Diasporic Literature

Table of Contents
Chapter 1. DIASPORIC LITERATURE 10

DIASPORAS
10
MAJOR THEMES OF DIASPORAS

AFRICAN DIASPORAS
ASIAN DIASPORAS
11
13
14
DIASPORIC LITERATURE AND DIASPORIC WRITERS

VARIETIES IN THE WRITINGS 21
Chapter 2. BANGLADESHI DIASPORA
23
Chapter 3 BRICK LANE IS A DIASPORIC WORK

Chapter 4. EARLY PHASE: DEPENDENCY
27
39
YOU CAN JUST SEE WHAT FATE WILL DO

IDEAL CHANU
43
HE SPOKE BANGLA
44
Chapter 5. SECOND PHASE: TRANSFORMATION 46

ICE E-SKATING
47
GOING HOME SYNDROME
49
Chapter 6. THE THIRD PHASE: INDEPENDENCE 52

I WILL DECIDE WHAT TO DO
53
KARIM? HE WENT TO BANGLADESH 56
40
14
Works Cited. 60
INTRODUCTION
Constitution of identity for any group in an unfamiliar space is always a
problematic undertaking if the space cannot accommodate, even partly,
their cultural and behavioural approaches. Now, what if the immigrant group
is from an Asian space that has been suffering racial separation, and also,
what if they are followers of a religion that has threatening face in western
world? So is the very case of Bangladeshi British community who, although
have begun their migration from Sylhet and settlement in east areas of
London city two centuries before for better employment and livelihood and
have set up their own living structure there by being dissociated of their
homeland culture(British Bangladeshi para.1), themselves have been
confused on identifying their position on
whether to accede to their
ancestral Islamic cultural identity or should display a collaborative position

to the British people by involving with many non- Islamic practices and
cultures of the later. This impasse existed apparently from long before is
described, if not plainly, in the 2003 published Monica Alis novel Brick Lane.
Actually Monica Alis Brick Lane came out in the summer of 2003 sparking
heated debates among readers and critics around the issue of authenticity in
its representation of the Bangladeshi community of Londons East End. Some
critics enthusiastically praised it for pulling back the curtains of the
residences of Tower Hamlets, while others indignantly berated it for what
they considered the novels gross misrepresentation of Bengalis culture in
London.
This dissertation is an endeavour to go beyond debates concerning

Monica Alis Brick Lane as a Novel of Diaspora and to understand how these
diaspora people constitute their identity in other land. I would like to look at
Brick Lane as a novel of diaspora being Monica Ali a Bangladeshi writer,
settled in England. She was born to English and Bangladeshi parents on
1967, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At the age of three, she came to England with
her parents from Bangladesh. She had her education in Philosophy, Politics
and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford. In Brick Lane Monica Ali narrates
the story of Nazneen-a village girl from Bangladesh, marries Chanu, who is
living in London.
Diaspora refers to the sense of displacement, alienation and feeling of
nostalgia. The focus of my dissertation is on the diasporic elements and
themes as reflected in Monica Alis Brick Lane (2003). The diaspora is clearly
visible in this novel. The feeling of nostalgia is reflected in the characters of
the novel. Alienation and the crisis of identity are the dominant themes in
the novel. The themes will be seen through the lens of migration and
multiculturalism in a postcolonial setting, which is a prevailing theme in the
novel. Furthermore, my focal point will be the question of discrimination and
oppression, as these issues are related to all of the themes of diaspora. In
particular,
am
interested
in
investigating
why
some
people
are
discriminated against in foreign countries, and how literature represents this

discrimination. Well-known literary critics will be drawn into the discussion
when appropriate. My aim in this dissertation is to examine authors
individual approach to the themes of diaspora and to observe if and how
these themes are linked together. I would also like to find out how the
concept of identity influences these issues differently in the novel.
The themes of the novel are interesting to me, both personally and in a
global perspective. The focus on the history of female authors, their texts,
and the interpretations of these texts by female critics appealed to me and
opened up a new way of reading and understanding literature. In particular, I
realized how female authors have had to struggle compared to men in order
to be recognized and to enter the traditional canon. Before the course
started I had read Brick Lane, and I soon decided to explore the novel
further. I was fascinated by Alis fine characterizations, the challenges of
multicultural societies, her vivid writing style and the optimism which
prevailed among her female figures. This was the first idea of doing work for
my dissertation.
The novel comprises themes like migration, multiculturalism, religion,
cultural aspects, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence.
These issues are not new, and they are more relevant than ever in the
dynamic picture of the world today. Migration has been a major theme
throughout history. The reasons for migration have varied, but climatic,
social, religious, cultural and financial factors have been important. In
general, the common aim of migration has been to improve ones future
prospects through education and work. After decolonization, many people
from the Third World and former colonized countries migrated to the West in
order to secure a better future for themselves and their families back home.
From the industrialized countries point of view, the immigrants have helped
out in an increasing demand for labour. However, the multicultural societies
4
of today have also been a challenge. Prejudice and intolerance, especially in

