Nostalgic Impact on Characterization in the "Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid

This paper aims at investigating the nostalgic impact on the characters in The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. Nostalgia is regarded as the state of homesick or a mental sentimentality for one's past. Everyone is more or less nostalgic, and nostalgia plays a vital role in the lives and experiences of individuals in daily life. The present study is a qualitative and descriptive textual analysis. The Reluctant Fundamentalist has been examined by analyzing the words, sentences, characters and their actions from the nostalgic point of view. This study has investigated the nostalgic impact on the characters, especially on Changez and Erica, through the lens of nostalgia by focusing on their personalities, works, social lives, actions and reactions. This study has found that nostalgia influences and molds the lives and experiences of characters and individuals to an extensive extent. Changes and Erica spoil their lives but are not ready to come out of their nostalgic worlds. The Reluctant Fundamentalist has been analyzed and interpreted through different dimensions, but no one has discussed it from a nostalgia point of view before. So, this paper is a primary investigation and would surely contribute to the present stock of knowledge.