Summary
In Chapter 6, after returning from the Philippines to a New York reeling from 9/11, Changez says he is disturbed by the atmosphere of exaggerated nationalism. He meets with Erica, six weeks since they had lunch in Central Park, and finds her looking somewhat more pale. She tells him that the recent anxious atmosphere has made her think of Chris more often.
She comes to his apartment where she ends up falling asleep. Changez wonders what to do, but then just gives her a blanket and lets her sleep on. Several weeks later, Erica announces to Changez that she has gotten an agent for her book manuscript; she asks to come up to his room again, and they end up almost having sex. Erica, however, is unable to do so; she and Changez exchange stories of their sex lives and then fall asleep next to each other.
In Chapter 7, Changez describes how he tries to not get to worried by the growing shadow of discrimination against Arabs and other brown people in New York. Jim gives him a job downsizing a cable operator company that is doing poorly in business. Watching news of the bombing of Afghanistan, Changez becomes infuriated.
After not hearing from Erica for several days after their night of abortive lovemaking, Changez contacts Erica, who apologizes for not being in touch. They meet again and try to have sex again. However, things seem not be working again. In the end, they manage to have sex after Changez suggests that Erica pretend that he is Chris.
In Chapter 8, after they have sex, Changez says Erica becomes more and more distant. A visit to see her at her parents' apartment leaves Changez feeling alienated, since Erica, who has become pale and sickly, seems to be so wrapped up in thoughts of Chris that she is not able to appreciate Changez's presence next to her.
Meanwhile, the US descends into what Changez sees as a dangerous nostalgia. He himself experiences racial discrimination when a man approaches him randomly in a parking lot and shouts an imitation of Arabic at him. Changez nearly gets into a physical confrontation with the man after he, Changez, takes a tire iron out of his car.
Jim invites Changez over to his spacious Tribeca flat and tries to make sure Changez is okay. Around Christmas time, Changez flys back home to Pakistan despite the mounting tensions with India that begin when some terrorists attack the Indian parliament. There are fears that India will invade Pakistan and that, since both countries possess nuclear weapons, that highly destructive nuclear war will break out.
Analysis
It is around the time when, just after September 11, Changez begins to feel the pressure of racial discrimination, that he also becomes more aware, in the case of the New Jersey cable company, of the way that his work can negatively affect others' lives. Jim assures him that their work is only following a naturally progressive bent of history, and for the time being, Changez accepts this. Changez's reflections on this latter economic problem shows how he is gradually coming to a more sympathetic awareness while also emphasizing a crucial limit in his thinking even through the end of the novel.
"Focus on the fundamentals. This was Underwood Samson's guiding principle, drilled into us since our first day at work. It mandated a single-minded attention to financial detail, teasing out the true nature of those drivers that determine an asset's value. And that was precisely what I continued to do, more often that not with both skill and enthusiasm. Because to be perfectly honest, sir, the compassionate pangs I felt for soon-to-be-redundant workers were not overwhelming in their frequency; our job required a degree of commitment that left one with rather limited time for such distractions." (98-9)
It is in fact not until he visits Valparaiso and Juan-Bautista teaches him a lesson about conflict between American and colonized countries that Changez comes to a complete awareness of the distastefulness of his work at Underwood Samson and so quits. However, even so, he never seems to reverse on the economic principle he received from Jim, where his elite education and employment place him above those other Americans who work lower-salaried jobs.
If his relationship with Erica represents his relationship to the United States, it also only represents a very particular experience, given the affluence of Erica's family. Changez never feels the need to interact, nor does he ever have an experience of interacting, substantively with people outside of his upper class in the U.S. For example, even while he is at Princeton, where Changez could have met and spent time with other students like himself, Changez does not seem to make connections with people other than the Ivy Club members.
As the quote above demonstrates, there is a direct connection between the striving to make the most of oneself and to work with manic productivity on one hand, and on the other the turning of a blind eye to the lives and living conditions of those who fall outside of the group. Thus, the employees whose jobs Changez knows he may be terminating are barely even human beings to him; one wonders whether he would have felt the same if it came to valuating a firm like his own and meeting young aspiring professionals like himself.
