First draft of Exit west Essay
Sophia Nisimblat
Mrs. Hagge
AP Language and Composition
May 24, 2023
Migration can have a significant impact on community and personal bonds, by both bringing migrants closer together and by tearing the bonds that join them. Migration is a bonding experience, people are often fleeing violence, poverty, political unrest or some other form of trauma. They are leaving one homeland behind in search of another and they are bonded by the shared trauma of this event. Just as common experience born out of migration can bond people, it can also tear them apart. In Exit West, two migrants, Nadia and Saeed, make a journey of migration together and, in the end, they are torn apart because they want different things out of their lives and they come to realize this because of their journey together.
Saaed and Nadia’s bond was at its strongest when they were both living in their home country, bonded by tradition and culture but as time moved on and they migrated to new countries, their bond became more complicated. In order to understand this connection, Hamid uses figurative language to emphasize their bond, both the connection and disconnection. Figurative language is a rhetorical strategy that allows the reader to understand how migration can impact personal and community bonds. Nadia reflects on her bond to Saeed and how he was moving away from her both physically and emotionally:, “It seemed to Nadia that the farther they moved from the city of their birth, through space and through time, the more he sought to strengthen his connection to it, tying ropes to the air of an era that for her was unambiguously gone.” (pg.187). Nadia and Saeed have been bound together by their history and their journey away from their home. They have been unified in their perspective but this passage starts to show a crack in this relationship. This passage describes Saeed as still having a strong connection to his homeland, while Nadia identifies herself as wanting to move on and away from her past. There is figurative language in this passage; since “tying ropes to the air” is not something Saeed is literally doing, but he is figuratively tying ropes. He connects the ropes to the act of praying with people from his home country. The ropes represent a bond and connection to his country figuratively by trying to keep his “ropes” strong, just as he is trying to keep his connection to his country strong while he is far away. You can not physically tie anything to air, but this figuratively represents how Saeed's connections to his homeland are weakening due to the death of his parents and his inability to be in his home country.
In many parts of the book, mostly during their migration, Nadia and Saeed work in parallel with each other. When Nadia and Saeed arrive through a portal to London, they enter into a plush house with many accommodations, many of which Nadia is very fond of. As Nadia makes herself comfortable in her new surroundings, Saeed does not, and he gets frustrated with Nadia because of her actions in a stranger's house. After Nadia takes a long, hot shower, Saeed expresses his frustrations with her, “sayingHe said, “What the hell are you doing?” She smiled and moved to kiss him, and while her lips did touch his, his did not much respond.“It’s been forever,” he said. “This isn’t our house.” “I need five more minutes. I have to wash my clothes.” He stared but did not disagree, and even if he had disagreed, she felt a steel in herself which she knew meant she would have washed them anyway. ”(pg.125). This quote uses the rhetorical strategy of juxtaposition which places Nadia and Saeed near each other, highlighting the contrast between them as they approach their temporary home in London. Saeed is clearly not comfortable within this migration and is not comfortable acting within a home that is not in his homeland. Nadia, on the other hand, wants to embrace the new surroundings and is happy to be away from her homeland. The juxtaposition in this paragraph highlights their contrasting personalities and views of the world in which they have found themselves.
Finally, the author brings Saeed and Nadia together at the end of the novel in a scene in which they recall a past memory after their long separation. This connection demonstrates how, in the end, the bond they shared was not strong enough to survive the challenges of migration but they, nonetheless, share many memories of their journey together. Hamid invites the reader through a pathos appeal to feel an emotional connection, or pathos, to the characters when he writes, “They finished their coffees. Nadia asked if Saeed had been to the deserts of Chile and seen the stars and was it all he had imagined it would be. He nodded and said if she had an evening free he would take her, it was a sight worth seeing in this life, and she shut her eyes and said she would like that very much, and they rose and embraced and parted and did not know, then, if that evening would ever come.” (pg.230) The sky and stars arewere a theme throughout the novel that connected Nadia and Saeed. When they were in their home country they would lay under the bright city lights and search for stars. Saeed told Nadia about his hopes and wishes to see the stars in different places, and they do this together throughout their migration journey and this common bond brings them together. Stars symbolize their relationship, and how even when they are not together and on separate journeys they are still under the same sky and part of each other's lives. Even the cover of the novel is studded with stars in the sky which tells the reader how important this theme is to the characters and the storyline.
Migration is a universal experience that people around the earth experience in the same way that all humans can experience a connection to the stars and the search to clearly see them. Migration can have a meaningful impact on both community and personal bonds. Communities that lose their citizens to migration feel the impact of the loss of those migrants, and communities that welcome migrants can feel both the strain of the migration patterns and the richness that can come with offering a generous welcome to those in need. Exit West is a novel that beautifully describes the bonds that migrants make with one another as they contemplate leaving their homes amid shared trauma and how finding a new place to call home in the world can both stress these bonds and reinforce them.
