The Face In The Mirror by Mohsin Hamid (The New Yorker - May 16,2022 Issue)

 


                                                Image courtesy: The Mookse and the Gripes/ New Yorker 

      Having read “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” and “Exit West”, I have been a fan of Mohsin Hamid. The way he creates a seamless fusion between fantasy/surrealism and the current affairs have always mesmerized me. This was quite evident in “Exit West”, where mystic realism was weaved into the issue of the immigrant crisis in Middle Eastern countries. With the fiction piece “The face in the mirror” (May 16,2022), Hamid brings his magic into the topic of racism and race superiority. In the wake of the Buffalo Tops Supermarket shooting and other similar racially motivated hate crimes, there hasn’t been a better time to publish this piece. It speaks volumes about the false fear that has been instilled in at least a fraction of the Caucasian population about minority races taking over the country and the need to arm up to fight them. Online spaces promoting false information and propaganda including the “white replacement theory” has only added more fuel to the flame. The story not only portrays this unrest in today’s American society but also serves as a guide to show that the color of skin is never an indicator of a person’s character or behavior. The main character Anders and even his father had come to this conclusion through unlearning and relearning. I’m ending this note with the hope that we humans do the same unlearning and relearning as well to at least set a better example for the future generations.

Click here to hear Mohsin Hamid reading out the fiction piece. 

-Rithin. 

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