The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Changes in Changez Essay Example for Free

The Reluctant Fundamentalist Changes in Changez Essay ?The collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing or person is definitively recognizable or known is their identity. A person’s behavior, his/her background, the inevitable bits and pieces of his/her nature and history sown together make him/her who he/she are. Changez is the protagonist of the Novel â€Å"The Reluctant Fundamentalist† by Mohsin Hamid. His character is complex and diverse from the rest. It is volatile and his perspective of his identity is irresolute. By this I mean that his understanding of who he is constantly being altered through the course of the novel, and I will discuss this in the following paragraphs. Changez’s identity refers to who he is; every aspect of his personality adds up to his identity. Changez belongs to an upper-class family from Lahore, Pakistan. He lives in a house with his parents, his sister his brother. This family is not poor, but is not wealthy compared to the society it mixes with. Changez’s family is relatively liberal as everybody, including the women, work, in order to maintain the high living standards that they are used to. Changez has been born and brought up in Lahore and has always been a promising and scholarly student. The novel states that he has gone through his entire school life without getting a single B grade. Post his education at school; he received a scholarship to Princeton. This reflects two aspects of Changez’s life; first, his above average intellect that made him eligible for such a pristine offer, and second, his dire need for the financial aid in order to be able to be part of such a prestigious institution. Like for everybody, Changez’s history is inevitably a part of his identity. It may not be very important, but his financial condition does raise barriers in his life and can be categorized as important enough to be a part of his identity as this causes constraints. Other than these aspects of his life, an important part of Changez’s identity is his mindset. Before getting to Changez’s metamorphosing personality, I would like to state a constant about him: His mannerisms. Through the course of the novel, Changez’s way of speaking is always polite and humble. This may be a contradiction to his proud and confident personality. As I see it, Changez believes that he is a cut above the rest and works tirelessly to prove it and live up to his own expectations. However, while he feels superior to his acquaintances, he is never seen being impolite or cocky towards them. As Changez’s journey begins in Princeton, he is always slightly different from his acquaintances. His politeness makes him bit of an outsider and he is never quite part of the people there. Another thing that makes Changez different from the rest is his economic stability. A part of Changez’s identity worth commenting on is not only the need for him to work three jobs whilst being at college, but his efforts to not let his peers at Princeton find out about these jobs. In my view, he wants to keep up with everyone and flourishing on the financial front is one of his life’s goals. I think this is one of Changez’s catalysts that make him work so hard. It is one of the factors that provide him with the drive to flourish. Underwood Samson employs Changez for a job that is almost out of reach. This reflects his diligence and charm. At this point in his life, Changez claims to be a lover of America and his admiration for the country stands strong. As Changez is not as wealthy as he projects himself to be, it is difficult for him to watch as his friends part with money thoughtlessly on their trip to Greece. ‘Lahore-ancient city†¦democratically urban, similar to Manhattan. ’ Changez claims that coming to New York was like coming ‘home’ for him. New York is full Urdu speaking cab drivers and has other similarities to Lahore. Changez feels like he is ‘immediately a New Yorker, never an American. ’ In my view, this shows that while he is drawn to New York in a binding way, and while he feels like he belongs to the city, he does not belong to the country. He feels like his nationality is Pakistani and that is where he belongs. I don’t think that at this point he is conflicted between New York and Pakistan, I think he feels like he belongs to both the places, one city and another country. He wears his country’s attire with pride and he also mentions that he from the moment he was in New York, he felt like a New Yorker. Changez’s national identity, at this point, is Pakistani. Earlier, however, Changez leaked a sense of pride towards belonging to Pakistan. There is no displacement or confusion in Changez as far as the identification of home belonging to a certain geographical space is concerned. On the contrary, the idea of home seems fixed and determined as Pakistan. A further possible hint of his pride of being Oriental, rather than a Westerner, is given by his decision to combine a pair of jeans with a kurta, a typical item of clothing worn in Pakistan and in some other Eastern countries, when meeting Erica’s parents, hence an important occasion. Later, in contrast, Changez recognizes that Pakistan was once at the forefront of modernity but he feels a sense of shame and resentment that