TRF: Identity/Roots

Question 1

‘My ____________ was invisible, _______ by my ____’

Answer 1

‘My Pakistaniness was invisible, cloaked by my suit’

• Roots being disguised by American culture
• Representative of Americanisation + their influence on other cultures
• Role at Underwood Samson dominating his identity

Question 2

‘I began to ___ and _____, as much as my ______ would permit, more like an ______’

Answer 2

‘I began to act and speak, as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American’

• Compromising cultural identity in order to win acceptance
• Disassociated sense of identity

Question 3

‘A form of ______ on my part, a ______ of ______’

Answer 3

‘A form of protest on my part, a symbol of identity’

• Changez’s growing need to assert his own identity
• Does not care about unease his beard will provoke
• Accepting his true identity, presenting himself as a Pakistani

Question 4

‘I made it my _______ on campus to advocate a ___________ from your country’

Answer 4

‘I made it my mission on campus to advocate a disengagement from your country’

• ‘Mission’ implies Changez has become sort of a double agent
• Changez attempts to tackle American imperialism
• ‘Your’ = possessive determiner, Changez distancing himself from America as a whole

Question 5

‘And then I ______’

Answer 5

‘And then I smiled’

• Changez rouses from his American dream
• Forced to confront his identity and deep rooted resentments
• 9/11 catalyst for his hatred against America
• Witnesses attack from tv screen = reflects distance from home country/roots + distance he will feel when he returns
• Lacks emotional loyalty

Question 6

‘Someone had so ________ brought America to her _______’

Answer 6

‘Someone had so visibly brought America to her knees’

• Personification of America
• ‘To her knees’ = defeat, buildings/skyscrapers destroyed, lowered/diminished Americas self-importance
• Retribution/comeuppance

Question 7

‘I was a modern-day __________’

‘an ___-___________ gaze’

Answer 7

‘I was a modern-day janissary’

‘an ex-janissary’s gaze’

• Changez has completely adopted the American/indoctrinated colonial mindset
• Allowed his idolisation of America to brainwash him
• Rejected his own cultural identity/roots
• ‘ex-janissary’ = beginning to strengthen his cultural ties/affiliation to Pakistan, no longer blinded/bound to American beliefs/ideologies

Question 8

What is the context behind Changez’s position as a ‘modern-day janissary’?

Answer 8

• Late 14th century
• Christian boys taken by the Turks to fight for the Ottoman empire, indoctrinated with Ottoman ideology and forced to convert to Islam

Question 9

‘Her body had ________ me’

Answer 9

‘Her body had rejected me’

• Allegorical relationship between America and Erica intensified after their attempt to make love
• Changez rejected by both Ericas body and America itself
• In order to be compatible with Erica Changez suppresses/surrenders own Identity ‘Pretend I am him’

Question 10

‘I made it my _______ on campus to advocate a ___________ from your country’

Answer 10

‘I made it my mission on campus to advocate a disengagement from your country’

• ‘Mission’ implies Changez has become sort of a double agent
• Changez attempts to tackle American imperialism
• ‘Your’ = possessive determiner, Changez distancing himself from America as a whole

Question 11

‘I grew up on the _______ ______!’

Answer 11

‘I grew up on the other side!’

• Separation between Pakistan and America
• Highlighting the opposition/conflicting existence of his home and host country
• Divided identity (cannot belong to both East and West simultaneously)

Question 12

‘Do not be __________ by my _______: I am a lover of ___________’

Answer 12

‘Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America’

• Prolepsis (when a speaker raises an objection and then immediately answers it)
• His beard provokes steroetypes

Question 13

‘But it did not, could not, make me _________ such things as how much I enjoy the _____ in this, the city of my ______’

Answer 13

‘But it did not, could not, make me forget such things as how much I enjoy the tea in this, the city of my birth’

• Repetition ‘did not, could not’ = emphasises his pull/root of Pakistan, despite the opportunity of Princeton

Question 14

‘Something we __________ take great _____ in’

Answer 14

‘Something we Lahoris take great pride in’

• Changez is prideful of his cultural cuisine, strengthening his connectedneess to his Pakistani roots

Question 15

‘Pakistanis tend to take an _____________ pride in our _______’

Answer 15

‘Pakistanis tend to take an inordinate pride in our food’

• ‘our’ = ties/his connection to Pakistan

Question 16

‘I recall the _______________ of my own gaze when I _________ to Lahore’

Answer 16

‘I recall the Americanness of my own gaze when I returned to Lahore’

• Powerful nature of American culture/propaganda
• Contaminated/transformed Changez’s identity

Question 17

‘I was looking about me with the ______ of a ____________’

Answer 17

‘I was looking about me with the eyes of a foreigner’

• Changez’s return to Lahore
• Negation (denial) of his cultural and personal identity
• Brainwashed by American beliefs/views

Question 18

‘I did not __________ of myself as a __________, but as an Underwood Samson ________’

Answer 18

‘I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee’