel captures both pre-9/11 optimism and post-9/11 disillusionment, transforming it into a text about identity, empire, and the fractured politics of belonging in a globalised world.

B. While-Watching Activities

Postcolonial Identity, Power, and Resistance in The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist adapts Mohsin Hamid’s novel into a powerful meditation on post-9/11 identity, negotiating the pressures of empire, race, and belonging. Through its visual and narrative strategies, the film foregrounds the dilemmas of hybridity, Orientalism, and resistance.

Hybridity and the Third Space

Drawing on Homi Bhabha’s ideas of hybridity and the third space, Changez’s identity constantly shifts between Lahore and New York. His accent, dress, and corporate success show assimilation, yet his nostalgia for Lahore’s culture anchors him to another world. The film visually marks this hybridity through contrasting spaces: sleek New York offices, Istanbul’s layered past, and Lahore’s vibrant streets.

• Novel framing: Changez’s monologue creates the “third space” of storytelling—neither East nor West, but an in-between ground of negotiation.

• Film adaptation: Nair externalizes this by staging conversations in cafés and border-crossing spaces, dramatizing cultural hybridity as lived tension.

Orientalism and Re-Orientalism

Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism is evident in how post-9/11 America views Changez: a racialized, suspect body reduced to stereotype. The film highlights this visually—airport detentions, suspicious stares, and FBI surveillance. At the same time, as Lau & Mendes argue, Hamid’s novel and Nair’s film engage in re-orientalism: South Asian voices narrating themselves for both Western and local audiences.

• Changez is aware he is being “watched” by both the American journalist and the global audience.

• His narration resists passivity; he reclaims his story, destabilizing Orientalist frames.

• Re-orientalism = South Asian creators (Hamid, Nair) producing counter-narratives but still negotiating global publishing/film markets.

Corporate vs. Religious Fundamentalism

The film visualizes Hamid’s critique of dual fundamentalisms: corporate capitalism and religious extremism. Underwood Samson’s motto of “focus on the fundamentals” mirrors the rigidity of fundamentalist ideologies. Changez’s refusal to fully align with either is staged as an act of resistance.

• Novel: Inner ambivalence narrated through reflective voice.

• Film: Externalized via corporate boardrooms, Istanbul ruins, and Lahore protests—spaces where profit, memory, and ideology collide.

Power and Resistance

The film also reworks the novel’s ambiguous frame. In Hamid’s text, the unreliable narrator keeps the reader in doubt about Changez’s intentions. Nair’s film, however, gives him more clarity and moral authority, shifting the power balance: Changez emerges not as a suspect, but as a resistant intellectual.

• Lahore café = a site of resistance, where dialogue unfolds under tension.

• Cinematic framing = lingering close-ups and cross-cutting build suspicion yet allow Changez’s voice to dominate.

• Resistance is shown not in violence but in reclaiming narrative space.

Reflective Journal on The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Watching Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist was not simply an exercise in film analysis; it became a mirror for my own assumptions about identity, power, and global politics. As a viewer situated in a postcolonial world, I realized how easily narratives of suspicion and mistrust—often inherited from Western media—can shape one’s perception of the “other.” The film unsettled this by forcing me to sit with Changez’s voice, his vulnerability, and his resistance.

• Identity: Initially, I thought of hybridity as a smooth blending of cultures, but the film showed me its painful fractures—how one can belong “everywhere and nowhere.” This challenged my earlier, perhaps simplistic, view of multiculturalism.

• Power: The visual framing of corporate spaces versus local ones made me reconsider how power operates beyond politics—through markets, surveillance, and even everyday interactions. I saw more clearly how empire is maintained in subtle, non-military ways.

• Representation: Perhaps the biggest shift was realizing how easily South Asian characters are often trapped in Orientalist stereotypes. By centering Changez’s narration, the film reclaimed representation as an act of resistance. It reminded me that who tells the story matters as much as the story itself.

Reflecting on this, I see my own positionality as shaped by both globalized media and postcolonial awareness. The film made me more attentive to the layered struggles of postcolonial subjects under global empire—caught between assimilation, resistance, and re-definition. In this sense, The Reluctant Fundamentalist was not just about Changez; it was also about me, as a viewer learning to question the lenses through which I see the world.

Conclusion:

Taken together, The Reluctant Fundamentalist—both in Hamid’s novel and Nair’s adaptation—reveals the deep entanglement of identity, power, and resistance in a post-9/11 global order. By weaving together personal narrative with geopolitical critique, the story demonstrates how hybridity is never neutral but marked by fracture, surveillance, and negotiation within what Loomba calls the “New American Empire” and what Hardt and Negri theorize as Empire’s networked power. The film’s visual strategies—contrasting spaces, racialized gazes, and the tension of storytelling—extend the novel’s framing device, amplifying its challenge to Orientalist narratives and gesturing towards re-orientalism as a counter-narrative practice.

Ultimately, both texts insist that the so-called “margins” are not passive; they remain active sites of critique and resistance. Changez’s journey is not simply about disillusionment but about reclaiming voice and redefining belonging outside the binaries of victim/terrorist or East/West. For viewers, the film provokes reflection on how global power operates not only through violence but also through culture, economy, and representation. In this way, The Reluctant Fundamentalist becomes more than a story of one man’s alienation—it becomes a parable of postcolonial subjectivity under empire, urging us to question how we see, interpret, and participate in global narratives.