Intentional Use of Second-Person Narration

A Postcolonial View of Mohsin Hamid's How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

Abstract

Mohsin Hamid's How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013) is one of the few novels in contemporary fiction that is narrated almost entirely in the second person. This paper is a postcolonial study of this intentional choice of narrative voice. It examines how the technique contributes to the representation of economic advancement, corruption, moral compromise, and capitalist ambition in present-day Asia. Hamid addresses his protagonist as "you." In doing so, he makes the experience of one man appear universal and, at the same time, makes the reader a partner in his pursuit of wealth. The study pays special attention to the phrase "Rising Asia" in the title. It argues that the novel's picture of economic mobility raises questions about the association of corruption with Asian societies. Corruption, exploitation, and unethical business practices are global phenomena. They are not the exclusive characteristics of any one region. However, when they are concentrated in an Asian setting, it becomes necessary to examine the Western gaze and the international circulation of postcolonial literature. The discussion draws on Edward Said's concept of Orientalism, Arjun Appadurai's understanding of globalization, and David Harvey's critique of neoliberal capitalism. The methodology is a qualitative textual analysis of the relationship between narrative perspective and ideological representation. Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger (2008) has been taken as a comparative text to bring out the similarities and differences in the representation of corruption and capitalist mobility in South Asian fiction. The study argues that Hamid's narrative is ideologically ambivalent. It exposes the inequalities of global capitalism, but it also invites scrutiny of the ways in which Asian economic realities are presented to international readers.