In his speculative fiction novel, Exit West, Moshin Hamid provides insight into the lives of refugees through the eyes of Saeed, and Nadia; two people from a war torn country in the Middle East. In her article, Eva Menger argues that speculative fiction is the best way for readers to “imagine the world of refugees in ways that in ways that other types of contemporary literature cannot” (Menger 92). With the help of magic doors that allow for characters in the novel to travel between countries in a matter of seconds, Menger claims that Hamid is able to help readers distance themselves “from his or her own world” and “question their reality” (81). As much as I agree with Menger’s claims, it is always possible that Hamid could’ve had different intentions. Menger focuses her analysis on the way in which Hamid uses magic doors to help the reader to sympathize with the refugee experience. But she fails to acknowledge how the magic doors also encourage the reader to truly immerse ourselves in a different world, where these doors are a part of reality. By slowly easing the Saeed and Nadia into the concept of magic doors as means of international travel, Hamid is able to allow the reader to enter a mental state where they can imagine these doors are real.
As the plot continues, the fact that Saeed and Nadia are traveling via magic doors becomes more and more normal. When the couple first decides to take the risk and travel via a magic door, the experience is described in the most detail:
It was said in those days that the passage was both like dying and like being born, and indeed Nadia experienced a kind of extinguishing as she entered the blackness and a gasping struggle as she fought to exit it, and she felt cold and bruised and damp as she lay on the floor of the room at the other side, trembling and too spent at first to stand, and she thought, while she strained to fill her lungs, that this dampness must be her own sweat (Hamid 104).
Detailing Nadia’s physical sensations while going through the portal allows the reader to further immerse themselves in the alternate world that Hamid is creating (especially regarding magic doors). Later in the novel, by the time that Saeed and Nadia have chosen to move from London to San Francisco, the process of going through the door isn’t even described (189). This suggests that the characters have become accustomed to the doors, and accepted them as reality. It is likely that Hamid planned for the readers to follow suit. Thus, showing how he gradually makes the reader immerse themselves in a new world, a new reality.
Along with what is happening with the protagonist’s in the story, Hamid brings in side stories in a very matter-of-fact manner. What’s interesting is the fact that every story Hamid includes includes magic doors in some capacity. Like everything else in the story, Hamid incorporates these ventures from the plot for a reason. From the viewpoint of encouraging the reader to imagine a different world, these anecdotal side stories could serve the same purpose as when Saeed and Nadia use the doors. With that in mind, it makes sense why the side stories follow the same pattern of detailing the door traveling experience less and less as the book progresses. In the very first side story of the book, The man in Australia’s struggle to get through the door silently is explained in great detail. Hamid says, “He wriggled with great effort, his hands gripping either side of the doorway as though pulling himself up against gravity, or against the rush of a monstrous tide” (8). With the same goal of assimilating the reader into the new world, this first side story provides as much detail as the first time that Saeed and Nadia traveled via magic door. As the end of the novel approaches, the very last side story talks about the doors in such a casual way, that it is barely noticeable as a significant part of the story. The story details the life of a widowed maid who really doesn’t have much of a reason to hold on to her current life other than the fact that her daughter still lives in the area. After this experience is detailed, the maid casually thinks, “one day she might go… but not today” (226). The normalcy with which she talks about using a door to travel is almost mind-boggling. However, it shows how common the doors have become to the characters, and consequently, to the readers as well.
Hamid begins the novel by greatly detailing the process of using the doors (in both the main plot and side stories), and showing the character’s reluctance to even use them. But by the time the plot is coming to a close, the magic doors are addressed with a nonchalance that suggests everybody in the book has accepted them as part of their reality. By making this move in the book, Hamid encourages the reader to do the same. As they imagine a different world where international travel is possible by simply walking through a door, readers can then interpret the refugee experience that Hamid is detailing however they choose. Like how J.K. Rowling allowed us to get lost in the possibilities of the “wizarding world of Harry Potter,” Moshin Hamid prompts us to imagine a “world without borders” through the use of magic doors (Menger 80).
Works Cited
-Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Penguin Random House, 2017.
-Menger, Eva. “’What It Feels like to Be an Other’: Imaginations of Displacement in Contemporary Speculative Fiction.” Studies in Arts and Humanities, http://sahjournal.com/index.php/sah/article/view/141.
You do a nice job setting yourself in conversation with Menger, but in accusing her of “failure,” you misrepresent her argument and turn an ally into an enemy. In fact, your argument is quite consistent with hers, because you show how the magical elements help us identify and empathize with what the characters go through. I love the original analysis you provide of the diminishing attention to the passage through doors, both in descriptions of Saeed and Nadia, and in the side stories. This argument shows your literary sensibility and analytical mind. I’d like to see you take the conclusion a step further by closely examining the final scene to think about how human empathy and understanding might be expanded if we could walk from country to country, just for a quick change in perspective!