Borders and Community Examined Through the Lens of Immigrant Narratives

Abstract

With ongoing conflicts throughout the world, immigration is as pertinent a topic now as it has ever been. Those who live in countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom are largely informed about the subject of immigration via media outlets like The New York Times or The Daily Mail. While the quality and tone of the coverage varies widely, the human element which lies behind the statistics is often lost in this coverage. That being said, novelists born out of these immigrant communities are writing about these topics from their own perspective, a perspective which attempts to bridge the gap between those who immigrate and the populations native to the lands in which they arrive. These stories show the human face of immigration which lies behind the sometimes xenophobic coverage seen in the media. Two of these novels in particular are Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, and Home Fire, by Kamila Shamsie. While both are immigrant narratives, they vary greatly from each other. This project examines the choices each author makes in the production of their novel's characters and narratives, in order to better understand what kind of story they are trying to tell through the immigrant narrative, and what messages could possibly be taken away. On top of this, through comparing the stories of the novels with real life events, we come to see that though they are fiction, they are not entirely separated from reality.