Adam Oh's Blog :D

For my fifth blog post, I decided that the idea of conflicting identities that was presented in the reading “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid was interesting because it outlined the idea of an internal struggle which most people shrug off as no big deal. In the book, we see that the protagonist, Changez, is a American by culture and appearance, but throughout the book, he struggles with his muslim internality to determine his true identity as a person in society. Another interesting aspect is the idea that even at Princeton where the student body was supposed to be diverse, he felt out of place because he was from a “different” socioeconomical background. These factors lead to the conflicted nature of Changez which Mohsin perfectly embodies in the scene with him watching the news of the 9/11 bombing where it says, “But at that moment, my thoughts were not with the victims of the attack–death on television moves me most when it is fictitious and happens to characters with whom I have built up relationships over multiple episodes– no, I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees.” His response gives a certain awestruck vibe which could spur from his conflicted identity. In my pencil sketch rendition, I decided to illustrate this conflicted personality with a sketch of a person who looks a little Pakistani that is standing in front of an American flag to symbolize his American culture but with the Arabic word “Allah” on his heart to symbolize his inner heritage as a muslim which conflicts with his identity.