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Exile and Migration in the Reluctant Fundamentalist and Breath, Eyes, and Memory
The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Breath, Eyes and Memory portray exile and migration. Both Danticat and Hamid locate Sophie’s and Changez’s exiles in the United States. However, Sophie’s native home is Haiti, while Changez’s in Pakistan. Said defines exile as the “unhealable rift between the self” and its “true home” in his Reflections of Exile. Although Said, Danticat and Hamid all agree on the crippling sorrow and wariness of exile, Danticat and Hamid both challenge the permanency of exile presented by Said. According to Said, exile is not a transient stage but rather a state of permanency. However, both Danticat and Hamid present exile and migration as having periods of victory, triumph and romance.
Hamid and Danticat address exile and migration in different historical contexts and periods. Breath, Eyes and Memory, published initially in 1994, reencounters Danticat’s childhood in Haiti and early life in New York. Danticat explores the themes of culture, pain and violence, gender and male obsession with female purity (Danticat 209). Danticat inscribes the unofficial memories of the Duvalier regime in Haiti, a period in which women were subjected to surveillance and punishment, yet sexual atrocities against them seem invincible (Danticat 196). Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, set in both the US and Pakistan, was first published in 1st March 2007 after the 9-11 bombing on US soil. Hamid addresses the strained relations between Pakistan and the US before and after 9-11 (Akhtar) and the effects of the Glenn and Pressler Amendments on the Pakistan economy, which previously depended on the US (Akhtar 206). The Reluctant Fundamentalist addresses the themes of racism, fundamentalism, the American dream, human connection and love.
Changez exile into the United States begins when he attends Princeton University, whereas Sophie’s exile begins when she joins her mother in New York after a 12-year separation. The Reluctant Fundamentalist takes the form of a dramatic monologue which complicates the authenticity of the protagonist. However, as Changez narrates his American life to the American stranger (Hamid 73), it is clear that Changez might be in exile both in America and in Pakistan. While at Princeton University, he studies hard and works to support his family, while concealing his actual financial background from his peers (Hamid 74). Despite getting a job at a prestigious firm, Changez is aware that he is different. Changez is further alienated to America following his discrimination after the 9-11 bombing, with which he was surprisingly pleased. However, whereas Changez is currently an anti-America fundamentalist, he narrates his American life with nostalgia.
Sophie’s exile from Haiti to the US is inevitable. For the Caribbean’s, exile is either voluntary or forced but constant. Danticat presents Sophie’s geographical exile as forcing her to come to terms with a new identity. Sophie leaves Haiti to be joined with her mother after twelve years of separation (Danticat 100). However, being a product of violent rape, she mirrors the unmirrored face of her mother’s abuser (Donell 196). Sophie perceives her trip to New York as stripping her of her collective identity and her only indeed known home, her aunt’s house (Danticat 14). As she realizes that she is a constant reminder of her mother’s horrifying ordeal, Sophie continually looks back to Haiti with Nostalgia as she seeks to resolve the conflicts within her.
Although, both Hamid and Danticat present exile as inevitable, it is merely a transient stage as opposed to Said’s permanency status. Changez graduates from Princeton and secures a job at a prestigious firm, Underwood Samson, courtesy of Jim, who is also a Pakistani national (Hamid 5). However, it is after the occurrence of the 9-11 bombing that Changez comes to terms with the harshness of American Imperialism. He recognizes how America attempts to convert him into pro-America and returns to Pakistan as an anti-American Fundamentalist. On the other hand, Martine, Sophie’s mother, quickly picks up the testing ritual when she realizes Sophie’s love for Joseph (Donell 194). Felling the burden of the inherited culture from her grandmother Ifé to her mother Martine, Sophie breaks her hymen, forcing her mother to throw her out (Donell 195). Sophie elopes with Joseph but runs away to Haiti to confront her internal conflicts and strained relationship between daughter, mother and granddaughter and oppressive culture.
