Abstract
The paper, through a close analysis of the fictive characters of Changez and
Chuck, reads together Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and H. M.
Naqvi’s Home Boy (2009) as pioneering literary texts that highlight the post-9/11 plight of
American society plagued with xenophobia, racism and Islamophobia. Both the novels forward the
images of the Pakistani expatriates, by fictionalizing their post-9/11 identity transformations,
with their fast weakening ties with the host-land [America] as they are compelled to return, like
prodigal sons, to their native homeland [Pakistan]. The paper exploits the theoretical observations
regarding diasporic identity by the Postcolonial Studies scholars to provide a theoretic framework to
guide the discussion of both the novels. The paper concludes that both Changez and Chuck are the
prodigal sons whose decisions to return to their homeland are direct results of their inability to
anchor in the host-land and wave off the traumas of their nightmarish social experiences as
Pakistani expatriates in America in the turbulent times right after 9/11.
Aamer Shaheen, Muhammad Ayub Jajja. (2019) Post-9/11 America and the Return of the Pakistani Prodigal Sons, The ELF Annual Research Journal, Volume 21, Issue 1.
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