connection with differences in race and ethnicity, have been demanding and
problematic.
Brick Lane has several aspects apart from the major themes.
It
describes the life and development of two sisters from Bangladesh, Nazneen
and Hasina, who part when Hasina elopes and marries the man she loves.
Shortly after, Nazneen moves to London to start her married life with Chanu,
in a marriage arranged by her father. The setting therefore takes place in
both Bangladesh, mostly Dhaka, and Brick Lane, a street in Tower Hamlets in
London. Thus, the setting of the novel is in both the East and the West.
Through the technique of telling two parallel stories and introducing the
issues of the East and the West Ali expands her narratives into larger sociopolitical as well as historical subjects.
In order to fully understand the importance of the various geographical
settings and personal characteristics, it will be useful to obtain some brief
historical facts regarding the countries in question, in particular the
countries of South Asia. At the end of the nineteenth century the British
Empire reached the height of its success; it had territories all over the globe
and authority over a quarter of the worlds population. Throughout the world
today there is ample evidence of the influence of British institution and
culture, and English is the main international language. This is partly due to
the legacy of the Empire but also because of Americas size and power. India
was the most important territory in the British Empire, as it secured the sea
routes (and routes overland) from Britain to India and the Far East. This
information confirms that both England and America are powerful nations of
5
the West England as the classical imperialistic nation that gained power
through the control of geographical and territorial countries, and America
which has obtained power through the control of the financial markets of the
world. In contrast to these privileged countries, Ali introduces the reader
Bangladesh. Up until the end of WWII, Bangladesh was a part of the British
colony of India. Between 1947 and 1971, Bangladesh (the land of Bengal)
formed the eastern part of Pakistan and was called East Pakistan
(Bangladesh The Encyclopedia Americana). However, many problems
arose between East and West Pakistan, mainly because of the ethnic,
linguistic and cultural differences between them. The problems developed
and proved difficult to deal with, and in 1971 the eastern part of Pakistan
separated and became the republic of Bangladesh. Thus, these South Asian
countries reflect different but also shared historical experiences (Pakistan
The Encyclopedia Americana).
Monica Ali, born in 1967, is a British writer of Bangladeshi origin. She is
the daughter of a British mother and a Bangladeshi father. Her parents met
in England where her father studied in the mid 1960s. Later on, the couple
moved to Dhaka where they were married. When the civil war broke out in
1971, her mother managed to return to Bolton, England, with her two
children. Ali was then three years old, and her brother five. Her father
managed to join them later.1
At first, the situation was considered temporary when the war was
over, the family planned to return to Dhaka. However, the family settled in
1
. Lane, Harriet. Alis in wonderland. June 1, 2003. The Observer.

1.01.15.<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/bookgroup/story/0,13699,991601,00.html>.
their new environment: the children settled into school, they stopped
speaking to their father in Bengali and they stopped even understanding.
After this there was no plan to go home 2. These biographical elements can
be easily recognized in Brick Lane.
After studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford, Ali started to
work with marketing for two small publishing houses. Later on, she worked at a
design and branding agency. It was when her first child was just under a year old
that she started to write short-stories in a writing group on the Internet. However,
Ali soon felt the short-story format constraining, and she realized that she really
wanted to write a novel. In 2003 her first novel, Brick Lane, was published, a book
which took her 18 months to write. (Lane Alis in wonderland)
In an interview with Bookwire, Ali is asked if there was any personal

family history included in Brick Lane, or if she had to do research. Ali
replies: All of the above. Im sure everybody will tell you the same
thing. You are always drawing from your own experience. So with
every character youre writing about, youre writing about a part of
yourselfThe concept of the generations in an immigrant community
is something I lived with myself and experienced. Then I did do
research as wellThere is another aspect which is my fathers
storytelling. He grew up in Bangladesh and tells stories of village life.
I wanted to preserve some of that for my own children.3
2 . Where Im coming from. June 17, 2003. The Guardian. 1.01.15.
<http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,979007,00.html>.
3 . Sakaria, Neela. Meet the author. June 2004. Bookwire. 1.01.15. <
http://www.bookwire.com/MeetTheAuthor/Interview_Monica_Ali.htm>.
Brick
Lane
has
caused
some
controversies
within
the
Bangladeshi
community in England. Ali has been accused of giving a negative portrayal

