Essay 2 Introduction

Throughout the magical realism trope, magical elements have often been used to advocate for political or social change in a modern society. In his 2017 novel, Exit West, Mohsin Hamid uses “magic doors” to transport characters to new places on Earth, many of which are escaping crisis or war, including the main characters Nadia and Saeed. Opinions differ on this aspect, some, such as Yogita Goyal, argue that his use of the genre lacks “clear critique attached to the turn away from realism” (250). Goyal states that the use of the genre hides the ways that the world is able to be interconnected in such a way that magic doors have a reason to be used. Others, like Nasia Anam say that the magic doors and the use of the tropes allow Hamid to escape the idea of immigrants as colonizers, which has been around for generations, courtesy of the European mindset and fear of immigrants. However, neither of these perspectives acknowledge the fundamental uses of the magical realism genre, which is supposed to allow the author to represent the backstory of why Nadia and Saeed left home and how they react to their ever changing lives. The purpose of the doors is to allow Hamid to represent these stories without the pressure of representing the dramatic movement that would be required in the traditional, realist, immigrant novel.

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