it is now poor –disparity compared to the view he gets from the 41st floor of his office building. Changez feeds off the power and money that he feels coming closer to him, as these are the base of his ‘American Dream’ and as I earlier mentioned, his need to earn money drives him to work hard. Changez’s identity withholds a hunger for these things, and at the same time he feels ‘privileged’ to be given this opportunity to become the person he has been working towards becoming. Filipino workers ‘look up’ to rich young Americans and Changez starts to adopt the same attitude and language in order to be looked at with the same respect as his collogues when they are in Manila. He feels sense of power that comes with the realization that due to his job, he decides people’s futures. This power is a part of Changez’s identity, whether the power is present or not. The hunger for the power is a definitive part of Changez. He is, however, unsettled by a taxi driver who shows hostility towards him. Changez feels like he is part of a play and ought to be making his way ‘home’ like the Taxi driver. The realization that he is falsely altering his identity haunts him, and he feels like he is acting like ‘one of them. † Here, his identity is unsettled and in the state of flux as it is not concrete and sure. In chapter six, I quote Erica, who says, â€Å"I love it when you talk about where you come from, you become so alive. † This is an observation made by Changez’s lover at the time. She feels like a part of Changez feels either proud or joyed to be talking about his native land. In my opinion, this observation made is free from any bias and is purely based on Changez’s behavior that unintentionally and unknowingly gives off a sense of liveliness when he speaks of Pakistan, because somewhere inside, it makes him feel alive. Also, after having a seemingly awkward and immensely intimate experience of almost making love to Erica, Changez falls asleep and dreams of ‘home’, which in my view refers to Lahore. This projects his subconscious as being predominated by his thoughts of his home in Pakistan. An important part of the novel as well as a definer of Changez’s identity is the instance where he sees reports of the 9/11 on TV and his thoughtless reaction is to smile at it. This act can be interpreted in many ways, and my understanding of it is that while Changez loves America and is in awe of it’s power, it gives him a sense of relief that even something as grand as the USA could be brought down to it’s knees. He is aware that this act of destruction was done by Afghanistan. Changez is not a sadistic person and derives no pleasure from the realization that a substantial number of people were harmed during this attack; this lack of sensitivity is not a part of his identity. Having said that, I would like to point out that it is a sense of indifference to the victims that makes him smile. He does not smile at the way the power is exerted, but at the existence of the power. Previously, Changez saw America as almost indestructible and invincible, which made him feel small in comparison. Based on that idea, I think Changez finds a sense of relief when he sees that even a country like America can be brought down. For a lover of America, this is rather strange reaction to the tragedy that is the 9/11. Changez’s identity conflict comes into light here. Other than his national identity, Changez’s pride, which is a part of his personal identity, is also seen being flippant soon after. Changez claims that ‘he does not know how to describe his experience.. He did not seem to be himself† when he pretends to be Chris in order to help Erica make love to him. This is an extremely stark contrast to Changez’s personality traits that are proud and hold high self-esteem and self-contentment. Later, he does claim that he had ‘diminished’ himself in his own eyes. This shows conflict in his mind as to who he is and what stands conscientious in his eyes. After the 9/11, Changez’s perception of America as a nation that looked forward was altered to a nation that was looking back, and he felt like ‘an outsider. ’ This is an important change in his identity as Changez goes from being an outsider to blending in to the American society associated with Underwood Samson back to being a misfit. Changez returns to Lahore for some time later on. â€Å"This was where I came from, this was my provenance, and it smacked of lowliness,† says Changez. â€Å"The house had not changed in my absence, I had changed; I was looking about me with the eyes of a foreigner, and not just any foreigner, but the particular type of entitled and unsympathetic American who so annoyed me when I encountered him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Here, Changez’s conflict seems to clear up but his change in identity is more evident. He accepts the change in himself and also points out that he has evolved into the person that he resented previously. On the next page, he states that he was a man lacking in substance and hence was easily influenced by even a short sojourn in the company of others. This is also a contradiction to the person Changez was when he started at Princeton or at Underwood Samson. He no longer seems proud of who he is, and pride was a core element in his identity. When Changez’s brother ruffled Changez’s hair, Changez