Exit West: Writing Characters That Defy Stereotypes Part 2

Mohsin Hamid challenges multiple Muslim stereotypes in his award-winning novel, Exit West. Here’s how in 6 steps.

Image courtesy Amazon.

The Characters:

• Saeed: Muslim, male
• Nadia: seemingly Muslim, female

Lovers in a country at war with itself. Saeed is “gentle” and “restrained” while Nadia is “sensual” and “fiercely independent” (Amazon description).

The Stereotypes:

• The Burka
• Pre-marital Sex
• Weed
• Bisexuality
• Prayer

The examples below both demonstrate and debunk the stereotypes in the same sleight of hand. Mohsin Hamid is magic.

The How:

1. Select some Stereotype S: the Burka.
2. Create some Character A who defies that stereotype: Nadia.
3. Create some Character B who will apply the stereotype on Character A: Saeed.
4. Create a scene that pulls the uncomfortable truth of Character B’s presumptions out into the open.
5. Debunk stereotype S through Character A’s reaction(s) RA — which introduces the audience and Character B to Anti-Stereotype AS.
6. Reinforce Anti-Stereotype AS using Character B’s reaction(s) RB to A.
   Optional: does Character B change their mind this time? Does Character B change their mind ever?

Lather, rinse, repeat.

The First Example:

Let’s study the first interaction between Nadia and Saeed. (Mohsin Hamid wastes no time.)

I have tagged the interaction with variables from my formula. For example, I use [S] to label narration/actions that forward the Stereotype, and [RA3] to denote Character A’s third reaction to debunk the stereotype.

[Nadia] was always clad from the tips of her toes to the bottom of her jugular notch in a flowing black robe. [S] Back then people continued to enjoy the luxury of wearing more or less what they wanted to wear, clothing and hair wise, within certain bounds of course, and so these choices meant something. [S]

Here we see Hamid actively seeding our stereotype through narration.

… Saeed noticed that Nadia had a beauty mark on her neck, a tawny oval that sometimes, rarely but not never, moved with her pulse. …Not long after noticing this, Saeed spoke to Nadia for the first time. …Saeed and Nadia had packed up their books and were leaving class.

In the stairwell he turned to her and said, “Listen, would you like to have a coffee,” and after a brief pause added, to make it seem less forward, given her conservative attire [S], “in the cafeteria?”

Again, enforcing the stereotype, but now through Saeed’s action.

Nadia looked him in the eye. [RA1] “You don’t say your evening prayers?” she asked. [S]

For those wondering what Nadia looking Saeed in the eye has to do with defying stereotypes, it’s something I am privy to with my South Asian eye.

Also, note Hamid using Nadia’s action to build the stereotype, which makes it all the more powerful when she destroys it.

Let’s get back to it.

Nadia looked him in the eye. [RA1] “You don’t say your evening prayers?” she asked. [S]

Saeed conjured up his most endearing grin. “Not always. Sadly.”

Her expression did not change.

So he persevered… “I think it’s personal. Each of us has his own way. Or…her own way. Nobody’s perfect. And, in any case — ” [S]

She interrupted him. “I don’t pray,” she said. [RA2]

She continued to gaze at him steadily. [RA3]

Then she said, “Maybe another time.”

He watched as she walked out to the student parking area and there, instead of covering her head with a black cloth, as he expected [RB1], she donned a black motorcycle helmet that had been locked to a scuffed up hundred-ish cc trail bike, snapped down her visor, straddle her ride, and rode off, disappearing with a controlled rumble into the gathering dusk. [RA4] [RA5] [RA6]

Pretty sure I had the same reaction as Saeed upon seeing this. In bold, capital letters: WHAT.

As for [RA4] [RA5] [RA6], I didn’t want to ruin the impact of that paragraph. They refer to “motorcycle helmet”, “straddle” (!!!), and “rode off”, respectively.

Finally, Hamid hits us with that permanent Step 6:

The next day, at work, Saeed found himself unable to stop thinking of Nadia. [RB2]

Mohsin Hamid had me played. Me and my stereotypes, me and my expectations — all turned against me.

That’s the magic. Hamid takes stereotypes associated with the burka head on (no pun intended), and he did it by encasing the issue into his characters, two characters he made foils precisely to evoke situations like this.

The Other Examples:

Will come in Part 2.

The Why:

I analyzed this book to find out how Mohsin Hamid can shish kebab so many stereotypes without getting preachy. As a writer who wants to bring in more South Asian characters and South Asian viewpoints into Western lit, getting preachy is one of my biggest fears. Depicting cultural differences in the wrong way could cost me 66% of my potential audience (a number I made up to motivate myself to do it right).

What I’ve ultimately learned from analyzing Exit West is just another variant of what we are always told:

SHOW NOT TELL.

Show-not-tell lets us (readers) judge for ourselves. It lets us question and reform our opinions in our private space, without the author knock-knocking on our brain’s door to tell us what to think. (Some day I’ll write about how Orson Scott Card trains you in what to think in Ender’s Game.)

Letting our characters wield stereotypes against each other opens space for them to have conflict in which they can demonstrate the nuance of an issue through how they act and react. And they get to be mad at each other and have real problems. That’s the good stuff!

On Stereotypes

I’m sure I don’t have to have a section to mention stereotypes are boring and 2D, and that they collude with harmful status quos. If that doesn’t appeal to you, at least consider that taking a stereotype, and then twisting or adding something contrary and unexpected, leads to richer characters with formulaic ease. The Anti-Stereotype™! (Batteries sold separately.)

Applications Beyond Writing Minority Characters:

This is really just a subset of show-not-telling ideological battles between characters, easily applicable in depicting:

• Class Struggle
• Teen Drama
• RomComs
• Fantasy / Science Fiction

Starting to identify this everywhere in life is left as an exercise to the reader. ;)

Signing out.

Snigdha Roy: Code by day, prose by night, exploring the Craft of Race all the time. How *do* we write minority characters? See the rest of the series here.

Disclaimer: All views/opinions in my writing are expressly my own.

Works Cited: Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. New York, Riverhead Books: 2017.