The Architecture of Mass Migration: Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

Past, Present, Future : Exit West‘s Journey With History

Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West (2017) garnered attention for its approach to the migration narrative. As Nasia Anam identified, in the past, works in this genre were riddled with narratives of fear and destruction due to the “migrant crisis.” Anam specifically praises Hamid for walking away from the narrative built by Western and European nativism, xenophobia, and fear-mongering (Anam 674). Rather, the novel takes a new approach by being in the perspective of migrants themselves (Anam 672). However, voices such as Yogita Goyal argue that Exit West “[renders] banal what must remain historical” (Goyal 241) because Hamid, “naturalizes the fact of migration in a way that evacuates the specific historical experience that generates it” (Goyal 241). While Goyal argues that Exit West lacks the historical context of the migration story, I contend that Hamid engages with contemporary historical concerns and a long history of othering migrants in the main plot and the side vignettes.

I.The Apocalypse

One part from Exit West caught my attention, “international broadcasters had acknowledged the doors existed, and indeed were being discussed by world leaders as a major global crisis” (Hamid 88). This line reinforced the historical fearmongering that Nasia Anam characterized past migrant literature with. Anam calls upon Jane Jacobs’ notes regarding 1980s Britain which began replacing its narrative with a more nativist one, “ rendering postcolonial migrants “both ‘outsiders,’ but also [as]‘an enemy within” (Hamid 662). This fear of being dominated by migrants, is what is scarring these world leaders just as it scared the Europeans and Westerners, creating images of dystopia and panic of a “crisis.” This “major global crisis,” is a migrant crisis. These nations fear this “apocalyptic” influx of migrants that the doors allow.

II. Horror, Trauma, Catastrophe

While Exit West avoids the spectacular, it is not devoid of horror, trauma, and catastrophe. Violence is in the pages of the novel, in every chapter, big or small. Goyal remarks, “Hamid, rather than foreground horror, trauma, or catastrophe, turns to metaphor to emphasize the ordinariness of the fact that most of the world is on the move” (Goyal 244). Yet, Hamid does detail horrific, traumatic, and catastrophic events that occur during the political revolution and wartime in the protagonist’s homeland.

In the first page of the novel we are greeted with the setting, “a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war” (Hamid 3). As the story progresses, the city Saeed and Nadia call home deteriorates. Helicopters filled the sky, the militants’ power grew after a successful assault on the city’s stock exchange, more territories began to fall to the militants, then a curfew was imposed. As the city descends into chaos, Saeed’s mother believes she saw a former student of hers. If it was him, once quick-witted and shy, he was no longer the same boy. Now he was “firing with much determination and focus a machine gun mounted on the back of a pickup truck” (Hamid 68). Buildings deteriorated and became abandoned, rationing of supplies became normal, and panic entered. One does not need to know who these adversaries are or whether their country is a democracy, a dictatorship, or a failing state (Goyal 246) to understand that the city’s security is compromised. The people begin hoping to escape through the magic doors “that could take [them] elsewhere, often to places far away, far removed from [their] death trap of a country” (Hamid 79). Moments such as Saeed’s mother abruptly dying due to a stray bullet (Hamid 74-75), “the public and private executions that now took place almost continuously” (Hamid 86), “bodies hanging from streetlamps and billboards like a form of festive seasonal decoration” (Hamid 86), and Saeed’s father realizing that young men were playing football with a severed head of a goat (Hamid 87) are all violent moments contained in the book.

Now I ask, how are any of these portrayals of brutal war-torn violence banal, ordinary, or lacking context? Goyal discounts these instances by claiming that Hamid uses metaphor to emphasize the ordinariness of most of the world being on the move rather than foreground the horror, trauma, or catastrophe crucial to the migrant narrative (Goyal 244). However, these incidents in the novel give insight into the events that occur during revolutions of wartime, the cause of movement, of migration. Yes, Hamid invokes a sense of universalism, but simply because violence is not at the forefront does not mean he completely disregards it.