felt like he had not been touched so familiarly in a while. He said he felt an ‘almost child-like twenty-two year old. † This is who he is. He is unsure of who he is. He feels like a middle-aged child and his age may be a constant, but his youth or adulthood is a question and he does not know where he stands. This adds clarity to the idea of him being conflicted when trying to be definitive of his own identity. He feels like whilst trying to be an earning member of the family, he is also the youngest. He continues to feel a little bit like a child irrespective of his status and career placement. On returning to America, in spite of numerous suggestions from his mother and colleagues, Changez does not shave his beard. He claims that it is a ‘form of protest’ on his part, ‘a symbol of identity’. He also thinks that it may be a symbol of the reality he had left behind. This shows that he is beginning to believe that the home he has left in Lahore is reality and he is no longer a New Yorker, but a patriot, that in times of need and conflict he belongs to Pakistan. â€Å"I know only that I did not wish to blend in with the army of clean-shaven youngsters who were my coworkers and inside me, for multiple reasons, I was deeply angry. † Changez states that he does not want to blend in with the Americans. This is yet another aspect of his identity. He does not want to be an American and when a choice has to be made, even when it is more difficult to be a Pakistani, in fact more then, he choses to be one. After being sent on a project by his company, Changez understands that the ambitious part of him that was predominant in his personality now takes a back seat when his country and family come into question. In the beginning of the novel we see Changez as a hardworking person who goes out of his way to make his way to the top. It is a vital part of his personality; it does not hold the same amount of importance anymore. Changez returned to his country, Pakistan, and takes care of his family. In the novel, there is no definitive reason as to why Changez left America, but I believe that he did not purely leave because something from Pakistan was pulling him back, but because because there was not enough in America to keep him there. While he felt a connect with New York and had strived to reach there, there was an open-ended relationship with Erica that had little hope of ever being resolved. Also, his job, was no more. I believe that this was clearly very important to Changez. So, he returned to Pakistan and continued his life as a college professor there. Changez’s identity goes through a major evolutionary process over the course of the years he is in America. These changes are reflected on his personality in many ways, ranging from his career-orientation, his personal life, his nationality as well as his priorities. There is, however, never complete clarity to me as to what he thinks of as important and where ‘home’ is to him, until the end. I cannot for sure clarify that he is completely content because in spite of his return I sensed an undertone of sadness when he left his dream behind.

Medical Beneifits Of Animal Testing :: essays research papers

Argument Essay Where would we be Without Animal Testing? Is the use of animals in research justified? Should animal experimentation be permitted? Should these animals be liberated? A logical person would say the benefits justify the research. Without animal testing, products would be based on theory. No one would want to use something, which may damage eyes, be poisonous, cancerous, and cause birth defects. Animals used in testing are not from the endangered species list; also many of the types of animals used are killed each year by rat or mouse traps, animal control, exterminators, and animal shelters. Animal testing reaps great benefits such as finding effective drugs to combat disease, improve surgical procedures, and make products safe.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When someone goes to the store and buys a product, or is prescribed medication, they don’t have to worry if the product is safe to use nor should they. The entire human race benefits from animal research. â€Å"Without animal research, medical science would come to a total standstill†(O’Neil 210). It is not as if Scientist and researchers just sit in their labs all day and torture animals for fun. Not to mention animal use is being reduced as much as possible, â€Å"most scientist are glad to use alternative test because they are usually faster and cheaper than test on animals†(Yount 72). However, â€Å"you cannot study kidney transplantation or diarrhea or high bloodpressure on a computer screen†(O’Neil 212). Besides, â€Å"Animal research has led to vaccines against diptheria, rabies, tuberculosis, polio, measles, mumps, cholera, whooping cough, and rubella. It has meant eradication of smallpox, effective treatment for diabetes and control of infection with powerful antibiotics. The cardiac pacemaker, microsurgery to reattach severed limbs, and heart, kidney, lung, liver and other transplants are all possible because of animal research†(O’Neil 210).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In short animal testing saves lives. Animal testing helps find causes, and cures of disease, genetic defects, birth defects, and abnormalities.