Final draft of Exit west Essay
Sophia Nisimblat
Mrs. Hagge
AP Language and Composition
May 24, 2023
The Effects of Migration on Love
Migration can have a significant impact on community and personal bonds, by both bringing migrants closer together and by tearing the bonds that join them. Migration is a bonding experience, as people are often fleeing violence, poverty, political unrest or some other form of trauma. They are leaving one homeland behind in search of another and they are bonded by the shared trauma of this event. Just as common experience born out of migration can bond people, it can also tear them apart. In Exit West, two migrants, Nadia and Saeed, make a journey of migration together and, in the end, they are torn apart because they want different things out of their lives and they come to realize this because of their journey together.
Saeed and Nadia’s bond was at its strongest when they were both living in their home country, united by tradition and culture but as time moved on and they migrated to new countries, their bond became more complicated. In order to understand this connection, Hamid uses figurative language to emphasize their bond, both the connection and disconnection. Figurative language is a rhetorical strategy that allows the reader to understand how migration can impact personal and community bonds. Nadia reflects on her bond to Saeed and how he was moving away from her both physically and emotionally: “It seemed to Nadia that the farther they moved from the city of their birth, through space and through time, the more he sought to strengthen his connection to it, tying ropes to the air of an era that for her was unambiguously gone” (187). Nadia and Saeed have been bound together by their history and their journey away from their home. They have been unified in their perspective but this passage starts to show a crack in this relationship. This passage describes Saeed as still having a strong connection to his homeland, while Nadia identifies herself as wanting to move on and away from her past. There is figurative language in this passage; since “tying ropes to the air” is not something Saeed is literally doing, but he is figuratively tying ropes. He connects the ropes to the act of praying with people from his home country. The ropes represent a bond and connection to his country figuratively by trying to keep his “ropes” strong, just as he is trying to keep his connection to his country strong while he is far away. You can not physically tie anything to air, but this figuratively represents how Saeed's connections to his homeland are weakening due to the death of his parents and his inability to be in his home country.
In many parts of the book, mostly during their migration, Nadia and Saeed work in parallel with each other. When Nadia and Saeed arrive through a portal to London, they enter into a plush house with many accommodations, many of which Nadia is very fond of. As Nadia makes herself comfortable in her new surroundings, Saeed does not, and he gets frustrated with Nadia because of her actions in a stranger's house. After Nadia takes a long, hot shower, Saeed expresses his frustrations with her, “saying, “What the hell are you doing?” She smiled and moved to kiss him, and while her lips did touch his, his did not much respond. "It's been forever,” he said. “This isn’t our house.” “I need five more minutes. I have to wash my clothes.” He stared but did not disagree, and even if he had disagreed, she felt a steel in herself which she knew meant she would have washed them anyway ”(125). This quote uses the rhetorical strategy of juxtaposition which places Nadia and Saeed near each other, highlighting the contrast between them as they approach their temporary home in London. Saeed is clearly not comfortable within this migration and is not comfortable acting within a home that is not in his homeland. Nadia, on the other hand, wants to embrace the new surroundings and is happy to be away from her homeland. The juxtaposition in this paragraph highlights their contrasting personalities and views of the world in which they have found themselves.
Finally, the author brings Saeed and Nadia together at the end of the novel in a scene in which they recall a past memory after their long separation. This connection demonstrates how, in the end, the bond they shared was not strong enough to survive the challenges of migration but they, nonetheless, share many memories of their journey together. Hamid invites the reader, through a pathos appeal, to feel an emotional connection, to the characters when he writes, “They finished their coffees. Nadia asked if Saeed had been to the deserts of Chile and seen the stars and was it all he had imagined it would be. He nodded and said if she had an evening free he would take her, it was a sight worth seeing in this life, and she shut her eyes and said she would like that very much, and they rose and embraced and parted and did not know, then, if that evening would ever come.” (230) The sky and stars are a motif throughout the novel that connected Nadia and Saeed. When they were in their home country they would lay under the bright city lights and search for stars. Saeed told Nadia about his hopes and wishes to see the stars in different places, and they do this together throughout their migration journey and this common bond brings them together. Stars symbolize their relationship, and how even when they are not together and are on separate journeys, they are still under the same sky and part of each other's lives. Stars also symbolize how they once dreamed of the future together, and how that dreaming connected them. Even the cover of the novel is studded with stars in the sky which tells the reader how important this theme is to the characters and the storyline.
Migration is a universal experience that people around the earth experience in the same way that all humans can experience a connection to the stars and the search to clearly see them. Migration can have a meaningful impact on both community and personal bonds. Our world is plagued by numerous catastrophes, both manmade such as war and corruption, and natural such as famine, draught and climate change, which are causing increases in migration. Communities that lose their citizens to migration feel the impact of the loss of those migrants, and communities that welcome migrants can feel both the strain of the migration patterns and the richness that can come with offering a generous welcome to those in need. Exit West is a novel that beautifully describes the bonds that migrants make with one another as they contemplate leaving their homes amid shared trauma and how finding a new place to call home in the world can both stress these bonds and reinforce them.