{"id":73,"date":"2024-10-18T02:59:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T02:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wri101.robby.dcreate.domains\/?p=73"},"modified":"2024-10-18T02:59:21","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T02:59:21","slug":"essay-2-draft-the-vienna-vignette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wri101.robby.dcreate.domains\/?p=73","title":{"rendered":"Essay 2 draft (The Vienna Vignette)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From romantic novels to country folk music, we are conditioned in western society to notice small side plots and expect them to come back full circle at the conclusion of a story. So why does Mohsin Hamid break this inclination in his 2017 novel Exit West?<\/em> The story includes miniature vignettes sprinkled throughout the plot at random points never to show up again. There is a certain disappointment with the conclusion as the expectation of the vignettes resurfacing is diminished. Why did Homid choose to format his novel this way? Nasia Anam in her article \u201cThe migrant as a colonist\u201d believes this structure works well by breaking the convention of a general novel and exposing the struggle between migrants and nativists in a way not seen in the primary plot. On the other hand, Yogita Goyal in her Article \u201cWe are all Migrants\u201d argues this approach as unethical as it oversimplifies the current refugee crisis and takes away the geopolitical context needed to fully develop a sound discussion. In this essay I will examine how one particular vignette set in Vienna, Austria differentiates itself from the rest by tying back to the main plot, and by attempting to illustrate the brutal conflict between nativists and migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to fully understand how Hamid\u2019s vignettes relate to the novel as a whole, we will have to take a deep dive into how the content is encompassed within them. Each vignette brings the primary plot with Nadia and Saeed to a halt and describes an event happening between people somewhere else in the world who have walked through magical doors featured in the novel. These magic doors transport a person to another part of the world instantly creating a mass global migration to western nations. While some vignettes explore how people tend to negatively label others based on appearances, others explore how open-mindedness can lead to cooperation. Each story includes magic doors and the people who use them to seek a better life elsewhere in the world. Essentially these vignettes attempt to generate themes based on the effectiveness of unity and peace to strengthen Hamid\u2019s position in the primary plot that nativists and migrants can merge into a functioning society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are differing opinions as to the effectiveness of Hamids Vignettes and whether they accurately portray the issues of migration. Nasia Anam in her article The Migrant as Colonist <\/em>argues the style in Exit West<\/em> accurately portrays the conflict that comes with migration. She focuses on the supposed western nativist\u2019s point of view, defining the concerns surrounding a migrant takeover of western civilization as a dystopian future. She writes \u201cAnd so, it is more illuminating to consider the way the novel approaches the question of apocalypse: not as the end of civilization\u2026 rather the apocalypse becomes quotidian, arbitrary, manageable<\/em>\u201d (Anam). She sees this novel as an accurate speculation into a future with no more nations and a complete homogenization of people and culture. She believes the novel rightfully assures the reader that humans have the capability to cooperate even when originating from separate cultures and nations \u201cdefusing the apocalypse\u201d.  Yogita Goyal does not endorse this sentiment in \u201cWe are all Migrants\u201d, instead claiming that the vignettes make the issues of migration appear far too easy for the western reader. Goyal argues the vignettes only serve to build upon the sentiment that cooperation can lead to a unified world without borders, but they never tackle the reality of migration issues today in their geo-political contexts. She writes \u201csuch 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\u201d (Goyal). She essentially believes that the use of the magic doors in Exit West<\/em> to be too far detached from the complex politics regarding migration across borders. So, if Hamid\u2019s goal with this novel is in fact to create a speculative fictional work that relates to modern migration issues, he has failed in building a world related to our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A vignette from novel that deserves special attention takes place in Vienna Austria. An unnamed woman witnesses a massacre by a military force in the public streets due to migration into the city from the magic doors. The story applies historical context to the story exposing how while the conflict was chaotic, it was not in comparison to the world wars of the earlier century. In addition to this, the vignette is successful in decentralizing the main characters by creating a scene specifically illustrating the grievances of Nativists and migrants, helping the reader understand the scale of the consequences seen with the doors. The story also stands alone in being the only vignette relating back to the main the main plot when Saeed and Nadia read about the Vienna riots in the paper. The only hiccup comes at the end of the vignette when at the climax of civil unrest, the fighting stops. The nativists and the Migrants leave peacefully. This strain of events is as fictional as the magic doors themselves. In a real-world scenario, extreme fighting would ensue between nativists who wished to protect their own, and migrants who sought a better life. This ties directly back to Goyal\u2019s statements in which the novel is too detached from modern global migration issues, instead attempting to force an unrealistic narrative in which we could all get along if we just set our differences aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

               In conclusion, the Vienna Vignette fills the role of linking back to the main plot full circle as the reader would expect but fails in creating a valid argument for Hamid pertaining to speculative peace in a borderless world. Of course, Hamid never had an obligation to create a complex political argument in the first place. This is a fictional novel revolving around a love interest. An unforeseen consequence to this, however, is a western reader with little knowledge of the complexities of migration good read this novel with a naive point of view that society would continue to run, without conflict, in a borderless world. Those who read must be mindful of how the novel\u2019s vignettes only explore migration at a surface level and should not be taken to heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anam, Nasia \u201cThe Migrant as Colonist: Dystopia and Apocalypse in the Literature of Mass Migration,\u201d\u00a0Published by Johns Hopkins University<\/em>, Press ASAP\/Journal, Volume 3, Number 3, September 2018, pp. 653-677 (Article)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goyal, Yogita, \u201cWe Are All Migrants\u201d: The refugee Novel and the Claims of Universalism,\u00a0Johns Hopkins University Press,\u00a0<\/em>Vol. 66, No. 2, Summer 2020, pp. 239-259 (Article) \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West<\/em>. Penguin, 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honor Code Pledge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my honor I have neither given nor received unauthorized information regarding this work, I have followed and will continue to observe all regulations regarding it, and I am unaware of any violation of the Honor Code by others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From romantic novels to country folk music, we are conditioned in western society to notice small side plots and expect them to come back full circle at the conclusion of a story. So why does Mohsin Hamid break this inclination in his 2017 novel Exit West? The story includes miniature vignettes sprinkled throughout the plot … <\/p>\n

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