The Identity of the Liquid

self-preservation, but far more far reaching has terrible consequences, and he must do what he can to oppose it.

3.2 The Identity of the Liquid

Hybrid identity is fluid, a continuous process between associate themselves with one culture or get away from him. Here, hybrid identity is an act of positioning by indigenous and continuously changing, depending on interest. This identity allows natives to be free to exit into a culture and to establish ourselves as a part of several cultures at once. “But not on that day. On that day, I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee, and my firm’s impressive offices made me proud” Hamid 2007, 34 “When asked where I was from, that I was from New York” Hamid 2007, 65 The liquid identity, Changez can be freely positioned himself as a Pakistani or an American. Self-identification that is relative to the root of Pakistan or the United States experienced as a process of negotiation that continues until the boundary between the two disappear and become a special roots that are individualized. The identification itself is positioned in between two cultures and depending on its interests. Identification of Changez as America is also positioning itself to create distance with the roots tradition, with the values in Pakistan and Islamic tradition in which he grew up. His departure from Pakistans cultural values and Islamic values is to counter the dominance of tradition. Identification of Changez as America is positioning itself to follow thought in American values and culture as well as to match and be treated the same as an American. Resembling an American means having the power to threaten Americans. Occupiers are trying to assimilate the colonized that they are no longer strangers, because the nature of the foreign colonized and wild is a threat to the colonists. By assimilating the colonized, the colonizers aimed at creating a controllable and predictable. Nevertheless, the colonists wanted the colonized remain distinct from himself, not rival him. The ability of the colonized to become like the colonizers would damage hierarchy built by the colonizers. Changez ability to become like Americans is also the ability of coming into forbidden places for himself as indigenous. “But not on that day. On that day, I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee, and my firm’s impressive offices made me proud” Hamid 2007, 34 “I attempted to act and speak, as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American” Hamid 2007, 65 In this case, Changez is a mimicry human that means also a sneermockery. By dressing up like the Europeans and entered the forbidden room for him as a native, Changez has successfully mocked Europe. “I was a young New Yorker with the city at my feet” Hamid 2007, 45 Liquid hybrid nature of indigenous identity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is also evident from the use of the name. As Changez own name, most people do not like the name of pakistan. The identity of the liquid showed the ability to enter another cultural space that allows the seizure of power. “at Princeton, I conducted myself in public like a young prince, generous and carefree. But I also, as quietly as I could, held down three on campus jobs- in infrequently visited locations, such as the library of the Program in Near Eastern Studies- and prepared for my classes throughout the night. Most people I met were taken in by my public persona….where I saw shame” Hamid 2007, 11 “I was aware of an advantage conferred upon me by my foreignness, and I tried to utilize it as much as I could” Hamid 2007, 42 In this case, the identity of the liquid is a way to survive and resist the domination of which thus becomes possible in a cultural encounter.

3.3 Critics of the Tradition and Religion