Individual emancipation in the novel comes at the cost of distancing from community

Evidence

However, the narrative’s trajectory strongly suggests that the price of this personal emancipation is a conscious disengagement and distancing from central aspects of community. Investment in cultural identity by other characters tends to be treated as misguided or driven by personal complexes; Chanu’s lament for what he calls the immigrant “tragedy”—the struggle to assimilate with Western values—seems as much a product of being snubbed at work as of mature reflection (113). Like several other positions on offer, his view seems composed of prejudice and cliché. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 192

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to how Hamid and Naqvi treat individual protagonists’ relation to community — the same tension of personal liberation versus communal belonging.
• DEFINE: Establishes the critical distinction: a novel can critique cultural-identity investment while still substantiating communal realities — a usable litmus for contesting versus reinforcing Islamophobia.