A POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS OF THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE NOVEL THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST (2007)

BY MOHSIN HAMID

A Thesis Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

The Degree of Letters Scholar

H E L E N D R A NIM 104026000892

ENGLISH LETTER DEPARTMENT ADAB AND HUMANITIES FACULTY

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA

2011

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APPROVEMENT

A POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS OF THE MAIN CHARACTER

IN THE NOVEL THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

BY MOHSIN HAMID

A Thesis Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

Strata 1 Degree

H E L E N D R A

Approved by:

Moh. Supardi, M.Hum

Nip: 196407101993031006

ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT

LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

2011

iii

LEGALIZATION

Name : Helendra Nim : 104026000892 Title : A Postcolonial Analysis of The Main Character in the Novel The

Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid The thesis has been defended before the Faculty Letters and Humanities’s examination committee on March 03, 2011. It has been accepted as a partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree of strata one.

Jakarta, March 03, 2011

The Examination Committee

Signature Date

1. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M. Pd (Chair Person) 19640710 199303 1 006 2. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum (Secretary) 19781003 200112 2 002 3. Moh. Supardi, M.Hum (Advisor)

4. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum (Examiner I) 19781003 200112 2 002

5. Maria Ulfa, M.A., M.Hum (Examiner II)

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DECLRATION

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the next.

Jakarta, March 03, 2011

H E L E N D R A

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ABSTRACT

Helendra, A Postcolonial Analysis of the main character in the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, Thesis. Jakarta: Adab and Humanities Faculty, English Letters Department, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Strata One Degree, 2011.

The objective of the research in this thesis is to get the description of Changez’s character in the novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” based on Hybridity Theory of postcolonial analysis and in order to find out how is Hybridity and the hybrid identity affect the character of Changez, since the writer assumes that the character has undergone the hybrid identity.

In the research, the writer decided to use the qualitative method with descriptive analysis method in analyzing the Changez Character of the novel; the writer would like to find the data analysis with hybridity and the hybrid identity’s construction process of the narrator protagonist; so it would get the result by data analysis and the concept. The research used verbal data; such as texts as the basic analysis and in solving the research problems

The analysis shows that the novel idealized the hybrid native’s representation. The idealization is aimed to display the greatness of hybrid identity in resistance against European/west(America) domination and against tradition. Through the narrator protagonist, hybrid identity is indicated as a reconstruction process of native identity after the experience of colonization. The process can be seen through the ways the narrator protagonist positions himself within his painful memories, in attempt to comprehend the tradition and Europe as parts of his identity. as a critique of essentialism, in the novel is in a frame of resistance against European(America) domination.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the Most Merciful

All praise be to Allah, the only God who always gives the writer mercies and

blessing also guidance, so this paper could be finished well. Peace be upon to dear

prophet Muhammad SAW for his conveying the words of God, the light of

humanism.

Here, the writer would like thank to his beloved parents: father (M. A. Rody)

and mother (Indrawana) and his brothers (Handersa, Higra, Hofrindi) and my

beloved girl (Elly Novitrie) for their support, understanding, advices, contribution,

love, moral, and financial encouragement.

The writer also wants to give his gratitude to Mr. Supardi, M.Hum as the

writer advisor for his time, guidance, patient, kindness, and contribution in

correcting and helping him in finishing this paper.

The writer would like to give his special thanks and appreciation to:

1. Prof. Dr. Komaruddin Hidayat, MA. The Rector of State Islamic University

Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.

2. Dr. Abd. Wahid Hasyim, M.Ag. The Dean of Faculty Adab and Humanities.

3. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd. The Head of English Letters Department.

4. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum. the secretary of English letters Department.

5. Maria Ulfa, M.A, M.Hum as the examiner of the thesis

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6. The lectures and the staffs of Faculty of Adab and Humanities for teaching

precious knowledge, sharing philosophy of life, and for giving wonderful study

experience.

7. His beloved friends Jay(who gave the writer to choose this novel to be

analyzed), Abi(the spirit of young Tan Malaka), Apen (the new reborn of the

sufist), Kahfi (who gave the writer many references about postcolonial studies),

Hardiansya Suteja, Mpoy, Tb. Faisal, Gogon, Rio, Norman, Mirza, Aswar,

Bayu, Jawir, Bejo, Roy, Hendi, Andri, Niko, Jongkok, Ambon, Idham and other

that can’t be mentioned one by one (thanks for your spirit, laziness, happiness,

sadness, faces that give the writer inspiration to contemplate the true meaning

of life although always in process “becoming” and “being” in exist)

8. His beloved friends in all extra organizations and institutions KM UIN, HMI,

PMII, FKE (Forum Kajian Ekonomi), Wahid Institute, ICAS (Islamic College

for Advance Studies) Joy, Onge, CC KM UIN Syifak, IPS(Institute Perennial

Studies), Formaci, KOMPAK, thanks for giving the enlightenment

“Aufklarung”.

9. To those, that the writer cannot mention one by one either directly or indirectly

helping her in completing this paper.

Finally, the writer hopes this paper will be useful especially for the writer and those

who are interested in it. May Allah bless us. Amien.

Jakarta, January 2011

The writer

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................... i

APPROVEMENT ...................................................................................... ii

LEGALIZATION ...................................................................................... iii

DECLARATION ....................................................................................... iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............................................................................ v

TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................. vii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study ............................... 1

B. Focus of the Study ...................................... 5

C. Research Question ...................................... 5

D. Significance of the Study ............................... 6

E. Research Methodology .................................. 6

1. The Purpose of the Research .................... 6

2. Research Method ..................................... 6

3. Research Instrument ................................. 6

4. Data Analysis Technique ......................... 7

5. Analysis Unit ........................................ 7

6. Time and Place of the Research................ 7

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Character and characterization ..................... 8

B. Postcolonial Theory ..................................... 10

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDING

A. Data description ......................................... 14

B. Postcolonial analysis in Hybridity and

hybrid identities in Changez ........................... 20

1. The Distance to the Natives and

Eastern stereotypes ................................. 21

2. The Distance to Europe (here the U.S.) ... 23

3. Resistance Sites ...................................... 26

3.1 Hybridization as a Strategy

for Indigenous Resistance .............. 26

3.2 The Identity Of The Liquid ........... 28

3.3 Critics of the tradition and religion .. 30

4. Changez Identity Reconstruction ............. 33

4.1 Meeting with “The Others” ........... 34

4.2. In Betweenness/Third Space ........... 36

4.3 Memory and Novel Structure .......... 38

4.4 Odyssey and Nostalgia .................. 40

CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion .................................................. 44

B. Suggestion .................................................. 48

BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................. 49

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

The existence of literature becomes a part of human life since the

civilization and human culture appears in this world. According to Sapardi

Djoko Damono, Sastra adalah lembaga sosial yang menggunakan bahasa

sebagai medium; bahasa itu sendiri merupakan ciptaan sosial.1(Literature is

social institution that using the languange as the media; languange is social

idea). Technically, anything spoken or written is literature.

There are some kinds of types of literature as the art of work, such as:

poetry, prose, short story, fiction, play or and novel.2 The novel is one of the

literature works. It falls into narrative categories, fiction story. The word

“novel” usually means something new – novelty. Some of the earliest novel,

written in the seventeenth and eighteen centuries, would have been just that.

Some of the modern novels have different definition. The Oxford dictionary

describes a novel as a fictitious narrative prose or tale presenting a picture of a

real life, especially of the emotional crises in the life-story of the men and

women being portrayed.3 Another dictionary, Longman, describes a novel as

a story in prose about imaginary people long enough to cover a book, or as an

1 Sapardi Djoko Damono, Sosiologi Sastra Sebuah Pengantar Ringkas,(Jakarta: Pusat

Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, 1984), p.1 2 C. Alton, Morris, Biron Walker, Philip, Bradshaw, Imaginative Literature Fiction, Drama,

Poetry, (USA: Harcourt, Brace & Inc, 1968), p. 114 3 A S Hornby. Oxford Advance Learners’ Dictionary, (New York: Oxford University Press,

1995), p.792

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2

imaginative storybook.4 Novel was a fictitious prose narrative of considerable

length, portraying characters, action, and scene representative of real life in a

plot of more or less intrigue.5

One thing readers need to keep in mind is that there are two main attitudes

or positions that the readers can take when studying a novel. The first attitude

they can hold that what important is the content or the word which the author

has created. This is a world that the readers can see people, places, things, and

events, to which they respond with like or dislike, pity or criticism, as the

reader do to the real world. Studying from this position, the readers will

discuss the characters almost as if they were being with ability to choose their

actions.6

The second position is that readers can see the novel as a ‘text’, as a

created work of art, and to look at it in much more detached and analytical

way. Characters are devices, which the author uses and manipulates to create a

particular effect. Studying with this attitude, the readers will be more likely to

consider what a character’s role is in the construction of a plot, or the effect of

using particular language to describe a place or person.7

Furthermore, in studying fiction, the readers will know the aspects of the

fiction, such as theme, plot, character, setting, and narrative point of view.