of people from Bangladesh; in particular, people from the Sylhet region have
felt insulted. They feel that they have been characterized as both
uneducated and unsophisticated. When the film of the novel was first
planned, some 120 members of the Bangladeshi community in London
marched in protest.4 In spite of this, however, the film was completed in
2007.
Brick Lane is written in a third-person narrative perspective. This
implies that the narrator is not a participant in the story or a part of the plot.
Furthermore, this external narrator is omniscient, which indicates that the
narrator knows everything about the inner thoughts and feelings of the
various characters. An omniscient narrator like this, who throughout the
novels knows what has happened in the past and what will happen in the
future, is considered to be absolutely reliable. An example of this is given in
Brick Lane, when the narrator in the beginning of the story tells what will
happen later on.
This technique opens up to a variety of possibilities to express and
discuss the themes, characters and plots. The reader gets to know how the
characters think, how they consider the world around them, and how they
see themselves. It is also interesting to note how the various characters
comment on each other. Brick Lane is written in a down-to-earth, everyday
language and gives a realistic picture of the various events which are
4
.
Cacciottolo,
Mario.
Brick
Lane
protesters
1.01.15.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5229872.stm.>.
hurt
over
lies.
described. Even when discussing major universal themes like history,

politics, finances, religion and cultural aspects, this tone of voice is used.
Hence, the tone is undramatic and calm, in spite of the fact that many tragic
events are portrayed. The vocabulary is moderate - none of the characters,
except Nazneens mother, seem to complain even when they experience
dramatic and frightening situations.
The title of the novel is informative and realistic and they thereby fit
the content of the text. The title of Brick Lane is straightforward and
enlightening as it frames the setting - a street in London. This is the place
where Nazneen feels lonely and passive in the beginning of the novel, but
also the place where she feels confident and independent in the end. Thus,
for Nazneen, Brick Lane stands for possibilities which she could not have
obtained in Bangladesh. In the end, when she has the choice to leave, she
therefore decides to stay on.
The method used to analyze Brick Lane is mainly close reading. Close
reading has been absolutely necessary to me when exploring this novel, as
text is contemporary and only small amounts of secondary material exist.
However, I have also been drawing on secondary material like postcolonial
and little bit feminist theory, as these discourses have been useful in terms
of expanding my knowledge of the themes, definitions and reflections. My
major focus has been on Edward W. Said who is central figures in this
respect. My literary analysis is structured around quotes from the texts,
looking for meaning inside the text itself. This technique does not only
involve the understanding of the printed text at a superficial level, but it also
requires the recognition of the authors message to the reader. This message
9
is promoted by the use of vocabulary, imagery, personal characterizations,

sentence construction, how the story is told and the importance of plot and
setting.
In chapter 1, the main focus will be to describe the term diaspora and
diaspora literature and its special features. World Diasporas especially
African and Asian, then the characteristics of diasporic writers whether it is
male or female will be discussed. My aim was in first chapter to reach at
Bangladeshi diaspora and Bangladeshi diasporic writers especially Monica
Ali. Chapter 2 deals with Bangladeshi diaspora and Bangladeshi diasporic
writers. Chapter 3 will deal with Brick Lane as a diasporic work. Chapter 4
will discuss the early phase of identity formation of diaspora. The main
characters such as Nazneen, Chanu and Kareem step in an outside world
with the feeling of lost and depression depending on their native land. There
will be an attempt to show how the relationship between the East and the
West are linked to femininity and masculinity. The issues of cultural and
religious
aspects
will
be
important.
Chapter
will
discuss
the
transformational stage of diasporic characters and their ability to adopt in

society. The chapter will pay attention to what the various characters long
for,
what
possibilities
they
have
and
how
they
struggle
towards
independence from male power. The last thematic chapter, chapter 6, will
discuss
the
final
completion
of
identity
development.
The
idea
of
independence and the barriers in front of diaspora to overcome to get to the

