eo-colonial Perspectives on Identity: Comparative Analysis of Male Characters in Mohsin Hamid’s Novels Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Abstract

With specific focus on the male characters of Mohsin
Hamid’s Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, this paper
seeks to re-address the concept of ‘identity’ within a neo-colonial
perspective. The theoretical insights for this research have been drawn
from postcolonial scholarship on identity, by theorists such as Homi, k,
Bhaba and Ashcroft. Bhabha’s concept of mimickery has been used to
analyse both, Daru and Changez’s, ambiguous perusal of an identity
which is overwhelmingly tainted by the neo-colonial impacts. Whereas
Changez grows out of his fascination of the colonist, superiority and
delusional sense of identity offered by its cosmopolitanism and returns to
embrace his cultural origins in Pakistan. Daru, on the other hand,
remains mesmerised by the elite Americanised culture of Lahore, a
metaphorical representation of the supposed superior American culture
within Pakistan. Both men in the process of ‘mimicking’ the foreign
culture lose their sense of belonging, identity, home and even freedom.
The comparative analysis of these two characters is significant as their
journey of self-realisations, exposes the dilemma of young Pakistani men
caught in the clutches of neo-colonialism. This paper highlights and
questions the complexities of cultural assimilation and acculturation as
well as its repercussions for an individual’s identity, caught at the cross
roads of transcultural and increasingly globalised world of today.