Exit West Symbolism

In the world of Exit West by Mohsin Hamid there exist doors that can teleport you to a random place in the world in the blink of an eye. Nadia and Saeed live in a war-ridden country and wish to escape. They hear a rumor of the magical doors, later buying a trip through one. The first time they go through the door they end up in an island in Mykonos, Greece. Nadia heard rumors of what it felt like transitioning through the door “It was said in those days that the passage was both like dying and like being born, and indeed Nadia experienced a kind of extinguishing as the entered the blackness and a gasping struggle as she fought to exit it” (108). The description of the experience is interesting because it symbolizes the death of who you left …show more content…
She struggles to get out, felt bruised, damp, struggles to breath are experienced by babies when they are born, “She felt cold and bruised and damp as she lay on the floor of the room on the other side, trembling and too spent at first to stand, while she strained to fill her lungs” (108). This symbol of being born adds more to the explanation of what it feels like to travel through these doors, in terms of Nadia experiencing things babies experience when they are born. This scene adds to the imagery and what it felt to go through such door. It also adds to the extreme measures people through looking for a better life even experiencing dying and being born again. Nadia and Saeed going through the first door proves the measures many migrants would undergo in search of a better life. When they arrive in the island of Mykonos almost instantly Saeed felt remorse wanting to return “she saw Saeed pivot back to the door, as though he wished maybe to reverse course and return through it” (109). This proves just how important home really is, but also the lengths one would go through to obtain a better life. They sacrificed everything to obtain a better