I can say that I like the story, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. Exit West, this novel tells the story of Love and Migration. I like the way Mohsin Hamid told the story. Exit West presents these characters as they emerge into a foreign and uncertain future, struggling to defend each other, in their past, with a sense of who they really are. it tells the story of love, loyalty, and unforgettable courage, which is entirely our time and for all time.
Exit West starts from the opening sentence. Hamid's statement that the
city was "for the most part" was still peaceful. Saeed and Nadia, the
two main characters at Exit West, met at the beginning of the book, in
the evening class. He invited him to drink coffee in the cafeteria. They
exchanged messages at work and went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
their courtship was played during their country's civil war.
In a city “swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace,” Saeed and Nadia meet for the first time while taking a course on “corporate identity and product branding.”
Saeed and Nadia, the two central characters in Exit West,
meet at the beginning of the book, at a night class. He invites her for coffee in the
cafeteria. They trade instant messages at work, and go for dinner at a
Chinese restaurant. That the banality of their courtship plays out as
their country is lurching toward civil war is deliberate: Exit West
is a story about how familiar and persistent human existence is, even
at the edge of dystopia. But it’s also a warning against the assumption
that the end of the world will leave rich, western countries unscathed.
The
stages of Nadia and Saeed's relationship developed in the context of
violence, division and fear. Even when the stock market is flooded with
dangerous militants, the two young lovers can connect with each other
using their phones, strengthening their ties even in a state of danger.
And when the government does not impose a curfew, it is as if everything
is normal, eager to continue their courtship, which is no doubt now a
kind of psychological escape for both of them.
The day Nadia’s shrooms arrive,
militant radicals take siege of the city’s stock exchange. While Nadia
follows the conflict on TV with her coworkers, she texts Saeed about the
unfolding horror. By afternoon, the government descends upon the
exchange in full force, having decided that the death of the hostages is
a price they’ll have to pay in order to establish power and send a
message of strength to militants and citizens alike. When all is said
and done, “initial estimates put the number of dead workers at probably
less than a hundred.”
The
runaway process is described at this time as "beginning and end." On
the one hand, Nadia looked at the black door and knew it would lead to a
new life in a foreign country. On the other hand, he also knew that the
door would take him away from everything he had ever known. Because of
this, Hamid frames migration as a complex emotional process, filled with
conflicting feelings.
When Saeed and Nadia are called into the dentist’s office, the agent stands before a black door that used to lead to a supply closet. “You go first,” he says to Saeed, and although Saeed originally planned to go ahead of Nadia, he suddenly changes his mind, thinking that it’s probably more dangerous for her to go second. “No, she will,” he declares, but the agent doesn’t care, merely shrugging and looking at Nadia, who walks toward the door—not having considered ahead of time who would go first—and is “struck by its darkness, its opacity, the way that it [doesn’t] reveal what [is] on the other side, and also [doesn’t] reflect what [is] on this side, and so [feels] equally like a beginning and an end.” Nadia turns to Saeed, squeezes his hands, and steps through the door.
But,
the relationship between Nadia and Saeed seemed to have feelings for
others. They love other people and their relationship will end. Although
they have not yet realized this, each of them claims to be internally
attracted to others, which means that it is only a matter of time before
they realize that their loyalty to each other is still lacking.
The
end of the novel cleverly ties many themes together. Nadia's comments
about how different things happened when they married caught that path,
while the novel focused on the time Nadia and Saeed were together, they
did not end up together or become the center of each other's lives. The
connections they share are in many ways the same connections they share
with others.
The
novel's focus on their specific connections shows how important that
connection is, but the fact that the novel also shows the end of the
connection implies that all of their connections are also important, or
can be equally important, if they make different choices. Meanwhile, a
strange moment when Saeed commented that they did not have sex, and then
easily acknowledged that they were important. Saeed seemed to have
built for himself a narrative in which he and Nadia followed strict
religious rules, and avoided sex before marriage.
This
story fits in with Saeed's pious growth. this is the story as he
wanted. But now in his home country, where religious disputes withdrew,
he could suddenly confess to himself and Nadia that they really had 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 took Nadia to the Chilean desert, it became clear that
travel became so common throughout the world that people could travel
casually to distant destinations, essentially eliminating the idea that
cross-border migration was something that had to be done, controlled,
and when Hamid stressed that Saeed and Nadia did not know whether their
trip to the shared desert would occur, he once again linked uncertainty
and migration, although this time the combination was inspired by
feelings of possibility, not fear. At the same time, these two people
must travel under pressure as refugees. now it can be said that
traveling for leisure, it is clear that the situation of being a refugee
is difficult. While other parts of the world often treat refugees as
nothing but refugees, the novel insists that refugees are, in fact,
human beings who just happen to be forced to leave their homes.
by : Danella Tiera Putri Ariska (171010600559)
