From romantic novels to traditional folk tales, we are conditioned in Western society to notice small side plots and expect them to fully resolve by the end of a story. So why does Mohsin Hamid defy this expectation in his 2017 novel Exit West? He sprinkles miniature side stories or vignettes throughout the book at random intervals, which never resurface. As a reader, I experienced a certain level of disappointment with the conclusion of the novel, as my expectation of the vignettes reappearing diminished. Supporters of this structure such as Nasia Anam assert Exit West’s unique style is effective because it presents the struggle between migrants and nativists separately from the primary plot. In contrast Yogita Goyal contends that Hamid’s approach is potentially unethical because it oversimplifies the current refugee crisis and removes the historical context needed to fully develop a sound discussion about migration. In this essay, I will examine how one vignette set in Vienna, Austria differentiates itself by connecting to the main plot and illustrating the brutal conflict between nativists and migrants today. I will argue that while Hamid’s Vienna vignette includes the necessary historical context for creating a realistic outlook of the refugee crisis, his overall execution of the story fails to fully represent the struggle between migrants and nativists in the real world.
Investigating the vignettes’ structure and content can provide a greater understanding of how they relate to the novel. Each vignette occurs during a pause in the primary plot to describe interactions between unnamed migrants, who have walked through magical doors, and nativists. These magic doors transport migrants to another part of the world, creating a mass global migration to Western nations. Apart from the Vienna vignette, another example is the first vignette set in Sydney, Australia. This story includes imagery of a man “with dark skin and dark woolly hair” who walks through a magic door in the house of a “pale-skinned woman sleeping alone” (Hamid 9). Hamid attempts to avert the reader’s implicit racial bias that the man was there to harm the women when in fact, he intrudes by accident knowing “how little it took to make a man into meat: the wrong blow, the wrong gunshot, the wrong flick of a blade, turn of a car, presence of a microorganism in a cough” (Hamid 9). These vignettes, and the ones to follow, attempt to strengthen Hamid’s pro-immigration position by demonstrating how people cannot be judged by their outward appearance, but by the quality of their character.
There are differing opinions as to the effectiveness of Hamid’s vignettes and whether they accurately portray the issues of migration. Nasia Anam argues that Exit West generates an optimistic outlook on a prosperous society despite mass migration to the West. She focuses on the nativist’s point of view, defining the concerns surrounding a migrant takeover of Western civilization as a dystopian future (Anam 656). Anam writes: “And so, it is more illuminating to consider the way the novel approaches the question of apocalypse: not as the end of civilization… rather the apocalypse becomes quotidian, arbitrary, manageable” (Anam 674). She sees this novel as a hopeful speculation into a future with complete homogenization of people and culture. Anam believes the novel rightfully assures readers that society has the capability to cooperate even when originating from separate cultures and nations “defusing the apocalypse” (Anam 674). In contrast, Yogita Goyal does not endorse this sentiment, instead claiming that the vignettes oversimplify the complexities of migration for Western readers. She argues the vignettes only serve to reinforce the sentiment that cooperation can produce a unified world without borders, but they never confront the reality of today’s migration issues in their historical contexts. Goyal writes that “such asides smooth out all the rough edges of migration, superseding a conversation about the vast disparity in experiences of travel to simply insist on copresence in space and time” (Goyal 250). She argues the use of the magic doors in Exit West detaches readers from the complex politics involving migration across borders (Goyal 253). Building off Goyal’s argument I contend If Hamid intended to use fiction to speculate on our future, he has failed to create a future that would occur in our world.
The novel’s Vienna vignette deserves special attention. In the streets of Vienna, an unnamed woman witnesses a massacre by a military force resulting from migration into the city from the magic doors. The story discusses necessary historical context by noting that while the conflict was chaotic, it did not compare to the world wars of the 20th century (Hamid 110). Additionally, the vignette successfully decentralizes the main characters by creating a scene which illustrates the grievances between nativists and migrants, helping the reader understand the scale to which the magic doors changed society. The story also stands alone in being the only vignette relating to the primary plot when the main characters read about the Vienna riots in the newspaper. The vignette concludes when the fighting stops at the climax of civil unrest, making the conclusion seem like fantasy to me (Hamid 111). I see this strain of events to be as fictional as the magic doors themselves. In a real-world scenario, extreme fighting would ensue between nativists, who wish to protect their homeland, and migrants seeking a better life. Goyal correctly argues that the novel is too detached from modern global migration issues and attempts to force an unrealistic narrative in which we could all get along if we simply set our differences aside.
In conclusion, the Vienna vignette fills the role of coming full circle with the main plot but fails in creating a valid argument for Hamid pertaining to a speculative peace in a borderless world. This is a fictional novel revolving primarily around a love interest which is perhaps intended to be just that. Despite this, the novel still features heavy topics surrounding immigration which a western reader with little knowledge of the complexities of migration can interpret as an assertation that society would continue to run, conflict free, in a borderless world. Exit West readers must be mindful of how the novel’s vignettes explore migration at a surface level, but not on a world-changing one.
Citations:
Anam, Nasia “The Migrant as Colonist: Dystopia and Apocalypse in the Literature of Mass Migration,” Published by Johns Hopkins University, Press ASAP/Journal, Volume 3, Number 3, September 2018, pp. 653-677 (Article)
Goyal, Yogita, “We Are All Migrants”: The refugee Novel and the Claims of Universalism, Johns Hopkins University Press, Vol. 66, No. 2, Summer 2020, pp. 239-259 (Article)
Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Penguin, 2017.
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Pear review comments:
From Nikita
Robby,
Your essay effectively sets up a conversation between Anam and Goyal, focusing on why Mohsin Hamid “murders” vignettes and almost never mentions them again. I like how you portrayed the uniqueness of the “Austrian” vignette, highlighting that it is the only vignette mentioned one more time.
While your essay demonstrates a good understanding of Anam’s and Goyals’ arguments, it lacks a deeper dive into them. After reading your essay, I didn’t understand how their arguments support or weaken your vignette research. Moreover, in the end, I expected that you would answer the first question of your essay(1), but I didn’t catch it; instead, I saw overgeneralization without enough evidence to support it.
The ways to improve are to state your thesis clearly in the first paragraph, use specific quotes from the book to strengthen your argument, improve the structure of your essay, and reduce passive voice.
1) “So why does Mohsin Hamid break this inclination in his 2017 novel Exit West?”