These aspects are called intrinsic elements. The intrinsic elements are very

4Pearson Longman. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, (Great Britain:

Longman Group, 1987), p.706 5 Steven Croft and Helen Cross, Literature, Criticism, and Style, (New York: Oxford,

1997), Vol.1, p.7 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid.

3

important in the fiction story, to describe a story, make a story come to life.

Besides, the readers have also to understand the background of the author and

the social background where the story has been created, these are called

extrinsic elements.

Mohsin Hamid was born in 1971 in Lahore. He attended Princeton

University and Harvard Law School, and worked as a management consultant

in New York and London. He now writes full-time as the author of two

novels; Moth Smoke(2000) as his first novel and The Reluctant

Fundamentalist(2007) as his second novel, living between Lahore where he

was born and other places, including New York and London.8 Changez as a

main character in The Reluctan Fundamentalis novel, a Pakistani tries to find

new life and he decides to go to America to study then he graduates from

Princeton University with the best grade and then he works at a financial firm

in Manhattan as a consultant. He slowly becomes radicalized by America's

response to the 9/11 attacks. This novel is told by monolog style. He sees an

American in the district of Old Anarkali in Lahore and invites him to have tea

and then dinner with him in one of the establishments there. For the rest of the

afternoon and late into the evening Changez recounts how he came to be the

man he now is, from graduating from Princeton and landing a great job to

once again living in Lahore.

The novel is briskly told in 184 pages. Hamid tells the story in first person

point of view, with Changez as the narrator and the reader in the position of

8 http://www.mohsinhamid.com/shortbio.html accessed on March 9, 2011 at 05:13 am

4

the operative. "Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance?"(p.1) it begins. "Do

not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America." (p.1) As his story

unravels, it becomes clear that something terrible is going to happen between

Changez and the American.

Changez fights with his feelings to decide the difficult thing between to

keep staying in America where he loves or to go back to his country although

finally he opts to go back to Pakistan. We can see this is as an identity crisis

and we can analyze it by using postcolonial theory which usually tries to

understand the power and continued dominance of Western ways of knowing.9

Nyoman Kutha Rama states that where there is domination, there is

resistance. In the history of colonialism, the construction on non-European

identity as the subordinate vis-à-vis the superiority of the European is

disseminated in many mode of thought and knowledge about the other,

including literature. As part of the history of decolonization, the native writers

reacted in opposition to these representations, by writing themselves about

their own identity and culture. Many of them were educated in the language

and culture of the colonizers.10

Therefore, in this paper, the writer chose this novel entitled The Reluctant

Fundamentalist written by Mohsin Hamid. Then the writer tries to analyze the

causes of identity crisis which arouses in the main character who struggles

with his feelings to decide whether he still stays in America or goes back to

9 Ania Loomba,1998. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Great Britain: London and New York

Routledge, pp. xvi, 16-17, 21, 34-35, 48 10 Nyoman Kutha Ratna. 2005. Sastra dan Cultural Studies: Repsentasi Fiksi dan Fakta,

(Yogyakarta: PUstaka Pelajar, pp.238-240

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his country Pakistan which he loves them both. It is important to study the

novel because Pakistanis an ex-colonized country that has tried to find his own

identity and in this novel it is portrayed by Changes as main character but he

is trapped to the crisis identity, which one he must choose as reconstruction

process of native identity after the long experience of colonization. To answer

this, the writer uses postcolonial approach to understand the novel

comprehensively.

B. Focus of the Study

Based on the background of the study above, the writer will focus on

Changes as the main character of novel The Reluctant of Fundamentalist on

analyzing the identity crisis by using postcolonial approach through the main

character.

C. Research Question

Based on the focus of study above, the writer formulates the research

question as follow:

1. How does the author describe the major character in the novel?

2. How does the author describe the major character’s identity crisis of the

novel The Reluctant of Fundamentalist?

D. Significance of the Study

The result of this research is expected to give new perspective in

understanding The Reluctant Fundamentalist novel, especially identity crisis

seen from hybridity and identity of the hybrid in postcolonial.

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E. Research Methodology

1. The Purpose of the Research

The research aims to analyze the major character and

characterization and the crisis of identity of the major character in The

Reluctant of Fundamentalist novel by using hybridity and identity of the

hybrid in postcolonial theory.

2. Research Method

The method used in this reseach is qualitative method with the

analytic-descriptive method. The writer analyses the unit of analysis by

using every reference related to the study. He also tries to answer from the

research questions by analysing the novel and quoting some words or

sentences from the novel to support the analysis.

3. Research Instrument

The instrument in this research is the writer himself by reading and

analyzing the novel of The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Besides analyzing

the data, the writer also puts it as the evidence in this research.

4. Data Analysis Technique

In analyzing and describing the data, the writer uses the following

techniques and steps, namely; first of all, reading the novel The Reluctant

Fundamentalist completely, carefully, and accurately. secondly, the writer

identifies the data by classifying character and characterization, especially

related to the main character and the main character’s crisis identity by

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giving some marks for the words or sentences in the novel that show them.

Finally, organizing the data and analysing them.

5. Analysis Unit

The analysis unit for this research is the novel of The Reluctant

Fundamentalist written by Mohsin Hamid published by the Penguin

Group and printed in Great Britain in 2007.

6. Time and Place of the Research

The research was conducted on May 2009 to February 2011 in the

library of Letters and Humanities faculty, the main library of State Islamic

University Jakarta, the library of Islamic College branch of London, the

library of Knowledge and Culture faculty of Indonesian University.

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CHAPTER II

THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Character and Characterization

Character is someone who acts, appears, or is referred to as playing a apart

in literary work.1 It means that this person takes a part in the action of fictional

story. A character is one of the important elements in literary works. Since a

character is one who related directly to the condition or conflict that happened

in the story, he or she often represents what the story wants to tell through the

dialogues, the attitudes or the expressions. By understanding the character in a

story, it can help to understand the story. Anyone can repeat what a person has

done in story, but considerable skill may be needed to describe what a person

is.2

Robert Diyanny states that character in fiction can be conveniently

classified as major and minor, static and dynamic. A major character is an

important figure at the center of the story’s action or theme. The major

character is sometime called a protagonist whose conflict with an antagonist

may spark the story conflict. Supporting the major character is one or more

secondary or minor character whose function is partly to illuminate the major

characters. Minor characters are often static or unchanging: they remain the

same from the beginning of a work to the end. Dynamic character on the other

1 J. Paul Hunter, et.al., the Norton Introduction to Literature Shorter Eight Edition, (USA:

W.W. Norton and Company, 2002), p. 102 2 X. J. Kennedy, Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama (New York:

Harper Collins Publisher, 1991), p.65

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hand, exhibits some kind of change of attitude, of purpose, of behavior – as

the story progresses.3

Diyanni also explains that characterization is the process of conveying

information about characters in narrative or dramatic works of art or everyday

conversation. Characters may be presented by means of description, through

their actions, speech, or thoughts. A characterization is the creation of

fictitious character in other words; it means by which the writer brings

character to life.4 in other hand, the process of conveying information about

characters in fiction is call characterization.5

Characterization, in literature, is the presentation of the attitudes and

behavior of imaginary persons in order to make them credible to the author’s

audience.6 A good deal of characterization, the art, craft and method of

presentation or creation of fictional personages involves similar process,

leaderless, grouping, job-sharing and structure –well beyond the parameters of

contemporary democracy. Richard Gill said that a character is a person in

literary work and Characterization is the way in which a character is creates.

