A STUDY OF POSTCOLONIAL ISSUES IN THE NOVEL EXIST WEST BY MOHSIN HAMID

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gsr.2022(VII-I).22      10.31703/gsr.2022(VII-I).22      Published : Mar 2022
Authored by : Mujtaba Khan , AyazAhmadAryan , Sana Riaz

22 Pages : 220-229

    Abstract

    In the colonial era, the oppressed were labeled with different names by the oppressor and mostly, their identity was snatched. Their liberty was diminished, they were, criticized, and they were put under different barriers including language, culture, religion, and many others. And most of the people were manipulated. The present study tries to explore the postcolonial issues in modern novel Exit West. The present research uses textual analysis as a method of data analysis. For this purpose, selected passages have been analyzed for finding the postcolonial issues. In this study, post-colonialism has been used as a general framework. Different postcolonial writers include Bhabha’s (1994) mimicry, ambivalence, and Hybridity, and Edward Said’s (1995) stereotyping, otherness, and representation, which have been used. These issues are the issues of the countries once controlled by the oppressors that compel the protagonists to suffer.

    Key Words

    Post-colonial Issues, Novel, Exist West, Mohsin Hamid 

    Introduction

    Identity crisis is one of the main factors throughout the world where people are discriminated against by others in the form of racial, religious, and ethnic identities. According to Erik Erikson, a German psychologist “identity crisis is defined in psychology as the failure to develop an ego identity throughout adolescence.”  “Identity crisis is one of the major psychological factors when someone thinks about his or her presence and the role, which he possesses in the society”. In other words when someone is part of the community remains pole apart while getting no importance, no role, and having no concern in the community he lives. In the context of postcolonial discourse identity crises is, when a person immigrated from one culture to another culture or from one religion to another and the same way from one race or race to another one. It is the case with Mukherjee when she was badly embittered in her own culture as she was fully aware of her own (Hindu) culture, which is very different from that of other cultures. Because Hindu culture forbids any assimilation with other cultures and because of its unchanged and culture-oriented environment. Mukherjee (the main character in the novel Exist West)  tried to change or shift her identity to another race while marrying an American guy and moving to Canada. The people of Canada treat them both as minority cultured people.  She argues that the people of Canada did not know their status (Mukherjee's status) or what they had in their Hindu culture as she was from Brahman, but Canadians treat them as ill as migrated black people. She argues that if one wants to change his or her identity they need to ignore or say goodbye to his/her past historical background. Haber (1973) proposed on conceptual (analytical) grounds “There are two types of identity crisis, which he called "legitimation crisis" and ' motivation crisis” ". “A legitimation crisis he calls the inability of a social entity to fulfill demands and expectations it has placed on itself It refers to an inability to justify actions that are called for and on the other hand according to him motivation crisis, refers to a lack of action- motivating meaning” (1973, p 49)”. Similarly, Frantz Fanon (1952) in his book Black Skin And White Mask argues  “to understand the relationship between white and black people, and argues that both groups are trapped within their own racial identities.” According to him, racial differences are a serious issue exercised in the West while discussing his personal experience. As once he was in a hotel while taking coffee when he was snubbed by a white man who passed derogatory remarks, as Negro, black, dirty, bloody, and uncivilized. He said that the person remarked ill regarding him because of his black skin. He said that he felt himself as other.

    Furthermore, according to Fanon (1952), "colonial racism has psychopathological repercussions. In all other words, it encourages behaviour that is mentally unstable. The process of ethnic assimilation, which takes place when a colonised people's native culture is replaced by the culture of the colonial power, is one of his main ideas.”. Fanon argues that this profound damage to colonized peoples. As John McLeod (1988, p. 13) gave the example of such a stereotype for the colonized is that of “wild, harmful and mysterious”.  Another term for identity crises is used as “mimicry” which means when a person is inspired by the high cultured people, and the adaptation of that culture is called mimicry Mukherjee tried to adopt US culture as she found the same culture as a real democratic culture for both black and white people. Bhabha (1994) noted “Mimic man is from mimicry who is the person involved in the process of mimicry” This mimicry can be found in different forms which range from the adaptation culture when a person is inspired by the particular culture where he/she feels easy it may be an adaptation of tradition, norms, value, particularly dress and habits of that specific culture. Mimicry can be useful for the colonizers when it is genuine mimicry and not just an interpretation”. George H. Thomson, (1961). Noted and point out the lines "the streets are cruel, the temples ineffectual," Indians are also personified as being mean, unclean, and religiously hollow and ineffective (p-1). The Indians are described as being muddy in another paragraph on the same page because "the very wood looks formed of mud, the occupants of mud moving." (p-1). It means that the colonized muddy color disdainfully contrasts with the colonizers’ white color. (Iqbal, 2018) Spivak (1999) noted “ in the context of colonialism subaltern is a person who even cannot speak, subalterns as women are more in the shadow”. By this statement, she meant that the subaltern has colonized person but subalterns as women are double colonized”.

