The Impossible Situation of Immigrants in Hybridized Atmosphere of Mohsin Hamid’s Novels[Latin Thesis]

Bahare Tajik

Nowadays, speaking about immigration and its consequences are a controversial topic of many academic groups. In effect, when we speak of migration, we do not speak of a singular event which is experienced similarly by all, but we instead speak of a highly individualized experience and of many different parameters that come into play. The rise of feminism and immigration has led to indescribable changes in world public affairs. However, these themes are seldom considered simultaneously in public debates, social movements, or academic research. In the field of immigration studies, the individual experiences of women in the diaspora are not significantly considered as the dominant experiences of immigrant men who are still claimed to represent all immigrants. Thus, it can become challenging to examine female migration experiences and it consequences which are ignored and overlooked. The present research explores the ignored parts of female experiences as subalterns in migration and it focuses on the process of their assimilation in the host country in accordance with the Gayatri Spivak’s theories of post-colonialism and ignorance. Immigration experience is always accompanied by tension and conflict. In other words, the immigrant is always under a command to assimilate into the host culture as soon as possible. For this reason two eminent novels from Mohsin Hamid, Exit West (2017) and Moth Smoke (2000) are chosen. This research will carefully examine the consequences of assimilation of female characters of these two selected novels in the hybridized atmosphere. Although almost all migration studies believe that the hybridized atmosphere is actually an impossible situation, dwelling in-between has both positive and negative effects on the female immigrants’ identities. The positive one is rebuilding of combined or hybridized identities which revises and refines their systems of beliefs and values. Ultimately, these experiences seem to promote them to move freely in different cultures and establish a sense of home and belonging. However, sometimes assimilations with host cultures are to the extent that the female immigrants becomes lost and confused. With shattered identities, they are neither modem westernized women nor eastern glorified mothers and wives. As Spivak states in this kind of immigrant women turn from “somebody” to “nobody”. Some women like Nadia in Exit West learn to rebuild their identities and this reconstruction assist them to communicate with different people and they learn to become multicultural. While other women like Mumtaz in Moth Smoke seem to be lost and confused after the process of assimilation. If the character is entrapped in this place, she neither belongs to her native culture nor to the host culture. This will prevent her to rise a sense of home and belonging which makesher alienated and outcast forever