From those distinctive, Characterization could understand as a method and

Character is the product.7

From those understanding, we can conclude that characterization is a

method used by the author in developing his story and character. In other

3 Robert Diyanni, Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (New York:

McGraw-Hill, 2004), pp. 54-55 4 Ibid. 5 http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/glossary/g/RoundCharacter.htm accessed on December

9, 2010 at 21:05 6 Encyclopedia Americana volume 6, (Grolier incorporated, 1985), p. 291 7 Richard Gill, Mastering English Literature (London: MacMillan, 1995), p. 105

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word, characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the

personality of character. It means characterization refers to the way in which

the author and the actors establish character, through particular feature of

dialogues, action, gesture (manual, facial or both) and so on.

B. Hybridity and Hybrid Identities in Postcolonial Studies

The term postcolonial refers to all aspects of culture that is influenced by

the process of colonial occupation, until recently.8 According to Loomba,

Postcolonial studies is a resistance to the domination and the legacies of

colonialism.9 The study was sued "social hierarchy, power structure, and

colonial discourse".10 Colonial discourse is the construction of knowledge that

works in a binary opposition that is spread through a system of representation.

It contains the ideology that places Europe superior to the colonized.11

Foulcher, Keith and Tonny Day said that postcolonial approaches in

literature are reading strategies that consider and put forward the effects of

colonialism and its impact on literary texts, and the position of the subject of

post-colonial writers and narrative voice.12 This approach is used not to reveal

the practices that are directly sue colonial domination. Postcolonial

8 Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, ed. 1989. The empire writes back: Theory

and Practice in post-colonial literature. London and New York: Routledge. p.2 9Ania Loomba. 2003. Kolonialisme/pascakolonialisme. Translated by Hartono

Hadikusumo. Yogyakarta: Bentang Budaya. 10 Gilbert, Helen and Joanne Tompkins. 1996. Post-colonial Drama: Theory, Practice,

Politics. London and New York: Routledge. p. 2 11 Ania Loomba,1998. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Great Britain: London and New York

Routledge, pp. 47-46, 68, 105, 181-181, 232 12 Foulcher, Keith and Tonny Day. 2006. Clearing a Space: Kritik Pasca Colonial tentang

Sastra Indonesia Modern. Translated by Bernard Hidayat. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia, P. 3

11

approaches used to direct the formation of hybrid cultures and identities from

the experiences of colonialism and all forms, as well as subjectivity and

representation in ways that preserve the view, or which undermines the

cultural logic of colonialism and domination systems, or who are still

influenced by the cultural logic.13

Understanding cultural identity that is used in this discussion is the

definition put forward Hall14 that looked at identity shaped by place, time,

history, and a particular culture. The concept involves understanding and

Becoming and being associated with the past and future. Identity has a history,

origin, and also underwent transformation. In this sense, the identity must be

placed in relation to the “Continuity” and with the experience of

“Discontinuity” with cultural roots as a result of colonization.15

Identities are the names we give to the different ways we are positioned

by, and position ourselves within, the narratives of the past. cultural identities

are not fixed and is not essential but a positioning, identification of an unstable

act made in the context of the discourses of history and culture. The definition

of cultural identity can explain the formation of new identities and the concept

of cultural hybridity.

13 Ibid. p. 5 14 Stuart Hall. 1994. Cultural Identity and diaspora. Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial

Theory: A reader. edited by Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 394-395.

15 Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, ed. 1989. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literature. London and New York: Routledge, p. 444

12

Ascroft, Griffiths and Tiffin considers hybridity in postcolonial studies as

a strength rather than as a weakness.16 Hybridity shows the nature of the

interplay between the culture of the ruling and the ruled. This concept

emphasizes the ability of colonized cultures to survive and how he had

become embedded in the form of a new culture.

According to Homi Bhabha,17 hybridity is the third space, the space

threshold (liminal space), or the space between (inbetweenness) in which

differences overlap. The exchange of values, meanings and priorities in it, not

always be collaborative or dialogical, but contrary, invites conflict, and not

balanced. The third room provides a place for the development of selfhood

strategies that create new signs of identity, and a place for cooperation and

contestation in search of community identity. Hybridity is also a political

solution to exit the binary opposition between Other and Self identity and

emerged as the Other of Itself.18

Hybridity has the character of mimicry. According to Bhabha:19

“Mimicry is, thus the sign of a double articulation; a complex strategy of reform, regulation and discipline, appropriates the Other as it visualizes power. Mimicry is also the sign of the inappropriate, however, a difference or recalcitrance which coheres the dominant strategic function of colonial power,

16 ibid. p.183 17 Graves, Benjamin. 1998. Homi K. Bhaba: The liminal negotiation of cultural difference.

accessed via http://www.poscolonialweb.org/poldiscourse/Bhabha2.htm on December 12, 2010 at 23:10

18 Bhabha, Homi K. Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences. The pos-colonial studies reader. edited by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. London and New York: Routledge, p. 209.

19 Bhaba, Homi K. 1994. Of mimicry and man: The ambivalence of colonial discourse. The location of culture, 85-92. London and New York: Routledge. accessed via http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bhabha/location1.html on July 6, 2010 at 20:34. p. 88

13

intensifies surveillance, and poses an immanent threat to both normalized know ledges and disciplinary powers” Mimicry means that in the colonial context also means scorn

(mockery), a sign of colonial authority as well as a sign of failure to

colonial rule. The desire to dominate and retain power, leading to the

colonial government created the colonized as “Other”, and “Knowable”.

The nature of this ambivalence of colonial discourse was to create a hybrid

character of a people who ruled that "Almost but not Quite the Same",

which was difficult to be conquered and become a threat. Ambivalent

nature of colonial discourse is what open space for the resistance of the

colonized.20

20 Leela Gandhi, 1998. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Sidney: Allen &

Unwin, p. 149

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CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS OF THE NOVEL

In this chapter, the writer discusses the character of Changez as the Major

Character in the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Then the writer analyzes the

character of Changez viewed from postcolonial identity theory.

A. Data Description

The following are some words or sentences from the novel that show

Changez’s characteristics.

1. The Characteristic of Changez

No Chapter Corpus Characterization 1.

I

VII

“in my case I[Changez] reached my senior year without having received a single B” (p.4) “I myself had among the top exam result in Pakistan…”(p.4) “ I was on the track to graduate summa cum laude”(p.6) “Students like me were given visas and scholarship, complete financial aid…”(p.4) “I, ……, was once again ranked number one”(p.121)

Smart

2.

I

V

“But even among all that skin, I knew in my senior year that I was something special”(p.5) “there was much for me to be proud of: My genuine aptitude for our work…..”(p.65)

Self Confident

14

15

3.

I

III I

“I was a perfect breast, if you will- tan, succulent, seemingly defiant of gravity..”(p.5) “not one of us was either short or overweight.,.”(p.38) You[Changez] are polished, well-dressed’’(p.8)

Good looking

4.

I

VII

“I knew moreover that I ought to remain calm, but I was getting annoyed” (p.8) I also found myself better equipped to regard as misguided-or at least myopic- the resentment which seethed around us as we went………”(p.97)

Patient

5.

I

VIII

“My voice rising and taking on an edge”(p.8) “You[Changez] have a temper”(p.8) “Say it to my face, coward, not as you run and hide”(p.116-7)

Emotional

6.

II

III

“I held down three on campus jobs….” (p.11) “I worked hard – harder, I suspect, than any of the others: subsisting on only a few hours of sleep a night – and I approached every class with utter concentration” my tenacity was frequently commented upon, with approval, by our instructors”(p.41)

Hardworking and ambitious

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7. II

III

“When my turn came, I said I hoped one day to be the dictator of an Islamic republic with nuclear capability; the others appeared shocked, and I was forced to explain that I had been joking”(p.29) “you are dangerous, ice man,” I replied- attempting to approximate a naval aviator’ drawl – and the two of us exchanged grin. But aside from light-hearted banter of this kind, there would be little in the way of fun and games at the workplace.”(p.35)

Humorous

8. IX “I had not shaved my two-week-old beard. It was, perhap, a form of protest on my part, a symbol of my identity,”(p.130)

Rebellious/resistant

B. Data Analysis

The above data about the characterizations of Changez that are found in

the novel of The Reluctant of Fundamentalist are explained below.

