“I look at him – his blond hair and his light eyes… and I think, you are so foreign.” Here is the making of a brilliant young man who finds himself at the crossroads of cultures as he tries to find his identity. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is a novel that has captured the attention of its readers as the book went straight to the best-seller lists in 2007. The book's unique conversational style and friendly tone allow its readers to follow Hamid as builds the life of the young Changez. In the months following the events of September 11, 2001, hostility against “Middle Eastern” people grew dramatically. As an author of Pakistani descent, Hamid uses his character Changez to address issues of America, its business, elites, politics, and popular culture. All the while he sees these areas through the bright eyes of young Changez as he grapples with the life he feels called to, both in troubled American culture and in his native Pakistan, where he is needed more than ever. To understand how the brilliant Princeton graduate becomes a bearded extremist we must explore the message of cultural conflict in the novel, how Hamid uses his characters in the novel to illustrate these conflicts, and finally how Hamid incorporates both Changez's Pakistani culture and American culture into novel. To begin to understand Hamid's message of the Reluctant Fundamentalist, it is necessary to first explore the author's thesis. As an author of Pakistani descent, Hamid uses his characters, particularly Changez, to address issues internal to American culture, its ruthless business culture seen in Underwood, the arrogance of elite culture, the political culture of American exceptionalism and self-indulgent America. ...... middle of the paper ...... by Mohsin Hamid is a novel that has captured the attention of its readers as the book went straight to the best seller lists in 2007. The unique conversational style and the The book's friendly tone allows its readers to follow Hamid as he builds the life of young Changez. As a Pakistani, Hamid uses his character Changez to address the issues of America, its business, its elites, its politics and its popular culture. This novel allows for a better understanding that extremes do not occur overnight but form a cultural conflict, perhaps as in this novel. The novel through its structure, its message, and the way it conveys it allows us as readers to look beyond the text on the page to engage with the events that led that Princeton graduate destined for a financially successful life to choose to return to his homeland. and reject American couture.