“I was, in four and a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker…I tend to become sentimental when I think of that city… which is quite something, I must say, given the circumstances under which, after only eight months of residence, I would later depart.”

There are a few interesting points made here. I think Changez was obsessed with himself being a successor of the “American Dream” without even realizing it.

Firstly,  how he called himself a New Yorker instead of an American. He says he was never an American. This indicates that he was not dreaming to be an American and that is not the reason why he came to the US. Instead, he calls himself a New Yorker, even though, he only lived there for 8 months out of four years and half of his life in the US. This clearly shows that New York is quite something like he said. I think New York stands out for him because it is the place where he achieved the “American Dream”. He was a rare case and special as people from south Asia who achieved the American Dream were very few and limited. Especially, New York is one of the most well-known and popular cities in the US and also behaves as a typical vision of the American Dream. Therefore, belonging to the particular city and being a residence there is one thing that he was very proud of and was his status as an individual.

Secondary, the fact that he was affected by the “American Dream” indicates that even though, he wasn’t happy about the idea that America being the top of the world, he was still obsessed and attracted to this country which was maybe an implicit feeling of him. This is pretty interesting as he doesn’t even realize it by himself. I think it is caused by confusion in his identity as a Pakistani and as a successor.