At the beginning of the book Saeed and Nadia meet, at a night class on “corporate identity and product branding.” Saeed invites Nadia for coffee in the cafeteria. They trade instant messages at work, and go for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Their relationship is happening while their country is heading toward civil war. Hamid writes the story like this deliberately. 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 intact. With that being said, Hamid’s novel is both a tale about refugees playing out against a global migrant crisis and impossibly prescient. When it comes to the future, Hamid states, we will all be migrants, whether we hop from country to country or stay in one place until the day we die. Either way, the world can become unrecognizable in the blink of an eye. What makes Exit West so striking is the ways in which it shows the breakdown of a society, and how effortlessly the cycle begins to repeat itself even when Saeed and Nadia think they’ve made it to safety. In the beginning of the novel, the two live in “a city swollen by refugees, but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war”, in a country that is left intentionally open to more than one interpretation. It could be Pakistan, Syria, Libya or any other the reader interprets it to be. Saeed works for a company that places outdoor
In response to an essay by Salman Rushdie, author Scott Russell Sanders critiques Rushdie’s assertion that “to be a migrant is, perhaps, to be the only species of human being free of the shackles of naturalism” (Rushdie). Sanders believes that constant movement and migration results in “disastrous consequences for the earth and for ourselves,” and he argues that settling is essential for humans (Sanders). In this passage, Sanders uses and inductive structure beginning with broad examples of American romanticism of transient lifestyle, and ends with his thesis, leading the reader down a path directly to his counter of Rushdie’s claim. Furthermore, Sanders provides historical examples to logically show the benefits of “making a home in a restless world” (Sanders).
Farah Ahmedi was eager to escape a war torn country so she could live a better life. “The gate to Pakistan was closed, and I could see that the Pakistani border guards were letting on one through…. I felt desperate to get through...if we got stuck here, what were we going to do? Where would we stay?” (Amedi paragraph 1) She was so worried about the fact that if
As Yohan’s journey is shown through the film, there is also another perspective that shows more personal reflection of what it means to be a migrant leaving their country and why migrants leave their families. Yohan’s brother said that he was pressured to travel to the United States because of the economic situation and his
In order to understand the Lemon Test, it is first important to understand what the Establishment Clause is. According to the Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute, the Establishment Clause is as follows, “The First Amendment's Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion”. Meaning, that a government run educational institution, is by law required to have a separation of church and state in the a school environment. This includes, but is not limited to: school prayer, moments of silence, bible study, the Pledge of Allegiance, religiously based holiday parties, scientific materials studied, etc (Imber, et. All).
Home is a complex term that can be thought of in many different ways. Hamid breaks down the definition of home and broadens it significantly in his novel, Exit West. Throughout the beginning of the last chapter of Hamid’s Exit West, the third person narrative voice makes it clear that Nadia no longer has a connection to her birthplace. A certain distance is present as she walks through the town; a town that is “familiar but also unfamiliar,” and has lost many of its recognizable characteristics to war and fire (Hamid 229). This theme of the last chapter connects to the overall lack of place in the novel. Hamid refuses to name the place of Nadia and Saeed’s birth and he rejects the notion of home for the whole of the novel. The
This essay is about the universal refugee experience and the hardships that they have to go through on their journey. Ha from Inside Out and Back Again and other refugees from the article “Children of War” all struggle with the unsettling feeling of being inside out because they no longer own the things that mean the most to them. Ha and the other refugees all encounter similar curiosities of overcoming the finding of that back again peaceful consciousness in the “new world” that they are living in .
Completely by different circumstances are the members of the middle generation shaped – Amir, Hassan and Assef. Their childhood covers the transitional part of Afghanistan’s 20-th century history. Of course, the boys are really different in nature, but Soviet occupation is what caused such different roads to be chosen by the three characters. And that huge change in their lives determined who they are going to grow into as adults.
Refugees are common everyday people, that are forced to flee their home because they are trying to get away from the political problems, war, religious persecution, and for many other reasons. While fleeing home refugees are turned “inside out” because they leave love one’s behind, jobs, memories, and even their culture. When refugees turn “back again” they start their lives all over and learn a new language, do different jobs, and live in different environments. In the novel “Inside Out and Back Again” by Thanhha Lai, Ha is a 10 year-old girl, that her life has turned “inside out” like many refugees, while she is fleeing home because she left behind her culture and lifestyle. However, after Ha got to Alabama she starts to learn a new
“They knew there was a possibility the agent had sold them out to the militants, and so they knew there was a possibility this was the final afternoon of their lives”(Hamid 102); leaving your country might be the hardest decision that someone has to make. In Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West he puts his main characters in a dangerous situation of trusting a total stranger to get them into another county with a chance of them being sold out and killed. This decision to migrate includes leaving your family and friends, starting your life over, and possibly endangering the lives of your family along with yourself. Hamid follows a young couple migrating out of their home town for safety and a better life. The challenges presented in the novel can be applied to real life migration. Hamid represents the difficulties of traveling from country to country through his magical doors, includes learning how to find your way in new places, and presents the idea of countries not wanting migrants. Exit West reveals the migration issues in today's world to prove that migrants deserve the same basic liberties as everyone else, because it effects everyone else and takes a lot of will power to travel to an unfamiliar place.