    There are several issues related to post-colonial literature, especially, Western-dominated culture. I'm hoping this study will more be useful for the readers, in comprehending the issues related to post-colonial literature and its theme the entire literal text as well as Western ideology regarding post-colonial issues, and will discover its different aspects, factors, and causes to deepen our insight about the issues.


    The Study Aims to Provide Answers to the Questions Listed Below

    ? What postcolonial issues can be traced in the novel Exit West?

    ? How do the postcolonial issues affect the characters’ lives?

    Literature Review

    Postcolonial literature is broadly defined as being "influenced by the imperial process from the moment of colonisation to the current day." (Ashcroft et al, 1989: 2) Ashcroft and Mitchell (1992) noted "this occurs when the majority of literary theory is believed to originate from metropolises, 'providing value to the literary 'raw material' brought from the post - colonial societies. In his work "Black Skin White Mask," Fanon (1986), examined how race differed in colonial and postcolonial civilizations. The native believes that the white mask (culture) is the only solution to address the psychological inadequacies as a result. Fanon's claim that "revolutionary violence" is the most productive or effective manner of disagreement or opposition to the brutality of colonial representation is his most startling contribution to postcolonialism. ‘ According to Fanon, violence is a kind of self-assertion, and the only way to organise the purifying fire of violence is to decolonize the intellect. The anti-colonial revolutionary's instruments are violence and the unrelenting desire to become the persecutor.

    Edward Said  (1978) noted "the Western cultural Worldview of Europeans, that assumes both the supremacy of everything that is Western and the inadequacy of what is not. In Culture and Imperialism Said (1993) states, that postcolonial Independence involves the recovery of geographical territory and reclamation of the culture of the colonized countries.  Wolch& Emel, (1998” noted “Neo-colonialism, often associated with the colonial past, continues to generate classes of self - interest among both "the West and the Rest" in, for example, regions of land and food shortage, where the very well of humans and threatened animal species may be at odds. According to Ashcroft (2001), it may be more beneficial to recognise that imperialism is a blend of explicit ideological programmes and unconscious "rhizome" patterns of unprogrammed interconnections and engagements,” It is a new world order of mobility, rootless histories, and the paradox of global culture, according to James Clifford (1997). Bhabha (1994) noted that it, “entering the dominant discourse and estranging ‘the basis of its authority- its rules of recognition” . Bhabha’s (1994).


    African Writer in Post-Colonialism

    The colonial forces of Europe were exposed by African writers during the postcolonial era through protest, struggle, pain, or obsession. Africa has frequently been portrayed by Europe and novelists like Joseph Conrad and Joyce Cary (2004) in their works, Heart of Darkness (1889) and Mister Johnson (1939), respectively. The majority of writers at the time began writing during that time, and even during colonial times when they were being colonised by the colonizers, and their writings reflected all of their issues and worries with regard to the social and political situation of their own countries. A sense of euphoria swept across Africa as each country celebrated its independence from the oppressor and the years of political and cultural dominance after the continent gained independence from the colonial empire, beginning in the middle of the twentieth century. The majority of the African country's writers began their works by expressing a sense of freedom and hope.


