The Illusion of the American Dream in the Post 9/11 Era

Abstract

Keeping in mind the Western discourse after the Twin Towers attack, which leans on forging racist narratives towards the Muslim community, a huge number of non-Western intellectuals have undertaken initiatives to counteract the alleged association of terrorism with Islam. The present paper attempts to explore how Mohsin Hamid‘s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), provides a vivid narrative of crisis, loss and despair encountered by an oriental immigrant in his pursuit of happiness. Through the lens of neo-Orientalism, the Pakistani writer offers a critique of, and a comment on, the American Dream that evaporates in the shadow of racial profiling which emerges as an outcome of 9/11 event. The latter symbolizes a Western ideology that dehumanizes as much as deprives the immigrant subject from his identity. Through Changez, the protagonist, Hamid engages with the unattainable assimilation of the American Dream for immigrant dreamers.