Brief biography of mohsin hamid was born in Pakistan, but he spent much of his
Download 0.56 Mb. View original pdf
|
| Once again, uncertainty accompanies the changes inflicted upon Nadia and Saeed’s city by the militant radicals. In the same way that Nadia will never know what happened to the musician, her ex- lover, she will also never know whether or not her family managed to escape the city unharmed. In turn, this uncertainty—this questioning—becomes her only connection to past loved ones. In other words, her only tie to people like her parents is the very uncertainty that makes it impossible for to be with them in the first place. The city’s inhabitants begin to look at windows differently. “A window was a border through which death was possibly most likely to come Hamid writes. As such, people put couches and other furniture against the windows. Saeed’s family does just this, rearranging the furniture so that Saeed’s bed blocks the tallest windows in the sitting room. Meanwhile, rumors circulate throughout the city about doors that can take people “elsewhere, often to places faraway, well removed from this deathtrap of a country A normal door some people say, can become a special door without warning. As such, the city’s residents also begin to look at their doors differently, seeing them as potential portals that might someday whisk them away. Finally, Hamid provides readers with insight into how the characters in the book’s periodic vignettes are simply appearing into unlikely rooms and countries there are doors that bend the laws of physics and, in doing so, render borders and divisions utterly useless. This phenomenon is especially significant for people like Saeed and Nadia, who would benefit greatly from leaving behind their country and transporting themselves elsewhere. Suddenly, it seems, the entire idea of geographical demarcation means nothing, for the world has opened itself up, connecting unlikely places with one another and offering passage to anybody who finds one of these strange portals. Each morning, Saeed and Nadia wake up in their separate apartments and peer at the nearest doors. Unfortunately, these doors don’t turn into the mysterious portals, instead remaining “on/off switches in the flow between two adjacent places, binarily either open or closed Still, though, looking at their doors in this way changes their perceptions, making the doors themselves partially animate like objects with a subtle power to mock, to mock the desires of those who desire to go far away.” When Saeed and Nadia stare at the doors in their rooms and feel as if they’re being mocked what they feel is the tug of possibility, the call of anew life. As Exit West progresses, readers begin to intuit that Nadia and Saeed want to—even need to—escape; something the doors can perhaps help them do. Nadia and Saeed spend more time together now that they don’t have jobs, and Saeed suggests that Nadia move in with him and his family, telling her they don’t have to get married to live in the same apartment. The only thing is that they’d need to remain chaste under his parents roof. Although hesitant at first, Nadia finally decides to move in with Saeed when Saeed’s mother is killed by astray heavy-caliber round passing through the windshield of her family’s car When Nadia sees how distraught Saeed and his father are at the funeral, she determines to stay with them for the night to offer what comfort and help she can From then on, she never spends another night in her own apartment. Nadia’s decision to move in with Saeed is beneficial to both of them. First of all, Saeed and his father seem to need her to help them cope with the death of Saeed’s mother. Second of all, Nadia herself no doubt understands that it’s unsafe to live alone in the city during such a turbulent period, especially as a young woman. Plus, if the Download 0.56 Mb. Share with your friends:
|