Changez, a Pakistani narrator from Lahore, was 22 years old when he

graduated from Princeton University In 2001. He is the main character of the

novel. Changez says that he never received a single B and he is one of the top

exam results in Pakistan. He graduated summa cum laude. “in my case I

reached my senior year without having received a single B” “I myself had

among the top exam result in Pakistan…”“ I was on the track to graduate

summa cum laude”(pp.4-6). He is a proud of himself that he got scholarship

and financial aid. “Students like me were given visas and scholarship,

complete financial aid…”(p.4) At Underwood Samson and Company, a

17

valuation firm in New York that held any training for the new worker,

Changez ranked as the best among the six of his fellows “I, ……, was once

again ranked number one”(p.121) In other words, he also studied at Princeton

university and easy to get a job there.

Changez has a good self confident. His confidence makes him easy to

adapt to his new environments like in his campus. “But even among all that

skin, I knew in my senior year that I was something special”(p.5) By his

confidence Changez thinks that he has high sense of creativity “there was

much for me to be proud of: My genuine aptitude for our work…..”(p.65) so

he feels that he can solve whatever problems when he faces.

Changez is good looking. He has fresh face and ideal body “I was a

perfect breast, if you will- tan, succulent, seemingly defiant of gravity..” “not

one of us was either short or overweight.,.”(p.38) he is attractive man. So

when he spent on a student summer holiday in Greece. And met Erica, girl

students from the National College of Arts who seems interested in him and

also Jim as the interviewer Underwood Samson Firm said You are polished,

well-dressed’’ so this is not astonishing for Changez to find a job and girl

easier although he failed both of them next.

Changez is a patient man. He can stand not to be angry when he got an

interview when Jim asked whether Changez got financial aid or not. Changez

suspected this was not permitted to be asked also about religion, for example,

and sexual orientation. Changez was uncomfortable for this question. But he

still answered “I knew moreover that I ought to remain calm, but I was getting

18

annoyed” (p.8) He was also angry when Changez works to value an ailing

cable operator in New Jersey. He got bad treatment from employees, for

examples his telephone extensions and fax machine would mysteriously stop

working. Once Changez’s tires are slashed, Changez remains calm and

consider those as natural things. I also found myself better equipped to regard

as misguided-or at least myopic- the resentment which seethed around us as

we went………”(p.41) Changez does not want to be alarmed by those

situations. That is all because of his patient.

Changez is also an emotional person. This is showed when Changez was

asked about his financial aid, the first time he can stand. But next he answered

Jim question by rising his voice. “My voice rising and taking on an

edge”(p.8) and because of that Jim said to Changez “You have a temper”(p.8)

Besides that, in different occasion when he was walking to his rental car in the

parking lot of the cable company in New Jersey, Changez was approached by

man he did not know. An employee in the parking lot says, “Fucking

Arab.”(p.117) Changez replied by saying. “Say it to my face, coward, not as

you run and hides” (pp.116-7) then faces him with a tire iron angrily. But

fortunately tragic tragedy between Changez and an employee did not happen

because Jim stopped it.

Changez is hardworking and ambitious man. This is showen when he was

as student of Princeton, a prestigious university, while he works in New York

in Underwood Samson, one of the famous valuing firms which always select

Eight Princeton graduates each year for interviews. “I held down three on

19

campus jobs….” (p.11) “I worked hard – harder, I suspect, than any of the

others: subsisting on only a few hours of sleep a night – and I approached

every class with utter concentration” my tenacity was frequently commented

upon, with approval, by our instructors” (p.41) These show that Changez is a

hardworking and ambitious man.

Change has a sense of humour. It can be seen when he gathered with his

fellows in Greece after graduation from Princeton. Everyone has to say what

he/she wants to be and Changez said that he wants to be a dictator. Actually he

only makes a joke. “When my turn came, I said I hoped one day to be the

dictator of an Islamic republic with nuclear capability; the others appeared

shocked, and I was forced to explain that I had been joking” (p.29)

And again sense of Changez’ humor is showed in training when most of

his fellows were seriously pay attention to listen the training result, Changez

and Wainwright mere just relaxed. The training announces who will get the

first ranking. Wainwright whispered to Changez that no points for second

place. And Changez replied by saying you are dangerous, ice man. “you are

dangerous, ice man,” I replied- attempting to approximate a naval aviator’

drawl – and the two of us exchanged grin. But aside from light-hearted banter

of this kind, there would be little in the way of fun and games at the

workplace.”(p.35) Changez has sense of humor, so he can easily adapt to

wherever he likes. It is why he could come in and out to the new environment.

Changez has rebellious character. It can be seen after the 9/11 attacks.

Once Changez wants to go back to his homeland, Pakistan exactly Lahore.

20

When the time comes for Changez to return to New York, he told his parents

that he wanted to stay longer, but their parents would hear it. His mother

urges him to shave off his beard when Changez arrives at New York, but

Changez does not do it. “I had not shaved my two-week-old beard. It was,

perhap, a form of protest on my part, a symbol of my identity,”(p.130). He had

been brave to decide the options for himself although the people around him

whisper and stare with dislike sense. Inspite of the fact that finally Changez

chooses to go back.

From those characteristics, it can be concluded that Changes is almost a

perfect man, but he has also ambivalent characteristic. His ambivalence is

only signs as a hybrid because Pakistanis an ex-colonized country that has

tried to find his own identity. In this novel it is portrayed by Changes as main

character but he is trapped to the crisis identity as reconstruction process of

meeting two cultures after the long experience of colonization

C. Postcolonial Analysis in Hybridity and Hybrid Identities in Changez

Hybrid identity here refers to the concept of hybridity Bhaba, namely

mixing of symbols and cultural practices of colonizers and colonized as a

result of meetings with the colonization of indigenous people. Hybrid in this

study focuses on what is called (Mentally crossed), not a hybrid resulting from

mixed marriages or hybridization process biologically.1

1 Ania Loomba. 1998. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Great Britain: London and New York

Routledge, p. 173

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The category of hybrid native in this novel belongs to the main character

"Changez" in the language of Trinh. T. Minh-ha2, "people who stand where

the boundary was not determined in which they regularly pass in and out”. In

other words, the hybrid natives are those that go beyond "the bounds of " a

Pakistan culture and entered the European culture offered by the occupation.

1. Distance to the Natives and Eastern stereotypes

The indigenous of the hybrid in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is shown as

a native Pakistan who is clearly distinguished by depictions of indigenous

people generally. In this novel, natives Pakistans are generally shown within

the framework of the Eastern stereotypes, native hybrid is shown as the

natives are able to escape the stereotype that is attached to the East by the

European identity.

In The Reluctant of the fundamentalist, Pakistan and the people of Pakistan

are depicted in poverty and static. Pakistan is represented by a static depiction

of Lahore as one province in Pakistan which is the background story as a static

city, not progress.

“I did not grow up in poverty. But I did grow up with a poor boy's sense of longing, in my case not for what my family never had, but for what we had had and lost. Some of my memories held onto imagined memories the way homeless people hold onto lottery tickets (Hamid 2007, 71) “Perhaps we currently lack wealth, power, or even sporting glory….commensurate with our status as the world’s sixth most populous country, we Pakistani tend to take an ordinate pride in our food” (Hamid 2007, 101)

2 Leela Ghandi. 1998. Teori Postkolonial: Upaya Meruntuhkan Hegemoni Barat.

Yogyakarta: Qalam, p. 165

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“Now our cities were largely unplanned, unsanitary affairs” (Hamid 2007, 34)

Changez is indigenous to that apart from these stereotypes. He is a native

representation that shows the different between native Pakistan as static

people given by stereotype of Europe. Changez ia a native that can come out

from the stereotype of backwardness. He is an intelligent man has a strong

business instincts readings. Follow the development of world politics, and

insightful knowledge of East and Europe. He is also elected to be one of the

few natives who are able to enter to the American university.