    The European Novel

    Although Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Cervantes' Don Quixote (1614), that was published in parts, are frequently cited as the first novels, it could be argued that the novel first emerged in the 19th century, which also saw an increase in the mass production of newspapers and literature. Chimamanda Adichie (2009). According to Andrew Milner (2005), print culture and print capitalism are linked to the invention of the novel. The mechanical mass production needed for novels (and newspapers) allows for the writing of longer language, which in turn makes the book "more interiorized and more prosaic than any preceding literary form." The narrative first focuses on individuality on a variety of levels. Firstly, the novel captures the bourgeoisie's individualist viewpoint. The novel's structure, which concentrates on the individual and her/his personality, and the manner the characters are presented both reflect this. Also discernible is the desire to develop "round," psychologically credible people (Saariluoma, 1992: 36-37). (Moretti, 1998 aped Milner, 2005) pointed out that there also so-called modern epics, that vary from the older ones in that they are primarily interested in entire continents or the status of the world than individual nation-states. Caen Anno's de Soledad by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Ulysses by James Joyce are two examples provided by Moretti. According to Eagleton (1997) Reading will help the lower orders understand and accept the accomplishments of the upper ranks, 


    The Novel in Africa

    During the 1960s and 1970s, the availability of education for a large number of people in many countries had an impact on Western literature. In the case of Portugal, many writers took part in the Casa dos Students do Imperia, which published works (poems, prose) by authors such as Mozambican José Craveirinha and Angolans AgostinhoNeto and Luandino Vieira. The majority of anti-colonial literature was written in cities. According to Pöysä (2011), some African researchers adopt European literary styles, and decolonization quickly became a topic of discussion. As a result, we refer to cultural decolonization as context decolonization. According to Ashcroft (1989: 2), This work can be categorized as post-colonial, because the word encompasses "all the culture influenced by the imperial process from the moment of colonisation to the current day." Cabral (2010) emphasises that the coloniser is merely ignoring the culture of the colonised when they talk about assimilation. Cultural resistance is weakened as a result, which supports colonialism. Cultural resistance is weakened as a result, which supports colonialism. Cabral cites Salazar's claim that Portugal doesn't have colonies but rather overseas provinces as an example of racism and denial of the cultures of the colonised: “In Portuguese, it reaches the pinnacle of absurdity. The conclusion of a single tale? In the Anna Pöysä case, Salazar declared that there is no such thing as Africa. 2010 (Cabral). In his book Hybridity, Bhabha (1994) argued that in the framework of colonialism and "post-colonialism," the coloniser and the colonised influence one another on a cultural level, leading to colonial ambivalence. (Parry, 1995: 43) pointed out that it is instructive to remember how Fanon's dialogical interrogation of European power and native insurrection reconstructs a process of cultural resistance and interruptions, participates in writing the text that couldn't answer colonialism back, and predicts another condition far above imperialism at a time when dialectical reasoning is not the rage among colonial discourse theorists. (Parry, 1995: 43) 


    Racism and Color Difference

    Racism and color difference is one of the major issues in the world faced by millions of people especially southern people who are mostly, by birth black. As Said in his book orientalism (1978) noted while describing his own first-hand experience with a white man, who wrongly passed derogatory remarks about him for nothing as negro, black, filthy one, etc. Where he felt like others while feeling that black people have no place in the world people don’t seek beauty inside an individual rather because of the black color they are labeled as uncivilized people. In our societies, the same act is exercised but in different ways, here, people respect and honor those who are from the elite class, or the same people must have a political approach or possess a good job having a great grade. As we have lots of perfect examples, here dresser known as (Nayee) in our community has not as much value as other people have. The most intriguing and contentious statement regarding racism given by Mugabe "The white man is not an African native. For Africans, Africa is. For Zimbabweans, Zimbabwe is... The white man is a second-class citizen here." 

    Research Methodology

    Data Collection

    The present study uses the novel Exit West as a source of primary data. Secondary data have been collected from research journals, books, encyclopedias, etc. The present research uses textual analysis as a method of data analysis. For this purpose, selected passages have been analyzed for finding the postcolonial issues.


    The Framework of  the Study

    In this study, post-colonialism has been used as a general framework. The issues, which are considered, are taken, Different postcolonial writers. These include Bhabha’s (1994) mimicry, ambivalence, and hybridization, as Edward Said’s (1995) stereotyping, otherness and representation, these are as follows:

    ? Ambivalence

    ? Mimicry

    ? Hybridity

    ? Stereotyping

    ? Representation

    ? Binarism

    ? Delimitation

    Analysis and Discussion

    In this study, the analysis of the novel concerned has been done. To make it more systematic, the analysis has been carried out according to the research questions. For this purpose, the selected text has been coded for the different categories that cover postcolonial issues. As said earlier, a textual analysis was used and the relevant examples were bought and analyzed accordingly.