stage of mental independence are also discussed in the chapter.
10
Chapter.1
DIASPORIC LITERATURE
We know that diasporic literature is one of the most relevant discourse
in the literature where as the contributions of diasporic writers are not
negligible in this time. Here I am trying to go to inner part of a diasporic
work which is more accepted and discussed in the world during this time,
before entering to that I think it is better to give an explanation to the term
diaspora.
DIASPORAS
The word Diaspora derives from the Greek verb diaspeiro which
means to disperse or to scatter. It is simply the displacement of a
community or culture into another geographical and cultural region.
Diaspora is the effect of a migration, immigration and exile. Its use began to
develop when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary, the first known recorded usage of the word
11
diaspora in the English language was in 1876 referring "extensive diaspora

work (as it is termed) of evangelizing among the National Protestant
Churches on the continent". The term became widely assimilated into
English by the mid 1950s, with long-term expatriates in significant numbers
from other particular countries or regions also being referred to as a
diaspora. Over the last decade the term diaspora has become popular in
both the academic literature and public discourse.
In English when capitalized and without modifiers (that is simply, the
Diaspora), the term refers specifically to the Jewish diaspora; when
uncapitalized the word diaspora may be used to refer to refugee or
immigrant populations of other origins or ethnicities living away from an
established or ancestral homeland.
In an article published in 1991, William Safran set out six rules to
distinguish diasporas from migrant communities. These included criteria that
the group maintains a myth or collective memory of their homeland; they
regard their ancestral homeland as their true home, to which they will
eventually return; being committed to the restoration or maintenance of that
homeland; and they relate "personally or vicariously" to the homeland to a
point where it shapes their identity.
MAJOR THEMES OF DIASPORAS

Some of the characteristics shared by the diasporas are explained in the
articles of William Safran and Robin Cohen. William Safran in his article,
12
Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return gives six

characteristics as the collective experiences of diasporic people:
1. They, or their ancestors, have been dispersed from a specific original
center to two or more peripheral or foreign regions.
2. They retain a collective memory, vision, or myth about their original
homeland its physical location, history, and achievements.
3. They believe that they are not and perhaps cannot be fully
accepted by their host society and therefore feel partly alienated and
insulated from it.
4. They regard their ancestral homeland as their true, ideal home and as
the place to which they or their descendants would (or should) eventually
return when conditions are appropriate.
5. They believe that they should, collectively, be committed to the
maintenance or restoration of their original homeland and to its safety and
prosperity.
6. They continue to relate, personally or vicariously, to that homeland in
one way or another, and their ethno communal consciousness and solidarity
are importantly defined by the existence of such a relationship5.
Another diaspora scholar, Robin Cohen does not approve of Safrans six
features
of
diaspora
and
he
thinks
that
there
are
nine
diasporic
characteristics, which are as follows:
5. Safran, William. Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return. Vol.1.
No.1, 1991. P.p. 83-84
13
1. Dispersal from an original homeland, often traumatically, to two or

more foreign regions.
2. Alternatively, the expansion from a homeland in search of work, in
pursuit of trade or to further colonial ambitions.
3. A collective memory and myth about the homeland, including its
location, history and achievements.
4. An idealization of the putative ancestral home and a collective
commitment to its maintenance, restoration, safety and prosperity, even to
its creation.
5. The development of a return movement which gains collective
approbation.
6. A strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time and
based on a sense of distinctiveness, a common history and the belief in a
common fate.
7. A troubled relationship with host societies, suggesting a lack of
acceptance at the least or the possibility that another calamity might befall
the group.
8. A sense of empathy and solidarity with co-ethnic members in other
countries of settlement.
9. The possibility of a distinctive yet creative and enriching life in host
countries with a tolerance for pluralism6.
He is also of the opinion that among the nine features all diasporas will
have only some of these features and not the totality of it. Diaspora is
6 . Cohen Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: UCL Press. McLeod, J.

2004. London: Routledge, 1997. P. 515
14
mistakenly identified or used synonymously with terms such as exile,

expatriate, migrant and transnational.
Actually, the term denotes a larger semantic domain that include words
like immigrant, expatriate, refugee, guest-worker, exile community, overseas
community, ethnic community etc. It is also understood that there is a
differentiation in the terms diaspora and migration. As explained by Alan
McLeod, migrant identities means a person who is influenced by the past
migration history of his/her parents or grandparents 7. He further states that
because of emotions and experiences several differences are available
between these two terms. The term diaspora will have a sense of emotion,
feeling and experiences. There are so many diasporas in the world like
European diaspora, African diaspora, Asian diaspora and so on...
There are various kinds of diasporas such as European diaspora, African
diaspora, American diaspora, Asian diaspora, so on and so forth.
AFRICAN DIASPORAS
One of the largest diaspora of modern times is the African Diaspora,
which dates back several centuries. In Black Europe and the African Diaspora
Alexander Weheliye (2009) writes a section and clearly explains diaspora
this way: Diaspora offers pathways that retrace levering of difference in the
aftermath of colonialism and slavery, as well as the effects of other forms of
migration and displacement. Thus, diaspora enables the desedimentation of
the nation from the interior by taking into account the groups that fail to
7 . McLeod, A. L. The Literature of the Indian Diaspora: Essays in Criticism. New
Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 2000. P. 207
15
comply with the reigning definition of the people as a cohesive political