“They were almost all intelligent, and many were brilliant, but whereas I was only one of Pakistanis in my entering class-two from a population of over a hundred million souls” (Hamid 2007, 3) “I reached my senior year without having received a single B” (Hamid 2007, 4) “I myself had among the top exam results in Pakistan” (Hamid 2007, 4) “two of the six analyst in my entering class-those ranked fifth and sixth-were indeed among the employees our firm. But I, Jim informed me, was once again ranked number one” (Hamid 2007, 121)

Changez appears as an indigenous who tends to escape from stereotypes

East, here depicted Changez drinking which is the stereotype of the east

strictly prohibited. and Changez is also associated with Erika, a girl who he

met in greece after his graduation from Princeton university, without going

through the bonds of marriage first, it shows a personal resistance hybrid

escaping his roots of culture.

“Arriving in town, we found a café near the harbor with tables shaded by blue-and-white umbrellas. She ordered a beer; I did the same” (Hamid 2007, 27) ”we made love with a physical intimacy that Erica and I had never enjoyed” (Hamid 2007, 105)

23

“She kissed me on the cheek hours later” (Hamid 2007, 57) “relationship…many parents were strict, and sometimes weeks pass without us being able to meet those we thought of as our girlfriends” (Hamid 2007, 69)

Release of figures which represent indigenous hybrid with Eastern

stereotypes, is also shown through a physical description. In the novel, native

Pakistan Eastern, people of indigenous Pakistan men are described bearded

and bearded, wearing a shirt or a typical Pakistan, cap, turban, and sandals

without socks. The women are described with veil and wear dresses that are

not tight. Cloth that covers the whole body except the face and fingertips.

“I was something special. I was a perfect breast, if you will- tan, succulent, seemingly defiant of gravity- and I was confident of getting any job I wanted” (Hamid 2007, 5) “in a subway car, my skin would typically fall in the middle of the color spectrum” (Hamid 2007, 33) “it struck me then…that shorn of hair and dressed in battle fatigues, we would have been virtually indistinguishable” (Hamid 2007, 38) “Then he said “you are polished, well-dressed. You have this sophisticated accent” (Hamid 2007, 8) “I….wore a starched white kurta of delicately cotton over a pair jeans” (Hamid 2007, 48)

In this novel, indigenous hybrid Pakistan can be differentiated clearly

through their physic and clothes compare to europeans in visible with the

other. The symbol of Europeans which are attached by the native hybrids are

shown through clothing and drinking habit.

2. The Distance to Europe/west (here the U.S.)

Civilizing mission assumes the European culture as a superior culture.

Culture and European knowledge disseminated to create native knowable,

familiar and wild, in order to be mapped and monitored. However, the process

24

of imitation do not deliver the same exact replica of the original. Colonial

policy in precisely the mission of giving birth civilized natives who remain

strangers even threaten.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, indigenous people of the hybrid show

their ability in creating distance with Europe. Changez is the figure of the

indigenous people who really know their position as the colonized and had to

fight. Measures passed into European culture is not shown as a form of

exaltation or recognition of the superiority of European culture. Changez is not

a native who feels inferior to the state of his nation in front of the Europeans.

“We were marvelously diverse..and yet we were not; all of us, Sherman included hailed from the same elite universities-Harvard, Princeton, Standford, Yale; we all exuded a sense of confident self satisfaction; and not one of us was either short or overweight” (Hamid 2007, 38)

However, it is shown as a strategy as indigenous in defense and fighting

foreign domination. His decision to continue school into the United States

constituted with a very clear purpose, namely to restore self-esteem and

creating a generation of Pakistani families who excel.

“but I am not poor……,But status, as in traditional, class-conscious society, declines more slowly than wealth…..confronted with this reality, one has two choices: pretend all is well or work hard to restore things to what they were. I chose both” (Hamid 2007, 9-11)

Changez of resistance attitude can be seen with him became a lecturer at a

university in Pakistan, then he chose the young generations who qualified as a

form of resistance against the Americans.

25

“I had in the meanwhile gotten a job as a university lecturer, and I made in my mission on campus to advocate a disengagement from your country by mine” (Hamid 2007, 179)

He presented himself as a bright young lecturer and gave encouragement

to his students to resist American domination.

“I was young popular among my students-perhaps because I was young,….to persuade them of the merits of participating in demonstrations for greater independence in Pakistan’s domestic and international affairs….come to label anti-America” (Hamid 2007, 179)

Changez is at the beginning of his coming to America portrayed very love

America and tries to identify themselves as Americans, at some point in his life

Changez decided to stop being indigenous abused by Americans. Changez

realizes that the American people is the party that wins when he refused to be

bound by Pakistan.

With this in his mind, and his criticism of civilizing mission and the way

Americans view on Pakistan that stereotype, and his anger against the

American people are racist against the natives, Changez keeps at a distance to

America.

Natives of Hybrid in The Reluctant Fundamentalist prove native who,

according Bhabha " Almost the Same but Quite" with Europe. Action figures

passed into European cultural hybrid shows success in making themselves

"Almost the Same" with the Europeans. This is an effect on behavior and

perception of Europe figures against them, which is different from the behavior

and perception figures against native Europeans in general.

26

“But not on that day. On that day, I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee, and my firm’s impressive offices made me proud” (Hamid 2007, 34) “in a subway car, my skin would typically fall in the middle of the color spectrum. On the street corners, tourists would ask me for direction. I was, in four and a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker” (Hamid 2007, 33) “When asked where I was from, that I was from New York. Did these things trouble me, you ask? Certainly, sir; I was often ashamed” (Hamid 2007, 65)

However, indigenous hybrid only "Almost not Quite the Same" with

Europe. Hybrid indigenous figures are able to show he was different and did

not confirm the assumption of European culture superiority.

3. Resistance Site

In the Reluctant of Fundamentalists, hybrid is the figure of the indigenous

natives who resist. They are described as superior indigenous than others

because of native state of self-consciousness will be dominated. They also

displayed more superior than the American figures for its ability to resist.

Resistance is the ability to culture out of Pakistan into the American culture.

They are, to borrow a phrase Macaulay, physically indigenous groups

(blood and color) but European in tastes, views, morals and intellect.3

3. 1 Hybridization as a Strategy for Indigenous Resistance

In this novel is the result of active indigenous actions and aware of

its role in the fight against domination. The process of hybridization in an

effort to produce a superior indigenous itself, is also shown in this novel

3 Macaulay, T. B. 1835. Minute on Indian Education. Quoted in Deepika Bahri.

Mimicry,ambivalence and hibridity. Accessed via http:www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/1WEBPAGE.HTM on December 12, 2010 at 21:00

27

as an act made possible and supported by tradition and indigenous

capabilities.

Like Changez knows himself consciously to go to America to

improve the status of their families and make for his country no longer

colonized.

“but I am not poor……,But status, as in traditional, class-conscious society, declines more slowly than wealth…..confronted with this reality, one has two choices: pretend all is well or work hard to restore things to what they were. I chose both” (Hamid 2007, 9-11)

“It seemed to me then- and to be honest, sir, seems to me still- that America was engaged only in posturing As society, you are unwilling to reflect upon the shared pain that united you with those who attacked you. You retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority. And you acted out these beliefs on the stage of the world, so that the entire planet was rocked by the repercussions of your tantrums, not least my family. Such an America had to be stopped in the interests not only of the rest of humanity, but also in your own” (Hamid 2007, 167-8)

The situation in Pakistan, with America setting out to attack

Afghanistan in retaliation against the Taliban, and the tensions between

India and Pakistan rising to dangerous heights, obviously also affects

him. Indeed, he resents American attitudes both on the smaller, inter-

personal scale, as well as on the global stage more and more. The

Reluctant Fundamentalist reduces the geo-political to the individual and

personal. Changez finds changes are too much, the price too great. He

withdraws: instead of an America-like role of imposing change (as he had

in his valuation-job) he wants an end to such interference from outside.

He believes America's pursuit of its single-minded goal dressed up as

28

self-preservation, but far more far reaching has terrible consequences, and

he must do what he can to oppose it.

3.2 The Identity of the Liquid

Hybrid identity is fluid, a continuous process between associate

themselves with one culture or get away from him. Here, hybrid identity

is an act of positioning by indigenous and continuously changing,

depending on interest. This identity allows natives to be free to exit into a

culture and to establish ourselves as a part of several cultures at once.