    Stereotyping

    In the mentioned novel there are different incidents where it shows stereotyping. In the same novel different types of stereotyping have been used where including “prayer”, etc.  “ the wearing of a Burka”,” the pre-marital sex”, “weed”, and “bisexuality” though all these may not be taken in the category of post-colonialism but still taken as gender stereotyping that women are being double colonized because of patriarchal society.


    The Burka

    Nadia] usually wore a flowing black robe that covered her body from her toe tips to the base of her jugular notch. [S] People back then still had the freedom to dress and style their hair however they pleased, as long as they stayed within certain parameters, so these decisions had significance. [S]

    Here we see Hamid actively seeding our stereotype through narration. Here, Hamid is deliberately using narration to spread our stereotype. Saeed observed that Nadia had a tawny oval beauty mark on her neck that occasionally, infrequently, but occasionally, moved in time with her pulse. … Saeed became the first person to speak to Nadia when he became aware of this. Saeed and Nadia were leaving class after packing their bags. 

    He turned to her in the stairway and asked, "Listen, would you want to have a coffee," adding, after a brief pause, "in the cafeteria," to make it sound less intrusive considering her conservative apparel [S]." Nadia gave him a direct glance. [RA1] She questioned, "You don't say your nightly prayers?" [S] Saeed produced his sweetest smile. Saeed observed that Nadia had a tawny oval beauty mark on her neck that occasionally, infrequently, but occasionally, moved in time with her pulse. Soon after he realised this, Saeed started a conversation with Nadia. Saeed and Nadia had finished packing their bags and were getting ready to go.

    He turned to her in the stairway and asked, "Listen, would you want to have a coffee," adding, after a brief pause, "in the cafeteria," to make it sound less intrusive considering her conservative apparel [S]." Nadia gave him a direct glance. [RA1] She questioned, "You don't say your nightly prayers?" [S] Saeed produced his sweetest smile. No, never. Sadly.” She remained expressionless. He persisted, thus I believe it to be personal. We all have our own ways. also, her way. Nobody is flawless. In every case, ?" [S] She called him to order. She affirmed, "I don't pray. [RA2] She kept looking at him intently. [RA3] She said, "Perhaps another time."

    When he anticipated, she didn't cover her head with a black cloth as she approached the student parking area. She straddled her motorcycle, snapped down her visor, and rode out, dissipating with a controlled rumble into the settling dusk [RB1]. The helmet was locked to a beat-up hundred-ish cc trail bike. RA4, RA5, and RA6

    ? Weed

    ? Bisexuality

    ? Prayer

    Reinforcing the stereotype once more, but this time through Saeed's deed. 

    Nadia gave him a direct glance. [RA1] She questioned, "You don't say your nightly prayers?" }


    Sense of Displacement

    Migration is the main theme and point of discussion for the author. The unknown city in exit west was hit by political and social turmoil. People saw their shelter in migration and displacement situations forced to leave their birthplace. But it was not a typical and common migration. it was a type of different one. Through the magical door, people crossed to other countries. To seek modernity and standard lifestyle people including the main characters of the novel one border after another in the shape of doors. Here in setting the name of the blood relationship and home town a painful decision of the two protagonists Nadia and Saeed has been shown. Nadia chose the migration meant to leave Saeed's father and a gradual death by them by self-trapped in this net as migration is a thing that leaves one miserable. Some people had a great affiliation with their city like Saeed’s father who did not want to leave this hometown. But the civil war greatly affected them, so migration and displacement is a course for both those who seek a good lifestyle and want to migrate for it and also for those who stack to their traditional villages and do not want to leave.

    You will be able to relate to the struggles and tragedies of all migrants while reading him. When you learn at least a little bit about the situation that refugees are in, you will see that they are fighting to get out of it. Most significantly, I've been given the strength to imagine the characters' agonising decisions on why they subject their own families to incredibly dangerous boat trips as well as why and how they leave other family members behind to perish. While saying farewell to Saeed's elderly father, Nida reflects, "She was in a sense killing him, but that is the way of things, for when we relocate, we murder those we leave behind from our lives." If immigrants are found guilty of murder, their acts are frequently motivated by irrational choices such as love, family, and memories. These crimes are the kind where the truth isn't what Trump wants you to believe.

