CHANGEZ: IDENTITY
Insider: At U S, he prides himself on having realised his own “personal American dream”. (106)
Jim: “I never let on that I felt like I didn’t belong to this world. Just like you.” (80)… I grew up on the other side. “I was dirt poor”. Similarities between Jim and Changez: “He had grown upon outside the candy store, and I had grown up on its threshold as its door was being shut”. (81)
Identity: “I lacked a stable core.” 168 (“ I felt torn”) 173. He took on the persona of Chris, “because my own identity was so fragile “ (168) “I felt I was play-acting” (77) – he felt closer to the taxi driver; feels a sense of betrayal that he is in the limousine
After World Trade Centre: “And then I smiled”. (83)… “… my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased.” (83)
As someone who became “bearded and resentful”, Changez engendered suspicion in his colleagues.
Janissary: “They had fought to erase their own civilisations, so they had nothing else to turn to.” 172
“I was a modern day janissary”, a “servant of the American empire”. (betraying his own cultural roots)
Juan B had helped to “push back the veil” behind which the realisation of his role of complicity had been concealed. 178 “My days of focusing on fundamentals were done.” (175)
Underwood Samson: “finance was a primary means by which the American empire exercised its power” (177)
As Changez suggests, he had “issued a firefly’s glow bright enough to transcend the boundaries of continents and civilisations”. (benefits of outsiders looking in…)
“Something of us is now outside, and something of the outside is now within us.” (197)
As someone who became “bearded and resentful”, Changez engendered suspicion in his colleagues.
Janissary: “They had fought to erase their own civilisations, so they had nothing else to turn to.” 172
“I was a modern day janissary”, a “servant of the American empire”. (betraying his own cultural roots)
Juan Battista had helped to “push back the veil” behind which the realisation of his role of complicity had been concealed. 178 “My days of focusing on fundamentals were done.” (175)
Underwood Samson: Their creed values “above all else maximum productivity”… there is no place for “second best”. Underwood Samson: “finance was a primary means by which the American empire exercised its power” (177)
(American Dream)… a career at Underwood Samson epitomised the hallmarks of the American dream – success, opportunity, wealth and status. Even Changez’s anglicised accent was associated with “wealth and power”.
Love/Erica
The love triangle: Changez tells her while lovemaking, “pretend I am him”. … “By taking on the persona of another, I had diminished myself in my own eyes”. (121).. He had set himself up in competition with “dead rival”. That night she fell asleep “without medication”.
Nostalgia: he returns home, “I remained emotionally entwined with Erica” (195)
“Nostalgia was their crack cocaine.” (81
RACIAL PROFILING
Differences and stereotypes: stranger and beard: “Perhaps you have drawn certain conclusions from my appearance; my lustrous beard” (87)
Beard as a symbol of defiance:… (190)… “Sometimes I would find myself walking the streets flaunting my beard as a provocation, craving conflict with anyone foolhardy enough to antagonize me”.
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