“No one ‘becomes’ a woman purely because she is a woman… it is the intersections of carious systematic networks of class, race, [hetero]sexuality and nation… that positions us as “Women,” (Mohanty et al. 12-13, qtd. in Chakraborty 32). In “Bengali Women’s Writings in the Colonial Period: Critique of Nation, Narration, and Patriarchy,” Sanchayita Paul Chakraborty and Dhritiman Chakraborty show how this gendered, self-formed conception about the intersections of the systemic networks of patriarchy, race, religion, and identity is visible in the ‘caged’ and submissive condition of Bengali women. While Chakraborty asserts that “there are no basic differences between man and woman in consideration of their nature, rationality, and intelligence,” the ‘caged’ injustice of Bengali women is the direct result of the carious and corrupt patriarchal culture that’s written off as tradition (Chakraborty 31). The patriarchal culture of ‘tradition’ in Bangladesh diminishes and oppresses female visibility by actively rejecting the trappings for women to achieve economic freedom and individual autonomy by threatening fear, abuse, and even death.
Monica Ali’s Brick Lane details the diasporic experience through the narratives of two Bangladeshi sisters, Hasina, a displaced migrant in Dhaka, and Nazneen, an immigrant in London. Ali complicates a simple dichotomy between civilized London and primitive Bangladesh through Hasina and her written correspondences that compare the oppression and abuse against women in both geographical spheres to disclose the corruption endured by Bengali women due to their patriarchal tradition. While Hasina’s letters reveal the inability of Bangladeshi women to obtain cultural recognition, they also show the banishment of female autonomy in Bangladeshi culture that normalizes harsh punishment. However, the narratorial force of Nazneen’s immigrant experience works to unveil the possibility for growth and opportunity that culturally exists for women in London. While the patriarchal system in Bangladesh benefits only men, Brick Lane displaces immigrated men from a culture that supports the oppression of women and relocates them into an environment that does not. The doubling Ali manipulates in the dual-narrative provided by Nazneen and conveyed through Hasina’s letters discloses that while these immigrants originate in a highly patriarchal culture, there is a gap between the fates of men and women immigrants in London. Ali reveals that those who assume success ultimately fail in an environment where the patriarchal tradition is not the norm, while women conversely flourish and develop autonomy and self-determination. The free indirect discourse of Nazneen’s narrative constructs a parallel that differentiates between the woman’s experience in Bangladesh and London to argue that a tradition wholly reliant upon patriarchal extremes and female oppression will inevitably fail without the holistic support of a cultural backing. Brick Lane confronts the Bangladeshi tradition of gendered politics through Ali’s diasporic distinction that relies on the novel’s characterization of women to demonstrate that women can achieve recognition and autonomy without fear of reprisal.
The sister doubling Ali applies through the trope of letter writing provides a parallel and a glimpse into what traditional Bengali life may have held for Nazneen. A close analysis of extracts from Hasina’s letters alludes to the reality of life for women in Bangladesh, which confirms that while patriarchal structure benefits men, women often face punitive, if not deadly, consequences. Hasina recounts the beating and continuous threats that her coworker Aleya suffered from her husband in reaction to his wife’s acknowledgment at work, retelling to Nazneen:
Last month gone she best worker in factory and get bonus. They give sari and for this sari she take beating. Foot come all big like marrow and little finger broken… Renu say at least you have husband to give good beating at least you not alone (Ali 124).
In a culture that maintains patriarchal oppression and power, men thrive because the culture of the community supports it; and women fail because there is no viable alternative. When Hasina chooses to inform Nazneen about Renu’s reasoning that “at least [Aleya] has a husband to give a good beating,” the disturbing mentality of this tradition corroborates and accurately conveys the corruption of a culture that overlooks domestic violence. Aleya’s recognition at work brought about her publicized attention that led to her suffering. However, Ali consequences the resistance and rebellion of the patriarchal tradition with greater severity. Hasina visits her friend Monju at the hospital, who, after refusing her husband’s decision to sell their seven-day-old son, burns them both with acid while accompanied by his siblings. Hasina relays the story to Nazneen in a visceral sensory description of the “thing that lie on mattress”—her inability to stomach the odor, Monju’s melted cheek and mouth, and the ear that “have gone like dog chew off,” (Ali 275). The husband’s sister’s participation in the mutilation of another woman and child suggests that this ruthless behavior is standardized in a targeted pattern of widespread gender-based violence against Bangladeshi women and girls.
