Chris Singh

“Nations themselves are narrations. The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism…” so begins Edward’s, Culture and Imperialism which has a direct correlation with the representation of gender and culture in Monica Ali’s debut novel, Brick Lane published by Doubleday in 2003. Ali has become somewhat of an academic celebrity in London since she was voted one of the Best Young British Novelists by Granta, before her novel was even published. The appeal of the exotic is highly marketable in western audiences who are weary of post-modern representations in popular literary texts. Though the narrative of Ali may seem striking at first to Western readers, but it achieves the penultimate success because it is strangely familiar. Brick Lane provides a new variation on the theme of rebirth and sexual awakening through an almost retributive light. Throughout her journey of self-discovery the protagonist, has to overcome the inherent obstacles that women in post-colonial situations often find themselves in, economic and sexual repression and social isolation.
Throughout the book the main character is defined by being Bangladeshi years after she has left. , Nazneen is born into a world where one accepts their fate, and she is taught early on “to be still in her heart and mind, to accept the Grace of God, to treat life with the same indifference with which it would treat her.” It is with this mindset, the young protagonist accepts her arranged marriage by the end of the first chapter to a man, “ with a face like a frog” As she accepts this fate she observes, the men of a neighboring village are clearing up after a tornado: "burying their dead and looking for bodies. Dark spots moved through the far fields. Men doing whatever they could in this world". And what could Nazneen do, but accept that it was her fate to be married to a man she did not wish to be with. Thus, the first obstacle she has to overcome is the hurdle of being taught passivity as a virtue. As the plot is developed her character is sharpened through the strife of losing her first born and indirectly witnessing the appalling treatment her younger sister Hasina who did not accept her fate is subjected to back home in their native Bangladesh.
Depictions of gender conflict are central to the plot of Brick Lane. Gender repression is what brings the still teenaged Nazneen to London via the marriage arranged by her father to the much older Chanu, who is some twenty years her senior. Here, the character’s tacit acceptance of her fate is evidence of the victimization of the feminine subject in the post-colonial setting. Unable to speak but two words of English, “sorry” and “thank you”, Nazneen is brought to London as is situated as an outsider and according to Ali, what has facilitated this are her Bangladeshi roots which have taught her to be subservient in her marriage. In isolation the heroine observes the new world she inhabits: where the poor could be fat, and people might choose to make themselves "more ugly than was necessary", where privacy is hoarded to the point of imprisonment and acquisition is everything. "Everyone in their boxes counting their possessions". Through these observations we see how the young uneducated village girl gradually transforms into a sharply perceptive woman. Her reflections of her past especially growing up with her sister Hasina does allow Ali, the author to create a narrative for the protagonist, which is created through letters between the sisters. Unlike the seemingly dutiful Nazneen, the recalcitrant Hasina willfully defies their father’s wishes when she elopes with a boy she loves. Having taken her fate in her own hands has proven to be disastrous for Hasina, after her husband abandons her, and being disowned by her father she is left without protection in a male dominated society which has rendered her life meaningless.
The sisters’ correspondence marks the beginning of the heroine’s own narrative within the story since it is the medium through which the character finally gains a voice. Ali’s choice of Pidgin English is used mostly to convey that the younger sister is mostly illiterate, and that Nazneen is also uneducated. A post-colonial/ feminist interpretation of this strategy might argue that their dialogue illustrates the repression endured by both women by culture and gender. Ali may be highlighting the double plight of immigrant women who are subordinated in their native rural communities by their male counterparts dominance and then because of this further disadvantaged in a newer, cosmopolitan setting. Because the education of women is not encouraged in native settings, it becomes twice as difficult for women to communicate (grammatically correct) in a second language. Yet through their very basic exchanges, they demonstrate a fundamental need for literature or narrative as a means of gaining selfhood, and ultimately, representation in a society. This is also the way that Ali’s protagonist begins to defy her imperialistic husband who does not recognize her need to learn English, which symbolically “…is the blocking of other narratives from forming…”according to Said. Ultimately, her husband does unwittingly accelerate her selfhood by garnering her work to be done from the confines of their home.
Relative domestic economic independence which Nazneen gains through a sewing machine purchased by her husband, Chanu, so that she can do piecework for a local manufacturer plays an integral role in her is her self discovery. Tailoring has permitted her to encounter Karim, who brings the clothes she works on, and is a young radical who inspires her to view herself not just as a wife and mother, but also as a woman, an individual. The passions he excites within her eventually inspire the (re-)birth of a new woman who surpasses him and comes to a new understanding influences all other aspects of her life. By the end of the novel Ali has an provided us with an answer to one of early musings of her protagonist from the window of her flat, "You can spread your soul over a paddy field, you can whisper to a mango tree, you can feel the earth beneath your toes and know that this is the place, the place where it begins and ends. But what can you tell to a pile of bricks ?", create a Brick Lane.