    Although Hamid is one of the best stylists in his industry, this is stilted and off-putting. And the inconsistent use of syntax and style throughout Exist West. Another device of style is its recurrence. In this instance, the refugees entered a different location by entering doors rather than journeying over land. Hamid constantly portrays all of these occurrences in affluent cities like Sydney, Tokyo, San Diego, and Vienna; it is via his words that you will comprehend the significance of the imaginative possibilities of fiction. 

    Using a passage from the book "Exit West,"

    "In those days, the news was full of stories about war, immigrants, and nativists. It was also full of stories about division, with cities and regions breaking away from rural areas and regions pulling away from nations. It seemed that as people came together, they were simultaneously splitting apart. Without borders, nations seemed to be somewhat of an illusion, and people were unsure of their purpose.it shows us a clear picture of the life of the harmonious people they are limited to the land where they were born and competition in the heart of the character in the novel.in the city whose name is not known in the novel, there lived two lovers who're name is Nadia and Saeed the whole plot has been set against both of them. They fall in love with one another at the time of violence. They thought that the war is going to be happening anytime so keeping in mind that they would be separate from one another they thought about migration to save their families from separation but this thing cannot save them and their families.

    During the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21C, there was a new phase of migration. The migration was most probably for economic activities. People started moving towards European, America, and Gulf regions to boost their economic activities and developments. The migrants were from underdeveloped or developing countries with a large number of the population from middle eastern countries.

    The couple met with a greek girl on the island. The greek girl was sympathetic toward them. She helps the couple by taking them to London through a newly discovered door. The couple along with the refugees settled in the home, claiming its ownership.

    When the immigrants entered London, hostility started. The natives get hostile and they started a rivalry with the immigrants which resulted in attacks on the immigrants. The natives were not accepting the immigrants. After the clearing of the immigrants’ camp went wrong, the natives decided to work with the new immigrants. The immigrants were told to clear the land surrounding the proper London, and in return, they will be given a small plot along with the necessities of life. As Saeed and Nadia felt distant from each other so they also started to work. Saeed began working with religious organisations run by the Afro-American preacher, Nadia obtained employment with a food organisation. Eventually,

     Saeed and Nadia split up after parting ways. Saeed shows interest in the preacher's daughter, while Nadia has a connection with a chef. Saeed marries the preacher's daughter after being romantically involved with her.

    All through the novel, the number of exiles in London comes to sound very unnerving to numerous local people and particularly patriots and xenophobic gatherings. It is described in the media that in "London houses and stops and neglected parts were being inhabited . . . , some said by a million transients, some said by twice that," leaving legitimate occupants and local conceived ones out of a minority. It is stunning that these zones in London are alluded to in the nearby papers "as the most noticeably awful of the dark openings in the texture of the country" (Hamid, 2017). Hamid depicts the media as progressively utilized as a purposeful publicity mechanical assembly to spread the exiles and alienate them. Notwithstanding the supremacist and xenophobic depictions and proclamations in the news, a portion of the jargon Hamid picks to utilize, for example, "pull back, annihilation, and give up" have a stern nature, since they appear to be utilized to portray an approaching war or a front line where a military power takes up arms against a gathering of unarmed individuals. It isn't amazing to consider Hamid's London as a war zone in that the "measures" specialists need to take in the wake of issues exuding from the entry and remain of outcasts sound like estimates taken against an involving power, in particular, an adversary. In this way, the state chooses to be amazingly precautious with respect to a looming peril.

    After the uproars of xenophobic gatherings in London, "the discussion on the TV was of a noteworthy activity, one city at once, beginning in London, to recover Britain for Britain, and it was accounted for that the military was being conveyed, and the police too, and the individuals who had once served in the military and the police, and volunteers who had gotten a weeklong course of preparing “Hamid delineates the media as logically used as an intentional exposure mechanical gathering to spread the outcasts and distance them. Despite the supremacist and xenophobic delineations and declarations in the news, a bit of the language Hamid picks to use, for instance, "pull back, demolition, and surrender" have a stern nature, since they have all the earmarks of being used to depict a moving toward war or a bleeding-edge where a military power wages war against a social affair of unarmed people. It isn't astounding to consider Hamid's London as a combat area in that the "measures" experts need to take in the wake of issues oozing from the passage and stay of untouchables sound like assessments taken against an including power, specifically, a foe. Along these lines, the state is incredibly precautious as regards an approaching hazard. After the turmoil-ridden situations of xenophobic social occasions in London, "the discourse on the TV was of an imperative movement, one city without a moment's delay, starting in London, to recoup Britain for Britain, and it was represented that the military was being passed on, and the police as well, and the people who had once served in the military and the police, and volunteers who had gotten a weeklong course of planning"In Exit West, London, the capital of a nation that has a notable pioneer history, introduces the effects of such an atavistic heritage. Despite the way that human rights and social equity have been the signs of Britain's conciliatory talk, scenes of nativist kickback demonstrate that: 