“But not on that day. On that day, I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee, and my firm’s impressive offices made me proud” (Hamid 2007, 34) “When asked where I was from, that I was from New York” (Hamid 2007, 65)

The liquid identity, Changez can be freely positioned himself as a

Pakistani or an American. Self-identification that is relative to the root of

Pakistan or the United States experienced as a process of negotiation that

continues until the boundary between the two disappear and become a

special roots that are individualized. The identification itself is positioned

in between two cultures and depending on its interests. Identification of

Changez as America is also positioning itself to create distance with the

roots tradition, with the values in Pakistan and Islamic tradition in which

he grew up. His departure from Pakistan's cultural values and Islamic

values is to counter the dominance of tradition.

29

Identification of Changez as America is positioning itself to follow

thought in American values and culture as well as to match and be treated

the same as an American. Resembling an American means having the

power to threaten Americans. Occupiers are trying to assimilate the

colonized that they are no longer strangers, because the nature of the

foreign colonized and wild is a threat to the colonists. By assimilating the

colonized, the colonizers aimed at creating a controllable and predictable.

Nevertheless, the colonists wanted the colonized remain distinct from

himself, not rival him. The ability of the colonized to become like the

colonizers would damage hierarchy built by the colonizers.

Changez ability to become like Americans is also the ability of

coming into forbidden places for himself as indigenous.

“But not on that day. On that day, I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee, and my firm’s impressive offices made me proud” (Hamid 2007, 34) “I attempted to act and speak, as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American” (Hamid 2007, 65)

In this case, Changez is a mimicry human that means also a

sneer(mockery). By dressing up like the Europeans and entered the

forbidden room for him as a native, Changez has successfully mocked

Europe.

“I was a young New Yorker with the city at my feet” (Hamid 2007,

45)

30

Liquid hybrid nature of indigenous identity in The Reluctant

Fundamentalist is also evident from the use of the name. As Changez

own name, most people do not like the name of pakistan. The identity of

the liquid showed the ability to enter another cultural space that allows

the seizure of power.

“at Princeton, I conducted myself in public like a young prince, generous and carefree. But I also, as quietly as I could, held down three on campus jobs- in infrequently visited locations, such as the library of the Program in Near Eastern Studies- and prepared for my classes throughout the night. Most people I met were taken in by my public persona….where I saw shame” (Hamid 2007, 11) “I was aware of an advantage conferred upon me by my foreignness, and I tried to utilize it as much as I could” (Hamid 2007, 42)

In this case, the identity of the liquid is a way to survive and resist the

domination of which thus becomes possible in a cultural encounter.

3.3 Critics of the Tradition and Religion

Natives of the hybrid in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is shown

capable of keeping a distance to natives generally and Eastern

stereotypes. They represent the indigenous people who could fight, do not

dwell on its limitations, is critical of tradition and religion, and care about

the fate of their nation. Idealized representations of indigenous hybrid in

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a hero and symbol of resistance, is a

critique of the roots of tradition and religion, and society is assumed to be

based on those values.

Changez is a native figure who is not afraid to step into the foreign

culture in order to obtain a tool to survive and resist domination. They

31

enrich themselves with knowledge of Europe and thus have the power to

choose the values and conscious choice.

“I spent four and half years in your country…..I worked in New York, and before that attended college in New Jersey. Yes, you are right; it was Princeton” (Hamid 2007, 3) “we were taught by professor from the most prestigious institutions- a Wharton woman, for example, instructed un in finance” (Hamid 2007, 36)

In a narrative level, Changez is a native figure in the most superior

reluctant Fundamentalist. Actions are shown as the actions of conscious

and within the framework of resistance against European domination.

“I reflected that I had always resented the manner in which America conducted itself in the world; your country’s constant interference in the affairs of the others was insufferable. Vietnam, Korea, the straits of Taiwan, the middle east, and now Afghanistan; in each of the major conflicts and standoffs that ringed my mother continent of Asia, America played a central role. Moreover I knew my experience as a Pakistani- of alternating periods of American aid and sanctions- that finance was primary means by which the American empire exercised its power” (Hamid 2007, 156)

In addition to distance from Europe, he was also able to create

distance with the roots of tradition and religion. It is evident from his life

choices based on foreign cultures than in Pakistan and Islamic traditions.

Actions for drinking, and then act to make love with Erika is the life

choices that are based on some specific considerations as the native

hybrid.

“Arriving in town, we found a café near the harbor with tables shaded by blue-and-white umbrellas. She ordered a beer; I did the same” (Hamid 2007, 27) ”we made love with a physical intimacy that Erica and I had never enjoyed” (Hamid 2007, 105)

32

As a native hybrid, distance Changez with his religious roots and

traditions are seen when he told how the culture of Pakistan. And how the

style of dating people in Pakistan.

“relationship where often conducted over fleeting phone calls, messages through friends, and promises of encounter that never happened. Many parents were strict, and sometimes weeks pass without us being able to meet those we thought of as our girlfriends” (Hamid 2007, 69)

Changez meeting with the European system of education made him

critical of the social order, tradition, and Islam in Pakistan as well as a

religious tradition that endured.

Hybrid identity as a hero and symbol of resistance in The Reluctant

Fundamentalist revealed by their concern about the future of the nation.

Concern is evident from the objectives outlined in the hybridization

process itself. Changez privileges obtained from the position and the

descendants of noble families in the community, used Changez to take

sides on the colonized natives. He realizes his role in improving and

promoting community and nation.

“I am not poor, far from it; my great-grandfather, for example, was a barrister with the means to endow a school for the Muslim of the Punjab. Like him, my grandfather and father both attended university of England” (Hamid 2007, 9)

Hybrid identity as a hero and symbol of resistance was also revealed

from the efforts made Changez in encouraging his students to reject

American policy.

33

“I had in the meanwhile gotten a job as a university lecturer, and I made in my mission on campus to advocate a disengagement from your country by mine” (Hamid 2007, 179) “I was young popular among my students-perhaps because I was young,….to persuade them of the merits of participating in demonstrations for greater independence in Pakistan’s domestic and international affairs…come to label anti-America” (Hamid 2007, 179) “I became a mentor to many of these men and women” (Hamid 2007, 180) “the first of our protests to receive much attention took place not far from where we are now” (Hamid 2007, 179)

The spirit of resistance in Changez students protested in the streets

reject domination by America.

4. Changez Identity Reconstruction

Indigenous hybrid, as an indigenous identity is a follow-positioning that

takes place continuously formed in the tradition and experience colonized. In

other words, indigenous hybrid is an indigenous identity reconstruction

process that has been broken(split identity) due to a meeting with colonialism.

“I said I was from Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan, ancient capital of the Punjab, home nearly as many people as New York, layered like a sedimentary plain with the accreted history of invaders from the Aryans to the Mongols to the British” (Hamid 2007, 7) “Perhaps it was my speech: like Pakistan, Amerika is, After all, a former English colony, and it stands to reason, therefore, that an Anglicized accent may in your country continue to be associated with wealth and power, just as it is mine” (Hamid 2007, 41-42)

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, indigenous reconstruction process is

represented by a figure who is the narrator Changez as a protagonist. This

subsection discusses the formation of a hybrid identity as an indigenous

34

Changez is educated in the traditions and culture of Pakistan and Islam and is

also educated in American schools and culture.

4.1 Meeting with “The Others”

Meeting with colonialism is also meant the collapse of a building

identity. Through civilizing mission, the arrival of Europeans to the

colonies, and colonial policies, natives are taught in a new culture

introduced to him as an advanced and modern culture. The experience of

this culture clash becomes more complicated because the construction of

identity for indigenous Eastern European-made inferior spread and

embedded in indigenous soul.

“Perhaps it was my speech: like Pakistan, Amerika is, After all, a former English colony, and it stands to reason, therefore, that an Anglicized accent may in your country continue to be associated with wealth and power, just as it is mine” (Hamid 2007, 41-42)

Colonial education although it may save the natives from illiteracy,

create a permanent duality in self-indigenous because it teaches the

knowledge and history that was not theirs. Duality in Changez is shown

with the pull between traditional values and religion in Pakistani culture

with the values of modernity and religion in European culture. Inferiority

is ingrained in Changez as a native, from European-made construction,

making Changez want to be together with its European friends. Be

Changez a mimic man. This is shown by the business Changez who

always imitate European dress code at the beginning of education in

America.

