I found the recurring imagery of the doors in Exit West by Mohsin Hamid to be really fascinating. Throughout the novel, these black “doors” open and close, allowing people to teleport from one country to another. What’s particularly striking is how these doors are not just a tool for travel, but also a symbol of restriction—many of the doors are heavily guarded, and it’s illegal to cross borders in this world. For me, the concept of these doors was one of the most intriguing parts of the novel. It’s interesting how the way immigration is portrayed in the book mirrors some of the real-world issues we see today, especially with how countries like the US have strict immigration laws. Hamid does an excellent job of showing the widespread hostility toward immigrants, particularly when they come from poorer countries or lower social classes.

One part of the story that really stood out to me was the analogy used in Australia, where the dark man emerges from a dark closet, which contrasts sharply with the pristine whiteness of the sheets the white woman is sleeping in. This image seemed to symbolize how uncomfortable the Western world is with people who look different. Throughout the novel, the doors usually lead from poorer, war-torn countries to more privileged, Western ones—and in those Western countries, immigrants are often seen as a problem. For instance, in one example, immigrants are segregated into certain parts of the city, surrounded by walls and guards, which reflects how some extremists view immigration as a threat. It was a powerful way of showing how the West views the arrival of immigrants, especially from lower-class, war-stricken areas.

The largest difference between the two main characters of Exit West throughout the book is their ability to move forward and inhabit the new world they find themselves in. While Nadia fully integrates herself into the cultural potpourri that comes to be after the doors emerge, Saeed is constantly looking behind himself, devoting himself more to prayer and surrounding himself from people that come from his home country. In doing this, he is making an attempt to create a smaller version of his life back home, trying to grasp at times that he knows he has lost.

Nadia has little to look back at. She is estranged from her family, dies not fit within society, and presumable did not mean to stay forever. Her eventual relationship with the cook is the ultimate repudiation of the order that her home country represents to her. She marries herself to someone that not only rejects the norms that she had escaped, but whose job of cooking in such diverse styles defies the idea of belonging to one single place or cultural.

With this is mind, it’s no surprise that the two’s relationship fell apart. They were pulled in different directions, one forward and one backward. It’s also unsurprising that when they finally reunite, Saeed is found back in his home country, having been unable to stop feeling the extreme guilt he feels for leaving behind his family and his life, and Nadia has traveled near and far, truly untethered herself in a way Saeed never could. Neither of them is right or wrong, and both have real reasons for acting in the way that they did, but one imagines Nadia as happier and more satisfied in the end.