    [w]here as data has moved toward becoming essentially "omnipresent," and while the course of products and cash transformations have been for the most part "changed," the developments of men are the object of heavier and heavier impediments. This distinction in status seems fundamental to the resistance of state "power" in the universal political and conciliatory field; it goes together with an increase in the socially biased capacity of fringes (Bali bar, 2004).


    Ambivalence

    Nadia is a religious girl; Saeed’s always thought about sex and drugs Nadia purchases marijuana (a type of drug) and they both fall in love. The term ambivalence: used by the well know psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud which “a continual fluctuation of two things, one is wanting of a thing and wanting its opposite as well” which means attraction towards the thing and repugnance from the object, person, or an action. (Young 1995, p. 161) Childs & Williams, two further researchers, pointed out that Freud used the phrase to refer to both sexual and death instincts. While there is a form of variety within the colonial discourse in postcolonial discourse. In order to explain how and why both colonisers and colonised are ambivalent in their character and attitude toward one another, the researcher has utilised the same term in this sense.


    Identity

    Are the traits defining who or what I am as a person or thing? We could discover two distinct identities in Exit West: He shares a home with Saeed, a young man with a beard who attends school and works at an advertising business. His bond is so strong that after moving from his native country to one of the western nations, he instead seeks out men from the same culture. Nadia is a young woman who wears a veil but does not pray, who is afraid of being raped but who nonetheless searches for new employers after moving away. She also lives alone and covers herself with a veil for protection.. Saeed and Nadia first cross paths in a city that is "overflowing with refugees but yet generally at peace or at least not yet overtly at war" in the opening pages of the book (Hamid 1). At a nighttime workshop on "business identity and product branding," they cross paths. Saeed is the one who is most affected by leaving. Saeed always had a strong desire to leave the nation, but he never thought of doing so permanently. He was greatly saddened by the fact that his upcoming departure carries no guarantee that he will return to his friends and family.. He is always the one greatly affected by nostalgia and this is the reason why he turns bitter once he leaves his land. Nadia is much more comfortable with all varieties of movement in life and Hamid suggests that the reason may be that she never had a childhood as idyllic as Saeed's. She has been an “other” in her own country and therefore is comfortable with the identity even when she is a refugee. Sale, on the other hand, defined his identity concerning his state and society. For instance, he went for prayer on Fridays because he felt that connected him to adulthood and being a particular sort of man who was accepted by his society. This is the reason why he always tends to build a relationship with people of similar national, religious, or cultural backgrounds.

    Moving from one region of the world to another part Nadia and Saeed to unintentionally but inescapably become involved in the struggle between locals and newly arrived refugees. The host city's (London) government makes the decision to initiate a housing construction project in order to provide housing for the foreigners. Saeed and Nadia's identity is shaped by the flood of people of many ethnicities into their daily lives, the politics that surround these interactions, and the challenge of practising their faith in such a diverse neighbourhood. Nadia, the woman who chose not to pray, discovers that leaving a culture and a nation that she is already familiar with is easier to do. Saeed, on the other hand, is Pakistani and identifies with his countrymen while feeling homesick for his native country. Vol. 1 of A Journal of Pakistan Studies 6 (2018) increasing one's religiosity. Even as they struggle to hold on, these personality contrasts between them keep growing and are gradually tearing them apart. They use a different door and leave for Maine in an unsuccessful attempt to rekindle their romance. They eventually part ways when their identities are transformed by exposure to variety, with Saeed going on with a priest's daughter and Nadia finding a friend in a blue-eyed woman.


    Culture And Tradition

    One of the novel's most significant topics is this. As I've already mentioned, Saeed and Nadia both come from the same city and share the same culture, but Nadia, unlike Saeed, doesn't worship or respect her country's customs. Instead, she wears the veil to protect herself rather than for her religious beliefs. Saeed makes an effort to maintain his roots.