subject due to sharing one culture, one race, one language, one religion, and
so on, and from the exterior by drawing attention to the movements that
cannot be contained by the nations administrative and ideological
borders8.
ASIAN DIASPORAS
The largest Asian diaspora outside of Southeast Asia is the Indian
diaspora. The overseas Indian community, estimated at over 25 million, is
spread across many regions in the world, on every continent. It constitutes a
diverse, heterogeneous and eclectic global community representing different
regions, languages, cultures, and faiths.
The Bangladeshi diaspora is next to the Indian diaspora. The national
census of ethnicity and identity found over 500,000 people had Bangladeshi
heritage in Britain only. At the time of the 2001 UK Census, 154,362
Bangladeshi-born people were resident in the UK, and there were a total of
283,063 residents of Bangladeshi ethnicity. By 2007, the ethnic Bangladeshi
population in England only was estimated to be 353,900. Estimates suggest
there are about 500,000 Bangladeshis residing in the UK. (British
Bangladeshi, Wikipedia)
DIASPORIC LITERATURE AND DIASPORIC WRITERS
8 . Weheliye , Alexander. Black Europe and the African Diaspora, 2009. p. 162
16
Literature which emerges from the background of diaspora has led to

two distinctive types of writing. The first of these is more autobiographical
and the second is more scholarly dealing with studies on diaspora. In order
to reduce the disparities and to make it simple Toloyan in Contemporary
Discourse of Diaspora studies (2007), divides diaspora studies into two
categories. They are
Emic
study-
about
the
diasporas
who
talk
about
themselves.
Etic study- about the diaspora by non-diasporas9.
Even though the movement of diaspora happens from time immemorial,

from the late twentieth century only diaspora literature began to proliferate.
Most of the early immigrants were illiterate who moved for their basic needs
and in the case of literate, they could not have time/interest to register their
lives. It leads to poor number of works by the diaspora community. But the
immigrants of the late 20th century were/are educated. These people with
their knowledge to read and write started to register their experiences
mostly in autobiographical form. Presently diaspora studies has enormous
number of books and most of them are based on real life experiences. In
spite of more number of books available on diaspora life experiences, one
can find six basic themes found in these works. They are:
1. Dislocation
9 . Toloyan, Ahaching. The Contemporary Discourse of Diaspora Studies, Comparative Studies of South Asia,
Africa and the Middle East. 27.3 (2007)
17
It is one of the first feelings that haunt a diasporic community. There are
several factors which are responsible for the dislocation of a community
from their home country to a foreign land. These can be broadly divided into
two such as voluntary and non-voluntary movements.
2. Nostalgia
When diasporic people find themselves dislocated from the home
society, they are upset mentally and strive to remember and locate
themselves in a nostalgic past. Through nostalgia they try to escape from
the reality of life in the settled land. A sense of alienation, loneliness and
feeling of loss are inextricable for the diasporic people.
3. Discrimination
The settled country considers the practice of a different culture by the
diaspora community as a threat to its own culture. It provokes the settled
society to show its discrimination on the diasporic community. When the
settled society finds a mixing of diasporic communities culture with its own,
it feels a danger of fragmentation of its cultural identity. As pointed out by
Wieviorka, Under such circumstances the national majority considers
migrants to be the root of its difficulties, and draws on racial definitions that
combine the idea of natural race and the idea of culture in order to make
them scapegoats.10
Hence the diasporic communities
10 . Wieviorka, Michel. Racism and Diaspora, Thesis Eleven, (1998): p. 71
18
are greatly
discriminated. Not only the settled government but also the people of the
country take law into their hands and discriminate the diasporic community.
4. Survival
Immigrants especially illiterate face survival problem in the settled land.
5. Cultural Change
Cultural change is yet another major problem faced by the diasporic
community especially for the first generation people. When they try to settle
in a new place, they find several changes in the new society. It shocks them
and they try to cling to their homeland culture by following it strictly. Even
after a long period of settlement they cannot break away from their culture.
6. Identity formation
Stuart Halls comment on identity, Identities are never unified and in
late modern times, increasingly fragmented and fractured; never singular
but
multiply
constructed
across
different,
other
intersections
and
antagonistic, discourse, practices and positions11 portrays the condition of