However, when presented with the opportunity to develop autonomy outside of patriarchy, Nazneen comes to realize and be inspired by women’s prosperity in London. The possibility for female recognition, even within Brick Lane’s Bengali community, without punishment is not only possible but acceptable. Nazneen’s first moments outside of her Tower Hamlets flat without the supervision of her husband Chanu excite and embolden her curiosity and self-awareness as she confronts women and people outside of her immediate community. Walking alone, Nazneen felt a “leafshake of fear—or was it excitement?—passed through her legs. But they were not aware of her. They knew that she existed… but unless she did something, waved a gun, halted the traffic, they would not see her. She enjoyed this thought” (Ali 40). The equalizing freedom of anonymity Nazneen experienced with the excitement that “passed through her legs” emboldened a moment of self-confidence at the realization that her slight against Chanu in leaving her house had gone unpunished.
Similar to Hasina’s interest in the lives of her female friends, Nazneen remarks on the women in her surrounding life. In particular, Nazneen perceives Razia’s resilience and achievements—her decision to learn English and obtain British citizenship, that arouses hope and instills confidence as she witnesses Razia prevail in the face of adversity. As a businesswoman, the sole provider for her family, and as a Bengali woman who prospers outside of the patriarchal tradition, Razia represents optimism for Nazneen. However, the most explicit patriarchal rebellion is the resistance demonstrated by the nameless girls in burkas at the Islamist fundamentalist meeting of the Bengal Tigers. The downfall of the patriarchal tradition is that it is only successful if the culture it populates holistically supports its practices. The two girls wearing burkas refused to allow men to silence them while rising to correct the Questioner’s failure to recognize women, insisting that the audience be addressed as “brothers and sisters” and not simply “brothers” (Ali 235). The success in this small act of rebellion is the direct result of the patriarchy’s failure to recognize the female population—that which the greater community of London does. The multicultural metropolis London constitutes likewise showcases competing forces in representing other people and cultures unbounded by systemic barriers. This ethnic diversity encourages resistance by awakening a sophisticated understanding of freedom and agency, whereas in Bangladesh, speaking out against the patriarchal structure is discouraged and inconceivable.
While women thrive given these new opportunities and freedoms, Brick Lane’s male diasporic experience differs because the men cannot fathom surviving without a patriarchal structure. While London embodies the opportunities for women that Bangladesh does not, allowing for both genders to succeed without the formula for patriarchal dominance, the Bengali men in Nazneen’s life cannot move beyond the limitations of their own culture and community in this new locale. Chanu failed to succeed in England because of his sense of entitlement that prevented him from being satisfied with his occupation, so he inevitably returned to Bangladesh. Hasina astoundedly remarks on Chanu’s transitional search for work in a letter to Nazneen, noting, “Your husband is very good in finding jobs,” (Ali 135). Ali’s inflection of humor in this dramatically ironic comment relies on the cultural barriers between Bangladesh and London. The reader understands that while Chanu occupies many menial jobs, they never uphold the degree of sophistication that he thinks he deserves. Karim likewise failed to reach the impact and influence over the Islamic community that he aspired to, so he also retreated to Bangladesh to join an Islamic extremist group. Ali symbolically declares the end to the patriarchy’s indomitability with the death of Razia’s husband. Ali’s deadpan declaration about Razia’s husband’s death by “seventeen frozen cows” in his slaughterhouse job utilizes Ali’s dark humor to argue man’s failure to survive outside of hierarchy (Ali 295). As the sole beneficiaries of this ‘tradition,’ men cannot comprehend that opportunities exist for both men and women outside of the community. The ability to think tolerantly was never ingrained in them.
