Crossing Doors, Crossing Discourses: Language and the Reconstruction of Migrant Identity in Exit West

Abstract

This study explores the transformative role of language in shaping migrant identity in Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, arguing that migration in the novel is enacted not only through physical movement but through discursive transformation. While previous scholarship has emphasized the symbolism of magical doors as spatial thresholds, this research foregrounds narrative voice, syntax, repetition, silence, and dialogic shifts as central mechanisms of identity reconstruction. Using qualitative textual analysis, the study examines how migration first emerges through rumour, how compressed syntax mirrors trauma during war, and how passive constructions encode imposed foreignness in host societies. It further demonstrates how linguistic divergence between Nadia and Saeed reflects evolving subjectivities shaped by displacement. Ultimately, the findings reveal that language functions as an invisible threshold in the novel, mediating belonging, alienation, and autonomy, and positioning identity as fluid, negotiated, and continuously redefined through discourse.