Feminist Principles

Andrea’s difficulties and problems in her two worlds show that she could not able to perform her duties, obligations, plans, and goals in her life. The main issue about Andrea is that she wanted to have both worlds – having a perfect family and a successful career. However, this became her shadow of darkness because both of these worlds suffer right through her hands. That is why the most basic situation that happened to Andrea is to become depress with her situation as a person, a mother, a wife, and a career woman.1. Andrea’s marriage is merely the basic problem in this context. Her family and career life joined together to ruin her identity and individuality as a woman. Her husband did not support her anxieties and problems that occurred within her. That is why it can be said that her partner was a non-participant in her situation. † When marital arrangements are inequitable in terms of power and decision-making, and household workloads are unevenly dist ributed, women continue to be disadvantaged (Worrel and Remer, 182).† In opposition to what Andrea is trying to testify, she thought that she was discriminated and disadvantaged because she did not obtain what she think is ‘for her. ’ These issues are part of Andrea’s being and tangled situations. However, based on Andrea’s description of her present scenario, it can be seen that marriage for her in the beginning is not a major conflict for her goals and aspiration because she sets aside the needs of her partner for the thinking that he is just there by her side but her career could not wait.It is then a justification that Andrea tried so hard to eliminate the social idea or notion towards women. Nevertheless, she became unsuccessful because she herself could not able to undermine the stress and difficulties that she currently experiencing. There are several factors emerged to Andrea’s depression – her personality, her family, her caree r, and her social environment. All of these issues are part of her depression that led her to uncontrollable weeping. Based on my own observation, I have seen three main issues that should be addressed to Andrea’s situation.First, her personality – she wanted to level herself with the situation of her husband. In the field of Women Studies, it was said that women from the past and up to this generation are still behind or beneath men. Andrea wanted to deconstruct this idea so she strived hard to achieve her goal. However, nothing has change in the society because like Andrea’s case, the modern society still put women at the bottom of men’s victory and female prejudice. Second, her goals and plans in life – she wanted to aim and live higher than what she needs to expect.She wanted perfection to be able to gain power. She is in need of self-satisfaction to be able to prove that she has the capability to be more than what other women can. â€Å"The l ow rate of positive outcomes is assumed to result in increasingly passive behavior and dysphoric mood, as the individual feels incapable of reaching personal goals and reacts with withdrawal and despair (Ibid, 184). † Because of these factors, she became focused to her self-perfection and blinded by her personal plans and goals in life.Lastly, her social environment – because she wanted to pursue the standard of the society, she tends to forget that small details of her life. She transferred her mind into a notion that she can disregard her being a mother for a while because she is in the level of her success in her job. 2. Feminist Principles and therapy will help Andrea to understand the underlying factors in her situation as a woman. This is to make Andrea understand why she is experiencing difficulties in life that brought failure to her individuality as woman and a wife.The best principle that can be used towards Andrea’s issues is the Egalitarian relationsh ip. This principle helps her to recognize the differences of being a man and a woman in a society. This is also to recognize how a person is capable of being what she truly wanted despite of the dictations of the society towards or against her. However, the main conflict here is that the relationship between Andrea and her husband that cannot be avoided by Andrea because her husband is not part of her growth and circumstances.â€Å"In advocating egalitarian client–counselor relationships and counselor self-disclosure, Empowerment Feminist Therapy embraces a female perspective on the therapeutic process that conflicts with many beliefs of traditional therapies which are based on stereotyped male values (Feminist Transformation and Counseling Theories, 95). † 3. Based on my understanding to Andrea’s situation and the cognitive-behavioral procedures, the most relevant among all the procedures are the coping skills, self-instructions, and stress inoculation. These t hree procedures are the best ways to make Andrea become more comfortable with her situation.Because life is always a changing world, it shows that Andrea’s life and environment also changes. It only means that coping-skills, self-instructions, and stress inoculation will let Andrea feel her true side – her identity and the ways on how to ease the pain that she continue to comprehend. In coping skills, Andrea can have the understanding how she has gone through her life. She needs to strengthen her feelings and ideology to become aware of the things in her environment to be able to accept the facts of life. In self-instruction, Andrea needs to choose her path with freedom.She needs to accelerate her mind and thoughts towards her obligations and purpose in life not on what she needs to become. In stress inoculation, Andrea needs to realize that stress builds all her anxieties in life. Therefore, to be able to recover from extreme stress that she experienced, she needs to be vaccinated with good ambiance and aura coming from other people and her environment. 4. Because Andrea’s husband is a non-participant of her situation, it is a big circumstance or problem for her. However, the main thing that needs to consider is the need to know Andrea’s wholeness.The most basic thing that needs to construct in Andrea’s life is her being. It is more important that making her husband capable of knowing her as a wife and a woman. â€Å"Women are frequently unaware of how their automatic thoughts and behaviors are shaped and maintained by the gender-driven expectations of others (Ibid, 185). † It is true as what Worrel and Remer said in their research. Therefore, it is important to make Andrea feel that despite of her husband’s criticism and being a non-participant, she needs to move her life and exit from the darkness of stress and defeat. 5.I can say that based on Worell and Remer’s model of intervention, the best crisis intervention approach that fits to women who experience depression is the conflicted interpersonal behavior because it is a wide range that talks about the social conflicts and beings of a person within her environment. Feminist Principles become included in this crisis intervention because it gives the probability to gain the strength and new identity of women during their extreme stress. As the feminist principles work, the crisis intervention will make each understanding reliable and conducive to the patient.For me, the crisis intervention that might not fit is the material burden because this is not really a problem at all because big percentage of women are already stable because of their husband or partner. Therefore, it is less pressure for women to think of their finances rather than their personal needs and achievements. References Worrel and Remer. (date). Feminist Perspective in Therapy. pp. 171-194. (date). â€Å"A Feminist View of Counseling and Therapy. † pp. 91 -134.

