The Role and the Meaning of the Mysterious Doors in Exit West

Mohsin Hamid, Exit West (2017): Reading Issues and Questions.
NOTE: To prepare for your Hamid assignment, pay attention, while reading the novel, to the following issues and questions:
1. “Geography is destiny” (p. 11): “location” and why it matters in the book. But can we pinpoint the country or place Nadia and Saeed come from? Is it Syria or a place like it? Even so, why is it that the country, city, or region is not named? Hamid prefers not to identify “location” in other novels as well.
2. Genre or form: romance, travel narrative, magical realism (the “doors” through which refugees exit/enter remote worlds).
3. London as war zone: 135, 146, 154, 162
4. Narrative tine
5. Distance, connection, kin/kind (189)
6. Make a list of all places connected magically to the main plot (Japan, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, the Netherlands, etc.); also make a list of places where Nadia and Saeed live.
7. How do people travel to other places? How are these places connected? What are the networks linking people up and to various institutions and agencies of the host nation-state? Drones, choppers, satellites, phones. See 39-40, 151. The planet on the move (169).
8. How do communities form and disintegrate? How traumatic are these processes?
9. How is the planet coming together while being, at the same time, torn apart by violence and xenophobia? EU, various exits and Brexits, integration and disintegration of the world; refugees/migrants and “nativists” (146-147, 158-159, 197, etc.).
10. Migration through space and time (209, 213)
Assignment:
Write NO MORE THAN a 1-page double-spaced essay (12-point Times New Roman) in response to the following questions:
What is the role and meaning of the mysterious doors that allow some characters in the novel to travel from one place to another around the world? And if these journeys are indeed made possible by the magical doors, how does this possibility square with what we learn about location, geography, and history on p. 11? Where do you think the author stands on these issues?
Directions:
Be specific in your discussion and make use of textual evidence as appropriate. You must incorporate analytical language as you comment closely on the fiction fragments used to back up your claim or claims. Your commentary should identify themes and problems, as well as attend to literary technique. Revise your essay carefully for logic, clarity of expression, and style (including grammar, punctuation, spelling, mechanics, and the like). Proofread your work one more time at the end. Also, remember that your text must be polished and generally in accord with the academic conventions at this level. No texting symbols, acronyms, shorthand forms, or excessive colloquialisms are acceptable. Your essay will be evaluated on both content (quality of the analysis) and form. For the essay, short as it is, I suggest a classical structure: brief introduction (in which you make your core claim or put forth some kind of contention or thesis); discussion of evidence (argument); and conclusion.