    Belief And Religion

    In the text, religion is constantly present. Religion is the root of the conflict, the reason for their exclusion, one of the issues that divide the two, etc. 

    In Exit West, Hamid looks into how religious practice might ultimately affect a person's connections, memories, and sentiments of self rather than mining the specifics provided with certainty. Saeed's faith is also never explicitly described in the book because the country where he and Nadia reside is kept secret the entire time (however certain components, similar to calls to supplication, recommend that it is established in Islam). In any case, Saeed and Nadia experience the power of religion in a variety of ways. After fleeing his country, Saeed turns to religion to rekindle his relationship with what he has lost, pleading for the return of his family and his homeland through prayer. Even though Nadia isn't extraterrestrial, she has always worn religious clothes to protect herself from unwanted attention; travelling to other countries doesn't alter this. Although these approaches of engaging with religion diverge from one another, it is noteworthy that Saeed and Nadia both benefit most from the social and communal aspects of religion. Hamid suggests that religion itself is something people can use to further their potential benefit—regardless of whether they are merely enthralled with the traditions and not the true philosophy. Saeed discovers comfort in shared ceremonies, and Nadia discovers individual flexibility (or well-being) in religious dress. Religion becomes a solace for Saeed to connect with the memory of his family and his homeland after he left it. Although he tells Nadia at the beginning of Exit West that he occasionally asks, when he's living in Marin, he begs a couple times a day. Along these lines, Hamid graphs Saeed's mild propensity for his parents' religious practices as he tracks his growing otherworldliness." All things considered, religion emerges in Exit West as a means of restoring a traveler's waning sense of national identification. Religion not only gives Saeed a way to recapture some aspects of his former way of life, but it also gives him something to think about when he encounters prejudice and contempt. He and Nadia are forced to oppose the efforts of London nativists and police enforcement to expel them from the country while they are residents of London. After finding a group of deeply religious individual friends, Saeed listens to a whisky guy and asks the others to voice their religious conviction as a means of identifying those who seek to cause them harm. This individual "upheld a grouping together of vagrants along with religious principles, cutting over boundaries of race, language, and country." Saeed's elder kinsman argues in this minute that people should band together in accordance with their religious convictions rather than arbitrary geographical or social divisions. This line of thinking suggests that people should strive to be sure-footed and should make an effort to be people who, because of their "standards," are intrinsically admirable. Surprisingly, this matches Saeed's original belief that his commitment to religion and his petition will shape him into a particular type of person. The petition for Saeed, according to Hamid, "won over to taking care of business, as one of the men, a custom that related him to adult - hood and to the idea of being a particular kind of man, a man of his word, a sensitive man, a man who defined network and self belief and gentility and simplicity, a man, as such, similar to his dad." In the middle of the hatred and uproar directed at him by enraged nationalists, Saeed suddenly finds something to latch onto with religion meaning each and every one of these things. Religion thus represents a strategy for addressing and adjusting to the challenges of being a transitory.

    While religion helps Saeed connect with his history and feel like he has grown personally, for Nadia it provides something more significant: personal space and well-being. Even before a major disturbance hits her country, this is the case. Even though she doesn't supplicate, she admits as much to Saeed when he asks her on their first date why she wears long, dark robes: "So men don't fuck with me." While Saeed eventually turns to religion to connect with his family, Nadia uses religion to keep negative thoughts under control because the supposition that a woman wearing such preservationist clothing should be disregarded. This demonstrates how strongly Saeed and Nadia's natives value religious tradition—a value Nadia exploits for her own gain. She gives herself permission to act without inhibition and goes about her business in a way that no one could ever guess by introducing herself as fervently religious. She definitely uses Maryjane, consumes mushrooms, engages in relaxed sex, and has an entirely independent life as a professional woman. In any case, this is the situation just before she is expelled from the country, but even after doing so and fleeing to Greece, England, and the United States, it still creates a chance for gloating over religion.

    She will not give up her lengthy, dark robes. Nadia responded that she had not anticipated wearing them even in their own city, when she lived alone before the aggressors came, but she chose to wear them because it sent a sign, despite the fact that that she desired to send this sign, when Saeed questioned her why she was wearing her dark robes despite the fact that that she didn't have to since they were not required here. When Nadia claims that wearing religious robes is necessary to send a message, she clarifies that her adherence to her country's religious customs has little to do with supernatural assurance. Instead, she has a social and pragmatic interest in religion because the robes give forth cues about the wearer's character. Hamid eventually proves at that moment that the social aspects of religion are frequently just as significant as religious conviction itself because this circumstance allows Nadia to live the life she has to live.