Nazneen’s newfound self-awareness at the novel’s end overcomes the plight of women in Ali’s narratorial quest for female autonomy. In her rejection of Chanu and Karim, Nazneen renounces the patriarchal life of autocracy they represent for her and her two daughters. While refusing Karim’s marriage proposal, Nazneen conceptualizes the life he’d imagined for them. He said, “she was his real thing. A Bengali wife. A Bengali mother. An idea of home,” she was “an idea of himself that he found in her,” (Ali 382). Nazneen admits to Karim, “what we did—we made each other up,” confirming that after finding her voice and self-determination, Nazneen can distinguish between the role of the ideal Bengali wife and mother left behind in Bangladesh from the independent and competent woman that London constructed (Ali 382). In a crucial moment of feminine resilience and autonomy, Nazneen rejects her former passivity along with her decision to remain in London with her daughters without Chanu. Nazneen asserts, “No, I can’t go with you,” to which Chanu admits that “[he] can’t stay,” exposing their arrival at crossroads in their marriage (Ali 402). Nazneen cannot return with her daughters to the oppression her sister writes about, while Chanu cannot remain in a society that does not cater to his esteemed expectations.
Chakraborty’s claim about female agency and women having their own “identity and purpose in life irrespective of her position in relation to the man and the family” is embodied in the novel’s ultimate partnership. After Karim and Chanu withdrew to Bangladesh, Razia and Nazneen face taking their lives into their own hands, prompting a sense of belonging and even acquiring agency as they find work as independent seamstresses. In a moment of ecstatic liberation, Nazneen “waved her arms, threw back her heard, and danced around the table” to what we can presume is Janis Joplin’s “half singing, half screeching” cover of The Isley Brothers’ “Shout” (Ali 412). She continued to sing along, “filling her lungs from the bottom, and letting it all go loose,” while “abandoning her feet to the rhythm, threading her hips through the air,” Nazneen even “swooped down and tucked her sari up into the band of her underskirt,” to expose her bare legs (Ali 412). Brick Lane contrasts the abuse of women that Hasina describes in Bangladesh with the embodiment of liberated joy and celebration of female communion Nazneen experiences in London to challenge and expose the exploitation of women in a cultural tradition that denies them recognition, let alone sovereignty. Nazneen’s physical and mental release in this dancing passage reveals that women want to let loose and act for themselves given the opportunity.
Brick Lane demarcates the diasporic experience of both men and women that becomes apparent through the cross-cultural barriers uncovered by Hasina’s correspondence with Nazneen. Without Hasina’s letters, Ali’s novel loses its sense of achievement, performing as a novel about one woman’s diasporic experience rather than a complex comparison and political commentary about gender roles within the patriarchal Bangladeshi tradition. Razia’s final confession to Nazneen announces, “This is England, You can do whatever you like,” signifying an uplifting end to a novel that includes socially constructed gendered oppression (Ali 415). Given that the men arrive with the cushioning of having been raised and benefitted from a patriarchal system, London should theoretically bolster the perceived success for men and women. However, aided by Hasina’s incidents in Bangladesh, Ali inflects free indirect discourse into Nazneen’s narrative to reveal that the novel’s demonstrated patriarchal dependence and upbringing disadvantages the male diasporic experience, assuming a sense of entitlement that inhibits the development of male autonomy and independence.
Works Cited
Ali, Monica. Brick Lane. Black Swan, 2014.
Chakraborty, Sanchayita Paul, and Dhritiman Chakraborty. “Bengali Women’s Writings in the Colonial Period: Critique of Nation, Narration, and Patriarchy.” Zeitschrift Für Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, vol. 66, no. 1, 2018, pp. 19–34., doi:10.1515/zaa-2018-0004.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
This work represents my own in accordance with University regulations. /s/ Nicole Kresich.
