Convergences of Experience between African-Americans and Muslims in America: a Study of Invisible Man and The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Abstract

This paper is a comparative study between Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel, Invisible Man, and Mohsin Hamid’s 2007 text, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, using the framework of Critical Race Theory to close-read the two pieces of literature. Essentially, the paper asks whether a parallel can be drawn between the racialized experiences of African-Americans and Pakistani-Muslims. While the research does not attempt to force Ellison’s Invisible Man to be applicable to Pakistani-Muslims or other non-white populations (diaspora and indigenous), there are clear convergences that the two communities face. These similarities are contingent upon race-theory, which is explored. Moreover, both Ellison and Hamid utilize the same tropes of American fiction to highlight the white-gaze, the othering of persons-of-color/communities-of-color, and living in the USA. For instance, both texts mention how American universities are designed to white-wash minority communities, stripping them of their culture and racial markers, in order to facilitate the domination of the American empire. Both African-Americans and Muslims are peddling a system that, ultimately, benefits white supremacy. Another trope that both authors use is the “white woman,” where desire for her denotes a thirst for freedom, and fear or anger towards her translates as a denial of that coveted freedom. Both texts talk about the lack of identity African-Americans and Muslims can experience—for instance, Changez’s relationship with Erica, or the Invisible Man being sexualized by the white-gaze, rendering their true selves as invisible.

Keywords: African-American, Convergence, Fundamentalist, Supremacy