How to Read literature - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 686 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/04/12 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Frankenstein Essay Did you like this example? In Thomas C. Fosters How To Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster shows us how to attack or understand text that we read. As we read Mary Shelleys Frankenstein we notice concepts she uses that we learned from How to Read literature. A few concepts Mary Shelley uses is violence, imperfections, and symbols. In Fosters, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster discusses violence in literature and how it usually will mean something else. Violence is personal, intimate, cultural, and societal. Violence is meant to be a symbolic act and to propel characters and actions forward throughout the text. Violent acts that are considered accidents usually do not happen in literature. Foster mentioned how making actions happen, causing plot complications, ending plot complications, and putting other characters under stress are four reasons authors will involve violence in their text. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "How to Read literature" essay for you Create order Foster also noted that specific violent acts is from character to character and is always intentional. In Shelleys Frankenstein, the monster created by Victor performed multiple violent acts. One violent act the monster did in the story happens in chapter 23 of Frankenstein. In this chapter Victor had a feeling that something bad was going to happen when the monster arrived. While he was looking for the monster around the house, his wife was killed. Shelley uses violence in this chapter to make actions happen and to cause stress for Victor. Later in the book Victor spends a lot of time searching for the monster, which shows how one violent act led to other actions happening throughout the story. In chapter 21 of Fosters How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster discusses how in literature physical marks, imperfections, or deficiencies have a symbolic meaning. Authors make characters with imperfections so they can stand out and be different from the rest of society. Other reasons for physical markings could be to represent a characteristic, to show a mental state, or to describe someones past experience. Each individual marking tells its own story and to point out character differentiation. Further, Shelley depicts the monster to be frightening and to not have any type of emotions. Victors creation was described as having watery eyes, shriveled complexion, and straight black lips. (Shelley, ch. 5) The physical appearance is not the only thing about the monster that is frightening, in the novel the idea of the scientist creating an alliance with a dark unknown monster is what scares the people in their society and the readers. Mary Shelley uses the individual marking or imperfections to show how during the enlightenment everyone relied on science and to make the character or the monster different from everyone else. Foster also mentions the concept of using symbols in literature in his book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor. There is two types of symbols in literature, which are a private symbol and a more straightforward symbol. Symbols in literature can sometimes be very specific to the author. Authors will use symbols repetitively so the reader is able to understand what author means by the symbol by the end of the story. As readers we can start to see and understand all the possible meanings of a symbol in a story. The symbol in Mary Shelleys, Frankenstein, is all the deaths that happened throughout the book. She involves multiple people dying in the book because there was a lot of deaths surrounding her own life. Mary Shelley was very young when she wrote Frankenstein but she was always haunted by the events or deaths that happened throughout her whole life. For example, she was haunted by people like her mother dying after she gave birth to Mary, her husband drowning, and all of her children didnt make it past their childhood but one. In conclusion, the significance of learning these concepts in Thomas C. Fosters How to Read Literature Like a Professor is to be able to recognize concepts like violence, imperfections, and symbols in literature in other books we read. Understanding all the concepts mentioned by Foster helps readers make connections and interpret a two hundred year old novel like Mary Shelleys Frankenstein more easily.