35

“I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee, and my firm’s impressive offices made me proud” (Hamid 2007, 34) “in a subway car, my skin would typically fall in the middle of the color spectrum” (Hamid 2007, 33) “it struck me then…that shorn of hair and dressed in battle fatigues, we would have been virtually indistinguishable” (Hamid 2007, 38) “Then he said “you are polished, well-dressed. You have this sophisticated accent” (Hamid 2007, 8) “I….wore a starched white kurta of delicately cotton over a pair jeans” (Hamid 2007, 48)

However, Changez mimicry in this case is alienation. Changez

alienated from its European friends, although he had to imitate European

dress. He never considered the same by his friends, because he will always

feel weird also deemed too ridiculous. Impossibility itself treated the same

by its European friends.

“On the street corners, tourists would ask me for direction. I was, in four and a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker” (Hamid 2007, 33) “I felt a peculiar feeling; ..perhaps it was because I had recently lived such a transitory existence-moving from one dorm room to the next- and longed for the settled nature of my past” (Hamid 2007, 50) “that I was a man lacking in substance and hence easily influenced by even a short sojourn in the company of others” (Hamid 2007, 125)

He felt himself confronted with the European civilization that never

asked for but make him proud but still foreign to him at once made him

estranged from his past. Changez is the outsider to the culture of Europe as

well as for Pakistani culture.

“there are adjustments one must make if one comes here from America; a different way observing is required. I recall the Americannes of my own gaze when I returned to Lahore…. I was shamed. This was where I came from, this was my provenance,

36

and it smacked of lowliness…. I had changed; I was looking about me with the eyes of a foreigner, and not just that particular type entitled and unsympathetic American” (Hamid 2007, 124)

He no longer felt as a Pakistani, because what the people of Pakistan

did can not be understood by him and ethnocentric view of Europe is in a

static society. For those of Changez, Pakistan now is the other.

Alienation Changez against tradition analogous to the relationship

with the brothers and the surrounding community. Meeting with European

knowledge to open a different perspective, so that tradition and religion

foreign to him like the alienation of himself against his culture. After

living many years with them, one day he realized that his birthplace to be

foreign to him.

4.2 In Betweenness/Third Space

'Between Space' as a cultural meeting space, a place of distinction

overlaps. The exchange of value and meaning that occur are not always

dialogical, but may contradict and conflict. In this novel, 'Between Space'

a meeting between the European culture with the indigenous culture of

Pakistan. The conflict in the space between represented by conflict in the

relationship with the Alien American Changez. Changez represents the

culture of Pakistan, while Americans represent European culture.

The difficulty will be the occurrence of a dialogue between Pakistan

and the indigenous cultures of Europe, seen from the cultural conflicts that

are represented by Changez and Americans. Conversations that occur

37

between Changez and the American people's hard to say as a dialogue in

the true sense.

“You seem worried. Do not be; this burly fellow is merely our waiter, and there is no need to reach under your jacket, I assume to grasp your wallet, as we will pay him later, when we are done.” “ Come, tell me, what were you looking for ? Surely, at this time of day, only one thing could have brought you to the district of Old Anarkali -- named, as you may be aware, after a courtesan immured for loving a prince -- and that is the quest for the perfect cup of tea. Have I guessed correctly ? then allow me, sir to my favorite among these many establishment. Yes, this is the one. Its metal chairs are no better upholdstered, its wooden tables are equally rough, and it is, like the others, open the sky. But the quality of its tea, I assure you, is unparalled” (Hamid 2007, 2)

In the text, we can see that the speech of Americans are not written in

full, which means Changez does not listen and did not care. Changez is

always busy with his thoughts, when the Americans say to him. In

storytelling, dialogue Changez and Americans are always interspersed

with depictions of the background description, which describes such

places in pakistan.

No occurrence of intercultural dialogue due to an essentialist

boundaries formed by the second value of each culture or by a perpetrator

culture. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, essentialist border between

Pakistan culture with European culture is indicated by the occurrence of

the events of the twin towers bombing "WTC" on September 11, 2001 in

America.

“I turned on television and saw what at first I took to be a film. But as I continued to watch, I realized that it was not fiction but news, I stared as one-and then the other- of the twin towers of

38

New York’s World Trade Center (WTC) collapsed” (Hamid 2007, 72)

The occurrence of attacks on 11 September 2001 as a sign of

"boundary" between the culture in which Changez grew up with a new

culture offerred by Europe. "The boundary" of the culture reveals an

essentialist cultural identity, which makes it difficult both cultures to

dialogue.

“I wonder now, sir, whether I believed at all in the firmness of the foundations of the new life I was attempting to construct for my self in New York. Certainly I wanted to believe; at least I wanted not to disbelieve with such an intensity that I prevented myself as much as was possible from making the obvious conection between the crumbling of the world and the impending destruction of my personal American dream” (Hamid 2007, 93)

Attacks on 11 September 2001 marked the "gaps" in The Reluctant

Fundamentalists as a regional development strategy provides a place for

self or a hybrid identity is formed, there is an area which should be sought.

The development of main character search would be "Between

Space", or the development itself in the understanding of hybrid identity,

can be seen from the actions he did after the incident on 11 September

2001 attacks on the WTC. This can be interpreted that at that period of

cultural conflict within Changez very big. European culture and as if the

two worlds apart for him.

4.3 Memory and Novel Structure

Changez’s meeting with Europe is a meeting that made Changez

essentialist identity as a Pakistani to be broken(split personality). Pieces of

her identity must now be prepared. This process is a process that never

39

stops. Reconstruction Changez identity can be seen from the follow-

positioning himself between past and present, between tradition and

modernity, between Pakistan and Europe (United States). According to

Bhabha4

“Memory as the necessary and hazardous bridge between colonialism and cultural identity. It is never a quiet act of introspections or retrospections. It is a painful remembering, a putting together of the dismembered past to make sense of the trauma of the present”

Changez Positioning action can be seen from the way he positioned

the memories in the autobiographical narrative of this novel. This can be

revealed from a series of events that tend spoken with flashback style.

“I recall the Americannes of my own gaze when I returned to Lahore…. I was shamed. This was where I came from, this was my provenance, and it smacked of lowliness…. I had changed; I was looking about me with the eyes of a foreigner, and not just that particular type entitled and unsympathetic American” (Hamid 2007, 124)

The tendency of expression in the style flashback shows the narrator

wants to look at the events as something that has been completed.

In memory of sequences, we also find the game of the time. Reluctant

fundamentalist word story in general the use of past tense.

The events in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is told in bits and pieces

of selective memories. The events and specific descriptions exist that are

spoken using a repetition, an impressive Changez desire to remember or

4 Bhaba, Homi K. 1994. Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.

The location of culture, 85-92. London and New York: Routledge. accessed via http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bhabha/location1.html on July 6, 2010 at 20:34, p. 63

40

forget the incident. Repetition of the same events, which appear in these

memories, do not always provide new information on the details of the

incident.

To get the frame story and understand the events in The Reluctant

Fundamentalist as disconnected and unrelated, the pieces of the events

should be arranged like puzzle. There are events that can be found to do,

but some are not. The story of Changez thoughts about Erika, and a

meeting with the new old man clearly as Changez reason why he should

go home.

“we assembled in Athens, having arrived on different flights, and when I first saw Erica” (Hamid 2007, 17) “the chief of the publishing company was an old man by the name of Juan –Bautista” (Hamid 2007, 141)

Changez meeting with parents proved to be an event that is lost, not

related to other events that affect the skeleton of the story.

There are elements of his past that is lost (discontinuity) because of the

occupation, and there are elements that continued (continuity) form of

identity now. There are events, the colonial experience, and experience a

painful tradition and want to be forgotten.

4.4 Odyssey and Nostalgia

Changez identity reconstruction is the process of positioning

themselves against the influence of two cultures with which he was

educated and grew; Pakistan, Islamic, and European Culture. Identity

formation is never finished. Changez identity reconstruction, as well as

41

search for identity, consisting of the odyssey and nostalgia to the roots of

tradition.5

Odyssey and nostalgia shows identity in the sense of Becoming and

being, which transformed and have a history. Odyssey can be seen from

the hybridization Changez happens after the decision to continue

schooling in America. After his meeting with European knowledge,

eventually Changez no longer be considered indigenous (Europe), but also

the natives who regard. European knowledge he has received, made him

critical of the two cultures to whom he introduced and taught.

