Exit West

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Saeed find it odd that Nadia decides to ride a motorcycle? 

A) It clashes with her apparent devotion to tradition.

B) It suggests an uncharacteristic willingness to travel.

C) It warns that she may leave at any time.

D) It is the sign of a person who is undecided about their future.

2. At the beginning of the novel, why does Saeed’s family remain calm as they listen to the sound of distant gunfire?

A) They have resigned themselves to a violent fate.

B) They are accustomed to the sound.

C) They are already planning an escape.

D) They hope it passes quickly.

3. What is the most likely reason that readers are told the futures of some minor characters, as when it is mentioned that Nadia’s ex-boyfriend will die in the oncoming war?

A) The author is trying to hint that Nadia and Saeed will end up together.

B) The author is trying to foreshadow the death of Saeed’s father.

C) The author is trying to add to the setting of the novel.

D) The author is trying to illustrate the far-reaching effects of violence.

4. What does Nadia’s affection for Saeed’s father, especially in times of grief, show about her relationship with her culture?

A) While she refuses to join Saeed in traditional practices, she cares for his father out of fear.

B) While forward-thinking and secular, she is nevertheless attached to traditions that express powerful emotions.

C) While she refuses to pray, she respects Saeed’s father as a sign of her adherence to traditional cultural norms.

D) Her respect for Saeed’s father, like her full robe, is simply an outer covering concealing an inner agnosticism.

5. How is Saeed and Nadia’s conversation about the cities they’d most like to visit an example of foreshadowing?

A) They will visit those cities throughout the course of the novel.

B) They will soon be forced to seek refuge abroad.

C) They will never leave the city where they grew up.

D) They will be forced to flee from those cities as well.

6. Why does Hamid start the novel with the meeting between Saeed and Nadia in their home city?

A) To show how the war in that city causes the refugee crisis

B) To illustrate just how much they must leave behind

C) To show the refugee crisis is due to those who fled their city

D) To make clear that the couple did all they could to stop the violence at home

7. How do the doors add an element of magical realism?

A) They always drop Saeed and Nadia off where they are needed.

B) They ensure that those who use them end up in a safe place.

C) They allow their users to cross vast distances in an instant, but the destination is never guaranteed to be perfect.

D) They only appear as an opportunity when people are at their most desperate, symbolizing refugees’ desperate choices.

8. What message does the author convey by including scenes of native citizens interspersed with the narrative of Nadia and Saeed?

A) That native citizens always suffer when refugees appear

B) That native citizens can still go about their daily lives

C) That migration does not touch everyone’s life

D) That migration comes to affect everyone

9. What word best describes how locals come to regard Saeed and Nadia after they arrive in London?

A) Contributors

B) Invaders

C) Family

D) Citizens

10. Why do Nadia and Saeed decide to move to Marin together?

A) To evade the encroaching violence

B) To try to save their relationship

C) To work with Nadia’s Nigerian friends

D) To escape pestilence in the London camp

11. What does the presence of solar panels and drones suggest about the setting at the end of the novel?

A) That it takes place sometime in the near future

B) That refugees are leaders in the tech industry

C) That necessity breeds innovation

D) That the doors are a piece of technology

12. Why might the novel end with Saeed and Nadia back where they started?

A) To show a romantic conclusion to their story

B) To show that homelands will always have special meaning

C) To show their home is still riddled with violence

D) To show that they never needed to leave in the first place

13. What role do nativists play in this novel?

A) They are the novel’s primary antagonists, nearly killing Saeed and Nadia several times throughout the novel.

B) They symbolize resistance and the need to defend one’s home from outsiders.

C) They act as a welcoming party, helping refugees acclimate to new societies and climates.

D) They resist globalization but become outnumbered by the vast populations who move from place to place.

14. Saeed and Nadia once again smoke marijuana at the end of the novel. Why is this moment significant?

A) They used to smoke together at the beginning of their relationship; now, they hope that it will rekindle their affection for one another.

B) They see it as a symbol of their ability to relax, especially after having experienced so much change and so much violence during their journey.

C) They used to smoke together at the beginning of their relationship; reluctantly, they have reached its end.

D) They see it as a symbol of their ability to return home; they smoke the night before they are set to go back to their old city.

15. What does Saeed and Nadia’s interaction in the future reveal about how they feel about one another?

A) Their ability to meet up again suggests that their partners have passed away and that they are once again looking for love.

B) Their ability to fall back into familiarity reveals that they were meant to be together.

C) Their ability to fall back into familiarity reveals how much they value one another, especially after having gone through the experience of being refugees together.

D) Their ability to meet up again suggests that they will always be a part of one another’s lives.

Long Answer

Answer in at least 2 to 3 sentences, citing textual evidence to support your response.

1. What role do gender and sexuality play in this novel? How does Nadia’s experience navigating gender expectations differ from that of Saeed’s?

2. Describe the relationship between technology and magic in this novel.