Brief biography of mohsin hamid was born in Pakistan, but he spent much of his

Hamid has spent the entirety of Exit West building the romantic
connection between Saeed and Nadia, but in this moment he allows
that connection to simply fade away. Indeed, as Nadia and Saeed
embark upon their new lives, they lose track of one another, letting
their bond stretch until they no longer stay in contact at all. And
though readers may feel a tinge of sadness about this separation,
there’s no arguing that Hamid’s portrayal of a dying romance has
been inaccurate, for this is how love fades gradually, gradually, and
then all at once.
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In the hills of Marrakesh, a maid whose husband and daughter have both left the country works in a large house owned by a man who might once have been called a prince and a woman who might once have been called a foreigner Perhaps because she can’t speak, the maid refuses to leave her home country.
Although she doesn’t know her age, she’s certain that she’s younger than the woman she serves, who—unlike her—still attracts the attention of men. When the maid’s daughter comes to visit during the same summer of Nadia and Saeed’s breakup,
the young woman tries to convince her mother to leave
Marrakesh, but the maid simply puts her hand on her daughters, smiles, and shakes her head. One day she might go,
she thinks. But not today.”
The final vignette of Exit West, this short description of an elderly
woman in Marrakesh provides one last look at how people around
the world respond to the existence of doors that can transport a
person faraway. Indeed, the maid’s response isn’t to step through
one of these portals, nor is it to wait for others to come to her
through them. Rather, she ignores their powers, content with
staying exactly where she is, perhaps knowing that, regardless of
whether or not she leaves her home, she is a migrant through time.”
CHAPTER Nadia goes back to her home city for the first time in the half a century after she last saw Saeed. The fires she had witnessed in her youth have now burned themselves out and she finds herself able to explore the city, which is simultaneously
“familiar but also unfamiliar As she wends her way through the streets, she’s informed of the proximity of Saeed, and after standing motionless fora considerable moment she communicates with him, and they agree to meet at a nearby café. As they sit together and talk about their lives, they carefully highlight and exclude portions of their respective stories. Fortunately, they’re able to reestablish a rhythm with one another, in part because they parted all those years ago on good terms, all things considered.
Hamid doesn’t explain what he means by the fact that Nadia is
“informed of the proximity of Saeed,” but the implication is that her
phone is somehow capable of signaling to her when he’s nearby. As
such, Hamid provides one final form of connection, building upon
the idea that technology—with its vast networks and infinite
capacity for surveillance—unites humanity. After all these years,
Nadia and Saeed once again find themselves communicating in
their home city using phones, bringing their story full-circle and
harkening back to their initial text-message flirtations.
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Imagine how different life would be if I had agreed to marry you Nadia says. Imagine how different it would be if I had agreed to have sex with you responds Saeed, to which Nadia says, We were having sex After a moment, Saeed smiles and concedes, saying, Yes I suppose we were As they finish their coffees, Nadia asks Saeed if he ever wound up visiting the
Chilean deserts to seethe dazzling stars. Nodding, he tells her that if she ever has a free evening, he would love to take her because the sight is astoundingly beautiful. Closing her eyes,
Nadia says she’d love to do this, and they both stand, hug, and go their separate ways, not knowing whether or not that evening will ever come.”
The novel's ending ingeniously ties up many of its themes. Nadia's
comment about how different things might have been if they got
married captures the way that, while the novel focused on Nadia
and Saeed's time together, they didn't end up together or the center
of each other's lives. The connection they shared was in many ways
just like the connections they share with others. The novel's focus on
their particular connection showed how important that connection
was, but the fact that the novel also shows the connection ends
implies that all of their connections were also important, or could
have been similarly important, had they made different choices.
Meanwhile, the odd moment when Saeed comments that they
weren't having sex, and then admits rather easily that they were, is
important. Saeed seems to have built for himself a narrative in
which he and Nadia followed strict religious rules, and avoided sex
before marriage. This narrative fits with Saeed's growing
religiousness through the story it is the narrative he needed in order
to be the person he needed himself to be. But now back in his home
country where the religious strife has backed down, he can suddenly
admit to himself and to Nadia that in fact they were having sex.
Now, in this different context, no longer a refugee, Saeed can be a
slightly different, less rigid and even less religious version of himself.
Finally, when Saeed offers to take Nadia to the Chilean deserts if
she ever has a free evening it becomes clear that travel has
become so ubiquitous throughout the world that people are able to
take casual trips to far-flung destinations, essentially obliterating
the idea that migration across borders is something that must be
controlled. And when Hamid asserts that neither Saeed nor Nadia
know if their trip to the desert together will ever transpire, he once
more relates uncertainty and migration, though this time the
combination is imbued with a sense of possibility, not fear. At the
same time, that these two people, who have had to travel under
duress as refugees throughout the novel, can now talk about
traveling for leisure, it makes clear that the state of being a refugee
is something that comes to an end. While the rest of the world often
treats refugees as nothing other than refugees, the novel insists that
refugees are, in fact, humans who just happen to have been forced
to flee their home.
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To cite this LitChart:
MLA
MLA
Lannamann, Taylor. "Exit West." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 23 Apr. Web. 24 Apr 2018.
CHICA
CHICAGO MANU
GO MANUAL
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Lannamann, Taylor. "Exit West." LitCharts LLC, April 23, Retrieved April 24, 2018. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/exit-west.
To cite any of the quotes from Exit West covered in the Quotes section of this LitChart:
MLA
MLA
Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Riverhead Books. 2018.
CHICA
CHICAGO MANU
GO MANUAL
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Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. New York Riverhead Books. HOW T
HOW TO CITE
O CITE
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