Brief biography of mohsin hamid was born in Pakistan, but he spent much of his
Download 0.56 Mb. View original pdf
|
| This is the second vignette in Exit West in which a person—or, in this case, two people—emerge from a mysterious blackened door in a completely unexpected place. In this scene, it becomes even clearer that the new arrivals have come from somewhere else, as Hamid explicitly identifies them as Filipinas and notes that they’re wearing tropical clothing. Furthermore, the man’s decision to follow these girls—fingering a knife in his pocket as he goes—showcases the kind of reception people often receive when they travel to new places. Violent suspicion, it seems, is what awaits those who flee their own countries. “In times of violence Hamid writes, there is always that first acquaintance or intimate of ours, who, when they are touched, makes what had seemed like a bad dream suddenly, eviscerating real Nadia discovers this for herself when her cousin is blown by a truck bomb to bits, literally to bits.” Hearing about her cousin’s death only after his funeral, she plans to visit the graveyard alone, but Saeed accompanies her. As Nadia stands above the grave, Saeed prays, and though Nadia doesn’t join him, she stoops and touches the mound of dirt and closes her eyes. As Saeed and Nadia’s bond strengthens, the city around them slips into violent disarray. As such, their relationship takes place in a fraught context of grief and adversity. When Saeed gets on his knees to pray and Nadia doesn’t join him, readers are reminded of Saeed’s previous assertion that prayer and religious practice is “personal,” that it’s different for everybody. Ashe prays, Nadia honors her cousin in her own way, closing her eyes as she touches the grave. Contrary to what people might think because of her conservative robes, Nadia enjoys a casual and active sex life. When she and Saeed start getting to know one another, she decides to cut things off with a musician she’s been sleeping with rather frequently. She met this man at a jam session,” went home with him that night, and lost her virginity to him. Since then, they’ve gotten together regularly, though their relationship remains primarily physical. Although she thinks he doesn’t, this man actually has quite strong feelings toward her, “but pride, and also fear, and also style, keeps him from asking more of her than she offers up.” Once again, Hamid shows how Nadia defies the expectations people place upon her based on her conservative religious robes. The robes offer her a kind of escape from the world—she uses religious expectations hereto escape religious restrictions. While those who look upon her in public would assume she’s chaste and disapproving of casual sex, she’s actually sexually active enough to have two love interests at once, though she ends her relationship with the musician before anything physical has happened between her and Saeed. Furthermore, the musician’s inability to articulate his feelings about Nadia illustrates the importance of communication when it comes to nurturing romantic connections—an idea that becomes relevant for Saeed and Nadia’s own bond as they grow closer. When Nadia tells the musician she wants to end things, he suggests they go to his apartment to have sex one last time. She agrees, but he finds himself upset later when, after she’s left, he regrets never having revealed how he truly feels about her. He keeps thinking about this until his death which, unbeknownst to him, is only a few short months away Nadia, for her part, thinks about the musician intermittently throughout her life, periodically wondering what became of him.” In this moment, the difficulty of parting with a lover comes to the forefront of the novel. To make things worse, Nadia’s split from the Download 0.56 Mb. Share with your friends:
|