Fragility and Fluidity of Identity: The Social Construction of Self and Racial Bigotry in Mohsin Hamid’s “The Last White Man” (2022)
Generally, the notion of identity is misinterpreted to be something concrete or even an inherited attribute and hence resistant to changes. However, as we delve deeper into the idea of self and the factors that constitute it, a fact becomes evident: that an individual’s identity is in fact not very rigid but rather fluid and dynamic in nature. A number of societal factors influence the construction of the character that an individual identifies themselves with. Through a close textual analysis of The Last White Man (2022) by Mohsin Hamid, this paper aims to explore the concept of identity in contrast to its conventional definition of something unalterable, and rather look at it as an idea that is constantly in motion.
