Brief biography of mohsin hamid was born in Pakistan, but he spent much of his
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| The bearded man’s argument that refugees should come together regardless of divisions of race or language or nation aligns with Nadia’s worldview, which champions diverse communities. However, the bearded man’s support of such communities has little to do with actual diversity, as it actually depends upon the “religious principles” that he thinks should guide people. In other words, he believes everybody should connect with one another based on their shared religious beliefs. As such, his outlook essentially advocates for homogeneity, not diversity, which is why Saeed senses in his words the same kind of idealism displayed by the radical militants who forced him and Nadia into fleeing their country in the first place. The bearded man gives Saeed a pistol from the house, which is full of guns. In his heart he would not have been able to say if he took the pistol because it would make him safer from the nativists or from the Nigerians, his own neighbors Hamid notes. Undressing that night, Saeed doesn’t conceal the pistol from Nadia, who sees it and says nothing. When he gets into bed, they reach for each other while also moving slightly away,” and in their coupling they sense a mutual violence a kind of shocked, almost painful surprise atone another. Afterward, ashes trying to fall asleep, Saeed realizes he doesn’t even know how to use a pistol and resolves to give it back the following day. The presence of the pistol in Saeed and Nadia’s bedroom essentially alters their relationship fora moment, imbuing their physical intimacy with a kind of mutual violence This strange dynamic is clearly the result of Nadia’s surprise that Saeed has obtained a weapon, and so she momentarily sees him as somebody else. For an instant, she’s attracted to him because he doesn’t resemble himself—a foreboding notion, since sexual attraction should ideally come from an appreciation of one’s partner, not an appreciation of his sudden unrecognizability. Certain migrants find ways to siphon energy to charge phones , enabling Saeed and Nadia to read the news. For Nadia, this is an unsettling experience because there’s so much talk in the media about migration and nativism. The fury of those nativists advocating wholesale slaughter was what struck Nadia most Hamid writes, and it struck her because it seemed so familiar, so much like the fury of the militants in her own city.” Because of this, she wonders if she and Saeed have even accomplished anything by moving. When she feels like this, though, she looks around and sees the many different kinds of people surrounding her, all the different races and cultures congregating in one place, and she realizes that she was stifled in the place of her birth for virtually her entire life and that anew time is here, one she welcomes with an open mind. Once again, Nadia shows her capacity to optimistically usher in change, readily embracing and even celebrating the multicultural diversity surrounding her in the migrant community. Of course, she finds it difficult to have gone through so much trouble to escape just to ultimately feel as if she hasn’t even accomplished anything by migrating. However, she takes comfort in the idea that anew time” is upon her because she recognizes that she can now experience a cultural unity she never would have had access to in her own country. As such, she once more demonstrates her ability to enthusiastically integrate into new communities and cultures. Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com ©2018 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 45 As Saeed and Nadia wait fretfully for the nativist attack, a woman emerges through a door in a cantina in Tijuana. Once she’s completely through the portal, she walks up a hill to a small orphanage called the House of the Children, where she locates her daughter, who is now nearly a grown woman and who only recognizes her because she has seen heron electronic displays, on the screens of phones and computers.” The next day, the mother and daughter bid goodbye to the others in the orphanage and hike back down the hill, where together they enter the cantina and pass through the door. Download 0.56 Mb. Share with your friends:
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