Changez and Sophie both attempt to overcome their exile in the US. Although it is unclear from Hamid’s dramatic monologue whether Changez hated his American life, he is always aware that he is different. The 9-11 bombing occurs while he is in Manila on an assignment, and he is pleased that the incident has brought the “great America down on its knees” (Hamid 73). However, he is treated like a criminal and thoroughly searched at the airport on his way back, and the sorrow of estrangement further cripples him. Although Sophie is geographically exiled, her psychological exile is greater and nerve-racking. Sophie becomes desperate and leaves while Joseph is on tour and goes back to Haiti to confront the hatred she feels for her body. Sophie is also traumatized by sex which she blames on her mother’s testing (Danticat). Sophie overcomes exile to quiet the conflict within her while Changez overcomes exile to defeat American imperialism, but they are both seeking identity and a real home.
Hamid and Danticat present their characters as having different motivations to overcome exile. While reencountering her childhood in Haiti, Danticat presents Sophie as trying to overcome to harsh aftermath of the Duvalier regime. Martine’s sexual abuse is reflective of the sexual atrocities being subordinate to broader political and state narratives (Donell 195). As grandmother Ifé summons Martine for reconciliation with Sophie, Danticat shows that the rift between self and real home is healable. Sophie manages to counter violent cultural apparatuses that attempt to hide violence against women (Donell). Hamid presents the protagonists as being filled with contradictory instincts of integration. However, Changez’s encounter at Princeton and Underwood Samson, his love affair with Erica and his disappointment with himself in Greece all drive him to his homecoming in Pakistan (Hamid 17). Changez manages to leave exile and embrace his identity as a Pakistani just as Sophie overcomes her psychological exile.
Changez and Sophie are surrounded by characters who are engulfed in exile as a state of permanency, yet they manage to transit exile. Changez and Sophie manage to heal the rift between themselves and their real homes. While Changez can accept that the American life, just like Erica, is not his to have, Erica, remains stuck in the past of her lover’s passing (Hamid 82). Erica is, therefore, unable to embrace the possible future with Changez but Changez embraces his identity as a Pakistani national and becomes a strict promoter of American disinterest (Hamid). Sophie and Martine’s trip to Haiti has different results for the two of them. Sophie finally reconciles with her mother and sees the cultural apparatuses and political narratives as the enemy and not her mother (Donell 195). However, Martine falls sick from the trip and later commits suicide, unable to bear with reencountering her past.
Although the Reluctant Fundamentalist ends in unclear circumstances, both Changez and Sophie heal from the rift between self and true home. Hamid’s dramatic monologue starts as Changez offers help to likely American stranger. The stranger’s constant need to reach into his jacket despite Changez’s reassurance leaves the impression that he was an agent just as Changez suspected, but he likely on a mission to assassinate Changez (Hamid 5). Changez is a currently a patriotic Pakistani lecturer and a strict promoter of anti-Americanism and American disinterest. On the other hand, Sophie completely heals her rift, especially after her mother died. Unable to throw soil in her grave, Sophie barges into the cane fields her mother was once assaulted in (Dandicat 233). Danticat presents this moment as Sophie’s final freeing moment.
As remarked by Said, dissimulation is weary and nerve-racking. Wallace Stevens calls exile a “mind of winter” in which the pathos of summer and autumn as much as the potential of spring are nearby but unobtainable. Exile and migration are forced or voluntary inspired by personal, economic, political, or cultural reasons. Unlike Said, however, Hamid and Danticat redefine exile as a period of transformation and redefinition. Changez redefines his cultural identity while Sophie undergoes a psychological, cultural and geographical change. Despite the crippling feeling of estrangement, the achievements of exile can undermine the loss of memories and things left behind.
Works Cited
Akhtar, Shahnaz. “Dynamics of USA-Pakistan relations in the post 9/11 period: Hurdles and
future prospects.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 2.11 (2012): 205-213.
Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1994.
Donnell, Alison. Twentieth-century Caribbean literature: Critical moments in Anglophone
literary history. Routledge, 2007.
Hamid, Mohsin. Reluctant Fundamentalist,(PB). Penguin Books, India, 2015.
Saïd, Edward. “Reflections on Exile.”Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary
Cultures. Ed. Russell Ferguson, et al. New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1991.