Exit West

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What descriptions might one use appropriately for the terms refugee and migrant? What does it mean to seek asylum or sanctuary?

Teaching Suggestion: Encourage students to think about the official definitions of these terms. Who is included? Who is left out? They can then apply them as they make their way through the text.

• The United Nations has definitions for refugee and migrant.
• There is a differentiation between asylum-seekers and refugees, per Amnesty International's descriptions of the terms.

2. What is magical realism? Who are some of the writers associated with this genre? What characteristics are usually mentioned in conjunction with magical realism?

Teaching Suggestion: Introduce students to this literary genre so that they are prepared to discuss the role of the doors within the novel. Works of magical realism, while set in worlds recognizably our own, contain elements of magic or the supernatural that characters treat as normal or unremarkable. In Exit West, the genre of magical realism provides a unique lens for examining the refugee experience and the effects of globalization.