Content Warning: This guide discusses racism, suicide, substance use disorder, and violence.

The most prevalent theme in the novel is the idea that race is a construct, or an invented system of classification that has no objective truth at its core. Racial classifications have often been used to oppress groups of people for the economic benefit of the ruling racial caste. Individuals and governments have attempted to naturalize race, using pseudo-scientific theories called “scientific racism” to justify egregious behavior and racial inequality. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Learn & Unlearn: Anti-racism Resource Guide” explains:

Just because race is socially constructed, doesn’t mean that it fundamentally doesn’t affect our daily lived experiences. It means that its construction can be analyzed, critiqued, and through movement: redefined (“Learn & Unlearn: Anti-Racism Resource Guide.” School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2 Aug. 2023).

Mohsin Hamid describes a post-9/11 epiphany he had when imaging the novel: “I was thinking about a world in which we realize that race is a fictional construct that we’ve willed into existence, but that doesn’t actually exist on its own (Rankin, Seija. “Author Mohsin Hamid on His New Novel, Working With Riz Ahmed and the Value of a Limited Series.