Did you know that according to the Un refugee Agency’s annual Global Trends study found that 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide at the end of 2016- a total bigger than the population of the united kingdom and about 300,000 more than last year. ? Its tragic that this is true but this is what the world has came to.In the text Going to School as a Refugee the main issue for SB was he couldn't speak the language so he was always lost in school and always made fun of for being different than everyone else. Every refugee struggles with this problem because they flee their country to different one with a different language. When war comes to their village some of their family members die because if they dont agree with whats going on the communists or the army will kill them and move on. Since they don't know how to speak the language they can't make friends so they are always lonely, the only people they can talk to is other refugees that speak their language or their family. In the book Inside out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai the main character is a 10 year old girl named Ha. Since the war came to her village she had to put her childhood aside and be a grownup. She couldn't be picky because the she got were very limited because she wasn't rich her dad was captured and never came home. Like Ha, refugees are turned “inside out” when the war is coming to their village which means they have to flee their country and it means that they have to restart their
Social conditions are what shape a country. Over the years, people, not only in Afghanistan, but around the world create norms that define people’s roles in life, their future, and how they should be treated based on their gender and beliefs. Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, comments on the social conditions of Afghanistan through telling a story about the lives of two Muslim boys; a privileged Sunni Pashtun, Amir, and his long-time friend and servant, Hassan, a loyal but disadvantaged Shia Hazara. Hosseini expresses Amir’s uncertain feelings toward Hassan which form the decisions he makes throughout the book. These choices result in Amir destroying his relationship with Hassan. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini is a commentary on the social conditions in Afghanistan as shown through the roles of women and men in society and the ideals of Afghan culture. Unfortunately, these problems are still active in most of Afghanistan.
In the novel “Inside out & Back Again” written by Thanhha Lai , The main character Ha flees her home due to war. Her and her family were looking for a new home trying to start a new life. Although it wasn’t easy for her to start a new life she had to learn to overcome many challenges. In the novel Ha reveals that her life is related to the refugee life even though it was unexpected. When refugees flee their home, it affects them when they leave and find a new home, it also involves affecting them when their life is turned inside out,and it demonstrates why they relate to the refugee experience.
As a further means of separating the population into distinct groups, religion acts as a divisionary force between characters and cultures. There are two primary conflicting cultures represented in the novel that are the cause of religious differences: Sunnis versus Shi’ites and secularism versus religious fundamentalism. Similar to the discrimination based on ethnicity, the conflict based on religion is primarily exemplified through Assef and Hassan, who are Sunni and Shi’ite, respectively. As such, any justification for inclusion and exclusion of people not based solely on ethnicity could just be rationalized through differences of religion. With this prevalent culture present, the importance is in the author’s depiction of the “bleak hypocrisies of the Taliban period--the disgusting cruelties performed in the name of righteousness” as stated by David Denby in “Hard Life.” Through the
Hassan is a victim of discrimination, bigotry, and class structure in Afghan society. Hassan and Ali are members of the Hazaras, a minority group of Afghanis. Amir and his father are Pashtuns, the majority, who believes they are a better class than the Hazara. Religion was all that separated Amir and Hassan, as did tribe and class. Amir learned from his father that the Harara tribe to which Ali and Hassan belonged, were inferior people. Because of this bigotry and basic class structure, Hazaras are often victims of physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Thus when a crisis comes and Hassan is being attack, Amir not only doesn't come to Hassan's aid, but also allows him to be brutally abused. Morality lacks because of this class structure, which allows people to be treated as second-class citizens. Considerations towards morality and religion helps the reader to broaden there understanding of the novel and it would be impossible to appreciated the book lacking them.
Hamida is the character that represents the people who yearn for a change. Often, she feels as though she is worth more than just living in the old alley – and she calls it a “Nothing Alley”(27) and asking herself “Oh what a shame Hamida, what are you doing living in this alley? (27)”. During World War II, many people in Midaq Alley go to work for the soldiers in the hope of earning more money and living in a more comfortable life. Hamida is one of those people who sacrifice themselves and everything that they have in an exchange for the wealthy life they always have dreamed of. Hamida is not a religious person and has a different perspective from the people in the alley because she sees a better life in the modern world. In the end, she decides to become a prostitute for pretty clothes and jewelries. She does not regret choosing this life as she is able to have an opportunity that gives her “desire for life and adventure (186)”.