“But not on that day. On that day, I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee, and my firm’s impressive offices made me proud” (Hamid 2007, 34) “I was not at war with America. Far from it; I was the product of an American university; I was earning a lucrative American salary; I was infantuated with American woman” (Hamid 2007, 73)

Different educational background made him critical of the values of

the roots of tradition and religion, and while critical of the civilizing

mission and a new culture offerred by Europe. Changez, to borrow the

words of Bhaba, is testament to the failure of colonial discourse. Natives

who want to be conquered with its colonial policy in the end it becomes a

threat. European knowledge that teaches him about the humanitarian and

ethnocentric views of Europe against the European nations are not visible

from the way of looking to Europe and to non-European.

5 Latif, Yudi. 2005. Kembara dan kembali: Renungan “Pujangga Baru” nan tua dan

keinsyafan religiositasnya. Pengatar Achdiyah K. Mihadja. Manifesto Khalifatullah. Bandung: Arasy. P. 24

42

“As society, you are unwilling to reflect upon the shared pain that united you with those who attacked you. You retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority. And you acted out these beliefs on the stage of the world, so that the entire planet was rocked by the repercussions of your tantrums, not least my family. Such an America had to be stopped in the interests not only of the rest of humanity, but also in your own” (Hamid 2007, 167-8)

At first, he felt that Europe is a culture in which he freed himself from

the perceived shackles of cultural origin. He found that Europe offers a

value-taught values of freedom, equality, and fraternity, in contrast to the

Islamic religion and traditions of Pakistan that he had ever experienced as

a cruel and oppressive.

“it seemed to me that America, too, was increasingly giving itself over to a dangerous nostalgia at that time. There was something undeniably retro about the flags and uniforms, about generals addressing cameras in war rooms and newspaper headlines featuring such words as duty and honor. I had always thought of America as a nation that looked forward; for the first time I was struck by its determination to look back” (Hamid 2007, 160)

His meeting with the European knowledge not only gives Changez

ability to look at the culture of origin, but also look at culture that Europe

has offered.

Changez decision to go to school in America, does not mean he

wanted to become Americans, stop being Pakistan and regardless of

Pakistani people's problems.Changez decision to study in America would

be disclosed as a form he cares of his homeland.

The experience of colonization has made indigenous life changed.

Construction of a new indigenous identities will never be the same as

43

before, prior experience of colonization. Changez’s identity is now

different from the identity before it is registered and studying in the

colonial school. However, his old identity construction, as a native of

Pakistan and Muslims can be claimed back is not intact. This means that

Pakistan and Islam as an identity should be visited by a conscious act only

as nostalgia pieces of identity.

“it seemed to me that America, too, was increasingly giving itself over to a dangerous nostalgia at that time. There was something undeniably retro about the flags and uniforms, about generals addressing cameras in war rooms and newspaper headlines featuring such words as duty and honor. I had always thought of America as a nation that looked forward; for the first time I was struck by its determination to look back” (Hamid 2007, 160)

Nostalgia to the roots of the tradition that shows the strength of the

relationship of Pakistan and Islam by Changez, looks strong in this novel.

Changez attachment to the past, Pakistan and Islamic tradition, can be seen.

“I had been telling you earlier, sir, of how I left America. The truth of my experience complicate that seemingly simple assertion; I had returned to Pakistan, but my inhabitation of your country had not entirely ceased” (Hamid 2007, 172)

A nostalgia for the roots of tradition here does not mean only an act of

remembering, but should be seen as an attempt to understand the pieces of

identity, understanding the (continuity) and the experience of discontinuity

(discontinuity) with the roots of tradition.

45

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

In supporting colonialism, the European/west spread of colonial

discourse that assumes the native as an inferior representation of Europe in the

form of knowledge about the East in their stereotypes. The indigenous authors

against these representations by writing his own about themselves and their

society, so that efforts to reconstruct their identities. Mohsin Hamid is one of

the Pakistani natives who live in America when his homeland has always been

an interesting place to be colonized starting from the Aryans to the Mongols to

the British and also American. Through the main character Changez, The

Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid's second work shows native picture

that comes out of binary construction between European and non Europea, as

natives hybrid.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, natives hybrid displayed a superior

human being capable of opening up to foreign culture as a solution to get out

of the nativist restrictions. The word hybrid in the native hybrid indicates a

difference with what he called the natives and with what is called Europe.

Natives is a hybrid identity, a position taken by natives who create distance

between himself and the native in general, with the roots of tradition and

religion, as well as with Europe. To show a hybrid of the indigenous natives in

general, Mohsin Hamid embedded Eastern stereotypes in the representation of

44

46

natives generally, and remove it from the representation of indigenous hybrid.

To demonstrate the benefits of a hybrid of native citizens of Europe, Mohsin

Hamid, who represents the American figures are powerless and controlled by

indigenous hybrid.

Hybrid identity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a symbol of

resistance. Indigenous hybridization process is shown as a conscious and

active measures within the framework of indigenous resistance to European

domination and not as a form of affirmation of the superiority of Europe.

Strength and power of the indigenous natives and the power of tradition is

shown as the decisive factor is the possibility of hybridization. Depiction of

power relations between the characters, showing a resistance to the discourse

of European superiority. Indigenous figures who are able to position itself as

an indigenous hybrid, is a native of fight, subdue, and mocked the American

leaders and policy dominance.

Changez shows opposition to Europe (United States) with his decision

to return to Pakistan to act subject to the Americans who look down on

natives. Changez hybridization demonstrated the ability of natives to make

itself " Almost The Same But Not Quite " with Europe. He was able to enter

the space reserved for the Europeans and the show as the subject looked back

(Europe).

The Reluctant Fundamentalist does not only show a hybrid identity as

a symbol of resistance to Europe, but also to the roots of tradition and religion.

Through storytelling and criticism, Changez figures show awareness of the

47

ugliness of his native culture. The spirit of resistance against tradition and

religion in this novel, it was shown by generating a hybrid character as a hero.

The story shows that Changez has the vision and care to the plight of the

people and nation.

Hybrid identity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is also shown as the

reconstruction process because of the experience colonized indigenous

identity. Native reconstruction process is represented by the figure who is also

the narrator, Changez. Changez meeting with European knowledge through

school education is the destruction of building himself identity as a Pakistani

and Muslim, who had assumed as something complete and permanent.

Search process of Changez’s identity between two cultures, Pakistan

and America, seen after the bombing of WTC Building on September 11,

2001, symbolizing the two cultures essentialist boundaries. time in

storytelling, showing acts of positioning Changez in a bitter event in

memories, in an effort to re-interpret the past and the present as the parts of his

identity. This shows the importance in understanding the role of memory and

identity in the process of reconstruction of indigenous identity. Active

reconstruction process suggests a process of mental decolonization natives in

escaping the Eropasentris identity construction.

By discussing the postcolonial approach and focusing on the problem

of hybrid identity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist novel, it can be revealed

that this novel represents the indigenous (Pakistani) resistance against the

domination of Americans and other foreign countries. This novel shows the

48

hybridity as a site that allows indigenous resistance against the occupation by

using the tools introduced colonialism itself. This novel shows the struggle of

indigenous as well as active measures that require strength, ability, and

indigenous strategies to cope with all conditions is limited due to colonial

policies. Tone of bitter and rough text of this novel can be understood and

suggests that colonialism did not only show physical injuries. Eropasentris

identity Construction that is spread in the colonial discourse of indigenous

deprivation causes injury of the roots of tradition and religion.

B. Suggestion

Reading novel it is very fun but when the researcher wants to analyze

the novel, they must read carefully. Because when they analyze novel it is

different from movie. The researcher can analyze novel by relating the

extrinsic theory such as cultural studies, feminism, deconstruction,

postcolonial and etc. analyzing a novel must based on facts within they have

to observe more seriously, in order to catch it as good as possible.

The writer suggests that those who are interested in doing the same

research particularly concerning about postcolonialism to read more various

references about the concept of postcolonial studies in order to get more wide

knowledge and deep analysis.

49

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