III. Planted Vines

In the first chapter, we are introduced to one of the vignettes Hamid uses in Exit West. These stories offer an extra layering of historical context within the migrant narrative. This story addresses the association of dark skin with danger and crime. “[Far] away in Australia a pale-skinned woman [sleeps] alone in the Sydney neighborhood of Surry Hills” (Hamid 7). Then in the dark closet of the woman, a man emerges. “He too was dark, with dark skin and dark, woolly hair.” In my Writing 101 class, we discussed how before finishing the passage, the assumption was that the dark-skinned man was to hurt the pale-skinned woman. My professor, Dr.Churchill, warned about this predetermined view that we must distance ourselves from. This view is rooted in the same past migrant literature Anam spoke of. Anam discussed how European and Western Christianity felt threatened by “Islam in either its Arab, Ottoman, or North African and Spanish form” (Anam 657). Those related to Islam often have darker skin tones, just like the dark-skinned man. As Anam quotes, these nations have a “fear of being overtaken by Islamic hegemony paired with the fear of being colonized by former colonial subjects” (Anam 656). Rather than an aggressor, the man is also a victim, only looking for a means of escape. The man “[choosing] the window” (Hamid 9), escapes the woman’s abode just as he chose a door to escape.

IV. Continued Through Time

An old woman has “lived in the same house her entire life. Her parents [bringing] her to this house when she was born” (Hamid 207). This is non-specific information, with the reader only knowing that the family started in this house in Palo Alto. Otherwise, the reader doesn’t know much about the woman’s background until we read about her granddaughter: “what she would have looked like if she had been born in China” (Hamid 208). The vignette portrays the immigrant experience in a different country, generation after generation growing and adapting. Yet, Goyal criticizes the line “We are all migrants through time” (Hamid 209) in the vignette for universalizing the migrant experience (Goyal 251). However, I believe the line alludes to generational migration rather than standing solely as a metaphor. Through the movements and migrations of our ancestors, migration never truly ends. With each new generation, a new chapter is added. Though we may not understand the horrors of migration firsthand, we understand the perils those before us and currenty have experienced. Just as the old woman and her family who have migrated through time in the vignette, hoping to build towards a better future for generations to come.

As we say, history repeats itself. To build an argument or provide a take on something you must understand where the argument comes from otherwise, it loses its place in the narrative as Goyal argues. However, Goyal’s argument that Exit West is romanticized for “[evacuating] the specific historical experience that generates it, rendering banal what must remain historical” (Goyal 241) loses its place as Hamid’s work does engage with the crucial historical experience needed to solidify its place. Through its main plot and side vignettes, Exit West not only interacts with contemporary historical concerns and the long history of othering migrants, but provides context that remains present as well. Rather than history repeats itself, history is not just a cycle, but a continuous growth and progression. A migration through time.

Sources:

Anam, Nasia. “The Migrant as Colonist: Dystopia and Apocalypse in the Literature of Mass Migration.” Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press, Sept. 2018, muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/711837/pdf.

Goyal, Yogita. “‘We Are All Migrants’: The Refugee Novel and the Claims of Universalism.” Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020, muse.jhu.edu/article/758170.

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West: A Novel. Penguin, 2017.

Comments:

Alina:

some thoughts while reading your intro:

-what is the difference between “what’s to come” and the “dystopian aftermath”
the “so peaceful” is totally right, but before introducing the word “peaceful” you don’t state -who thinks it’s peaceful (reader could guess from context, but if you used a word that implies peacefulness somewhere before that then it would be a little easier for the reader)

-Love love love the idea of the thesis statement!!!

Alina:

-Hey Vee! Your essay does a great job of providing evidence from the book. Your evidence is well-chosen, and you explain the plot and how parts of the plot relate to your own argument in enough detail so that the reader understands, but you also don’t bore the reader with overly long and detailed explanations or irrelevant details. If I could point out one thing that you could still improve on in your essay, it would be transitions and metacommentary. I think the intro and the first body paragraph already flow well, but, as a reader, I got lost in the long body paragraphs. The transition “trying to understand the full context, a predetermined thought that he was there to harm had formed. Another example that’s a little more abstract with the definition is…” for example could have a better flow if you connected the second example to the first in a way that answers WHY you now want to introduce us to this other example that is” a little more abstract with the definition”. Is there a way for you to take the reader by their hand and walk them through your brilliant ideas with a little more guidance? One more thing to think about: You are currently 300+ words over the word count, so you might have to think about choosing the most powerful evidence from the book. Keep up the good work! Reading your essay was really fun and your ideas are so refreshing!

Eva:

-Hi Veee! I loved reading your essay, such a good thesis! You provide good examples from the text, but maybe you could provide a more detailed analysis of these examples, that would enhance your argument (you could also use it in your quotation sandwiches!). Then also, you could when discussing the characters introduced through the magic doors, consider exploring how their experiences specifically relate to broader themes of migration and identity? You have long paragraphs that contain a lot of information to support your claim which is good, but you are also over the word count! So, try to either cut some information or summarize it more.
Great work!!

Thank you to Dr.Chill and Melz for also working with me and for thier wonderful insight.

-Pledge VVB