Saeed’s Mother Character Analysis in Exit West

A woman who has “the commanding air of a schoolteacher, which she formerly was.” Like Saeed’s father, Saeed’s mother worries about Saeed even though he’s an adult. When he comes home one morning after having failed to tell his parents where he was all night—a night made all the more harrowing by the fact that radical militants took siege of the stock exchange that very day—Saeed’s mother is so overwhelmingly relieved to see him that she finds herself wanting to smack him for causing her so much stress. In this moment, the novel captures an aspect of the complications of love: how it creates connection but also vulnerability, joy but also personal pain, and can lead to instincts of both care and violence. Not long thereafter, Saeed’s mother is killed by a stray bullet. Her funeral is small and the grieving process is somewhat hindered by the fact that it’s dangerous for mourners and well-wishers to travel to the family house to pay their respects. Upon seeing how distraught Saeed and his father are at her funeral, though, Nadia decides to move into the apartment, offering whatever help she can as a way of easing their burdensome grief.

Saeed’s Mother Quotes in Exit West

The Exit West quotes below are all either spoken by Saeed’s Mother or refer to Saeed’s Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

It was the sort of view that might command a slight premium during gentler, more prosperous times, but would be most undesirable in times of conflict, when it would be squarely in the path of heavy machine-gun and rocket fire as fighters advanced into this part of town: a view like staring down the barrel of a rifle. Location, location, location, the realtors say. Geography is destiny, respond the historians.

Related Characters: Saeed, Saeed’s Father, Saeed’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 11

Explanation and Analysis:

This is a description of the apartment and surrounding area in which Saeed and his parents live. Unfortunately, what used to be a respectable and even enviable neighborhood in their native city has become “undesirable” because of the specific place it occupies in town—a place that is openly exposed to violence as radical militants stream into the nearby locales. When Hamid notes that “historians” uphold that “geography is destiny,” he addresses the fact that so much of the world’s turmoil—its “conflict[s],” wars, and disputes—has to do with land and ownership. Indeed, people in all corners of the world concern themselves Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem

Saeed’s father encountered each day objects that had belonged to his wife and so would sweep his consciousness out of the current others referred to as the present, a photograph or an earring or a particular shawl worn on a particular occasion, and Nadia encountered each day objects that took her into Saeed’s past, a book or a music collection or a sticker on the inside of a drawer, and evoked emotions from her own childhood, and jagged musings on the fate of her parents and her sister, and Saeed, for his part, was inhabiting a chamber that had been his only briefly, years ago, when relatives from afar or abroad used to come to visit, and being billeted here again conjured up for him echoes of a better era, and so in these several ways these three people sharing this one apartment splashed and intersected with each other across varied and multiple streams of time.

Related Characters: Saeed’s Mother, Saeed’s Father, Saeed, Nadia

Page Number and Citation: 81

Explanation and Analysis:

This passage addresses the dynamic that runs between Saeed’s father, Saeed, and Nadia in the aftermath of Saeed’s mother’s death. Living together in the family’s small apartment, these three people navigate not only their own sense of grief, but each other’s burdens, too. As Saeed’s father mourns his wife—finding her “objects” everywhere he turns—Saeed himself explores a room he hasn’t used since childhood, ultimately enacting his own sadness by remembering past days, before his city was torn by violence and his mother was killed. Meanwhile, Nadia is in a particularly tricky position because she is simultaneously an outsider and part Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Molliti

[I]t was an easy promise to make because she had at that time no thoughts of leaving Saeed, but it was also a difficult one because in making it she felt she was abandoning the old man, and even if he did have his siblings and his cousins, and might now go live with them or have them come live with him, they could not protect him as Saeed and Nadia could, and so by making the promise he demanded she make she was in a sense killing him, but that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.

Related Characters: Nadia, Saeed, Saeed’s Father, Saeed’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 97

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Nadia struggles to accept that Saeed’s father won’t be coming with her and Saeed through the door. During her last one-on-one conversation with the old man, he asks her to promise him that she’ll stay by Saeed’s side at least until they’re out of danger, though he also expresses his desire that the young couple will soon marry and have children. In this moment, Hamid slyly hints at the coming demise of Saeed and Nadia’s relationship, saying, “It was an easy promise to make because [Nadia] had at that time no thoughts of leaving Saeed.” By using Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea

Saeed’s Mother Character Timeline in Exit West

The timeline below shows where the character Saeed’s Mother appears in Exit West. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...with “decent posts and good educations.” And in any case, Saeed likes his parents. His mother has the “commanding air” of schoolteacher, and his father has the “slightly lost bearing of... (full context)

Saeed’s mother and father met at a movie theater when they were Saeed’s age. Seeing his father... (full context)

...of buildings, capturing “windows and walls and rooftops” in the eyepiece. “Behave yourself, Saeed,” his mother chides, and as his parents joke about how he must be spying on naked women,... (full context)

...goes to bed and “in his bedside mirror glimpse[s] a suddenly much older man.” His mother, for her part, is “so relieved to see her son that she [thinks], for a... (full context)

...first Friday of curfew, Saeed goes with his father to a communal prayer while his mother stays and prays at home, “newly particular about not missing a single one of her... (full context)

...roof. Although hesitant at first, Nadia finally decides to move in with Saeed when Saeed’s mother is killed by a “stray heavy-caliber round passing through the windshield of her family’s car.”... (full context)

The usual funeral and formal grieving process for Saeed’s mother is truncated by the city’s dangerous circumstances. The relatives who visit do so only briefly,... (full context)

...other old men and old women and talks about the past, often reminiscing about his wife, whom they all knew. On his way back, he stops and lingers at her grave.... (full context)

...this doesn’t work. When Saeed asks him why he wants to stay, he replies, “Your mother is here.” At this, Saeed relents, understanding what it means for his father to stay... (full context)

...to watch his parents pray and wonder what it was like. When he asked his mother, she taught him how to pray, and so “until the end of his days, prayer... (full context)

Saeed’s Mother Character Analysis

Saeed’s Mother Quotes in Exit West

Chapter 1 Quotes

Chapter 5 Quotes

Saeed’s Mother Character Timeline in Exit West