    Language

    It isn't one of the narrative's most significant topics. In fact, Moshin Hamid first mentions the speech migrant problem after their arrival in England in his book Exit West.

    Conclusion

    In the colonial era, colonized were labeled with different names. Mostly, their identity was snatched. Their liberty was diminished. They were criticized. They were put under different barriers including language, culture, religion, and many others. They were even not allowed to think freely as whatever they wrote was criticized and they were often punished. In this way, they not only lost the geographical context but also the more abstract phenomena wish and will. The colonizers started writing and representing the colonized the way they want. And even suppressed were banned to write. After the colonial era, the colonized started writing and writing about those issues that are worth mentioning. One such is Exist West where the writer focused on the very theme of migration and other related postcolonial issues. Why do people migrate? many issues are faced by the protagonist. These issues are the issues of the countries once controlled by the oppressors. These issues compel the protagonists to suffer.

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  • Fanon. (1952). Black skin white mask. https://www.academia.edu/25552124/
  • Forester, E. M. (1924). A passage to India. London: Penguin.
  • Hesse, B. (2004). Discourse on institutional racism: the genealogy of a concept. Institutional racism in higher education, 131-147.
  • Iqbal, L., Ullah, I., & Rehman, A. (2018). Postcolonial perspective in No Longer at Ease and A Passage to India. Global Language Review, 3(1), 114-125. https://doi.org/10.31703/glr.2018(III-I).07
  • Milner, A. (2005). Literature, culture, and society. Psychology Press.
  • Pöysä, A. (2011). The end of a single story? The post-colonial African novel and society. Doutoramento em Po‟ s- colonialismos e Cidadania Global. Centro de Estudios Sociais/Faculdade d Economia. Universidad de Combra. http://cabodostrabalhos.ces.uc.pt/n6/ensaios.php
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  • Sian, K., Law, I., & Sayyid, S. (2013). Racism, governance, and public policy: beyond human rights. Rutledge.
  • Spivak, G. C. (1999). A critique of postcolonial reason. Harvard university press.
  • Thomson, G. H. (1961). Thematic Symbol in A Passage to India. Twentieth Century Literature, 7(2), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.2307/440627
  • Wolch, J. R., & Emel, J. (Eds.). (1998). Animal geographies: Place, politics, and identity in the nature-culture borderlands. Verso.
  • Yiu-Wai, C. (2008). The importance of being Chinese: Orientalism reconfigured in the age of global modernity. Boundary 2, 35(2), 183-206. https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-2008-009

Cite this article

    CHICAGO : Khan, Mujtaba, Ayaz Ahmad Aryan, and Sana Riaz. 2022. "A Study of Post-colonial Issues in the Novel Exist West by Mohsin Hamid." Global Sociological Review, VII (I): 220-229 doi: 10.31703/gsr.2022(VII-I).22
    HARVARD : KHAN, M., ARYAN, A. A. & RIAZ, S. 2022. A Study of Post-colonial Issues in the Novel Exist West by Mohsin Hamid. Global Sociological Review, VII, 220-229.
    MHRA : Khan, Mujtaba, Ayaz Ahmad Aryan, and Sana Riaz. 2022. "A Study of Post-colonial Issues in the Novel Exist West by Mohsin Hamid." Global Sociological Review, VII: 220-229
    MLA : Khan, Mujtaba, Ayaz Ahmad Aryan, and Sana Riaz. "A Study of Post-colonial Issues in the Novel Exist West by Mohsin Hamid." Global Sociological Review, VII.I (2022): 220-229 Print.
    OXFORD : Khan, Mujtaba, Aryan, Ayaz Ahmad, and Riaz, Sana (2022), "A Study of Post-colonial Issues in the Novel Exist West by Mohsin Hamid", Global Sociological Review, VII (I), 220-229
    TURABIAN : Khan, Mujtaba, Ayaz Ahmad Aryan, and Sana Riaz. "A Study of Post-colonial Issues in the Novel Exist West by Mohsin Hamid." Global Sociological Review VII, no. I (2022): 220-229. https://doi.org/10.31703/gsr.2022(VII-I).22