Woman’s Awakening in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.

Abstract

Monica Ali's gorgeous first novel is the deeply moving story of one woman, Nazneen, born in a Bangladeshi village and transported to London at age eighteen to enter into an arranged marriage. Nazneen's inauspicious entry into the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu, a man old enough to be her father. Nazneen moves to London and, for years, keeps house, cares for her husband, and bears children, just as a girl from the village is supposed to do. But gradually she is transformed by her experience, and begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. Nazneen who is doubly discriminated by her country Bangladesh because she is a woman and by the British society because of her ethnicity. Finally, she finds her voice to say that she is not a puppet of fate and decides to bring all the boundaries imposed on her starting a life without male domination.

الملخص (بالعربية) كتاب مونيكا علي يروي قصة فتاة بنغالية نازنين، نقلت إلى لندن في الثامنة عشر من عمرها لتتزوج بالغصب من رجل يكبرها سنّا. نازنين! إعتنت ببيتها، وحرصت على راحة زوجها وأولادها كما يتوجب على كلّ امرأة ريفية أن تفعل. لكنّها تغيرت من خلال تجاربها وأصبحت تتسائل عن مصيره. نازنين عانت تميزا من قبل بلدها بنغلاديش لأنّها امرأة وعنصرية من قبل المجتمع البريطاني. قررت نازنين أخيرا أن تتحدى الحدود المفروضة عليها لتبدأ حياة دون هيمنة الرجل.

---------------------------------------------- Résumé en Anglais Monica Ali's gorgeous first novel is the deeply moving story of one woman, Nazneen, born in a Bangladeshi village and transported to London at age eighteen to enter into an arranged marriage. Nazneen's inauspicious entry into the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu, a man old enough to be her father. Nazneen moves to London and, for years, keeps house, cares for her husband, and bears children, just as a girl from the village is supposed to do. But gradually she is transformed by her experience, and begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. Nazneen who is doubly discriminated by her country Bangladesh because she is a woman and by the British society because of her ethnicity. Finally, she finds her voice to say that she is not a puppet of fate and decides to bring all the boundaries imposed on her starting a life without male domination.