This story is slow to build, but compelling. At the outset we are approached by a man asking if we need assistance – but to be assured that while he is not from America, he is a lover of it. The speaker, Changez, begins to tell his story to a foreigner at a café in Pakistan. A student at Princeton, he was able to crack into the American dream, graduated at the top of the class and earned a job at the coveted Underwood Samsom valuation firm on Wall Street. He meets and falls in love with Erica, who is still in love with her dead boyfriend, Chris. The warmth she shows him at first, and her pointing out his politeness and conforming to American ways gives way to her turning her back on him and disappearing. Easy to see that Erica represents America. We appreciate those that come to our shores as long as they are polite and conform to our ways. When 9/11 happened there was a shift in Changez’s view – it was exhilarating that somehow America was brought to its knees at home while they continue to create chaos elsewhere in the world – Erica became overcome with her need to recreate the past. Just as America was trying to recreate the indignation after Pearl Harbor.
As Changez continues to share the story, we learn more of his true feelings of being an outsider, of his self-hatred of turning his back on his people. The person hearing the story has shown himself to be cautious, and suspect of Changez. As the story closes, you are left with the question – how has the arrogance of America impacted Changez and how far has he gone to avenge his country? Is America being duped or are we being overreactive?
The Source 4 Books 