diasporic people. When a diasporic community moves away from their home
country they tend to carry their home culture with them. In some cases
11 . Hall, Stuart. Who Needs Identity? Questions of Cultural Identity. Eds. Stuart Hall & Paul de Gay,
London: Sage, 1996. P. 4
19
disaporic community happily accepts the practices of the settled land and
assimilates with it. Some prefer to follow certain practices from both culture
and some others live in isolation by following their home culture. Accordingly
their identity formations can be broadly divided into three types such as
homeland identity, settled land identity and hyphenated identity. Presently
diasporic writers concentrate on this theme. Almost all the first and some
later generation diaspora writers use the theme of dislocation and nostalgia.
In order to concentrate on the thematic shift of diaspora studies, this
dissertation uses one novel written by Bangladeshi diasporic woman writer.
Many
of
the
works
in
the
field
of
diaspora
discuss
the
individual/communities attachment to the homeland and the urge to belong

in the settled land and as a result of this they reveal a hybrid existence as
stated by Lau: They are people who are as multi-cultural as they are multilingual. They do not regard themselves as fully belonging in either culture,
and have practically evolved a sub-culture peculiar to themselves. They try
to take the best from both worlds, but suffer the sense of hybridity and
cultural entanglement12. Although the diasporic life portrayed to some
extent is realistic, yet it is also fictionalized due to the type of imagination
that is indulged in diasporic writings. Emphasizing this point, Jasbir Jain
refers to it as a split narrative. She further discusses the past and the
present of diasporic literature as being different the past has a different
history,
tradition,
regional
and
colonial
memories
and
political
equations and the present has different kinds of loneliness, isolation, social
12 . Lau, Lisa. Re-Orientalism: The Perpetration and Development of Orientalism by
Orientals.
Modern Asian Studies 43.02 (2009): 571. Print.
20
ghettoisation, success, affluence and recognition 13. Even though they live in
the present they co-exist in the past too.
Nostalgia and dislocation are the other common features and this is
pointed out by Rushdie when he states that exiles or emigrants or
expatriates, are haunted by some sense of loss, some urge to reclaim, to
look back, even at the risk of being mutated into pillars, of salt 14. Diasporic
writing mostly becomes a response to the lost homes and to issues such as
dislocation, nostalgia, discrimination, survival, cultural change and identity.
Dislocation is one of the first feelings that haunt a diasporic community.
There are several factors which are the reasons for the dislocation of a
community from their home country to a foreign land. These can be broadly
divided into two such as voluntary and non-voluntary movements. Voluntary
movements, can occur due to two reasons namely
I)Educational need and II) Economical need.
On the other hand, non-voluntary movements occur due to political and
national compulsions and in the case of women, it could be marital causes.
When diasporic people find themselves dislocated from the home society,
they are upset mentally and strive to remember and locate themselves in a
nostalgic past. Through nostalgia they try to escape from the reality of life in
the settled land: Nostalgia, by its very nature, often produces a romanticized
perspective of the homeland. Indulgence in these illusions evokes a pseudo
13 . Jain, Jasbir. ed. Dislocations and Multiculturalism. Jaipur: Rawat, 2004.
14 . Rushdie, salman. Imaginary homelands: Granta Books.1992. Print.p.10
21
comfort and security which sustains the individual away from homethe
motherland reconfigures into a phantom of displaced paradise.
Most often the first generation of a diasporic community face loneliness
and alienation in the new country and due to this they do not mingle with
others in the settled society. Even if they try to blend with the other
community people, most of the time they find it difficult as they find that
they are discriminated. A sense of alienation, loneliness and feeling of loss
are inextricable for the diasporic people.
Even though they face external problems like discrimination and identity
crisis, their own inner problems like loneliness and alienation cause more
suffering to them. The diasporic community, initially try to adjust with the
new culture and society into which they have moved. But at the same time
they are not willing to follow the new lands culture completely. At times,
even when they live in the settled land for a long time, they still consider it
as another country. When discrimination occurs the first generation accepts
it in an ordinary way, but the second and further generations are affected
psychologically. The reason is that from the second generation onwards are
from the moment of birth, brought up in the settled country and consider it
as their home country and follow its culture and tradition as their own.
Therefore, when they face discrimination, it hurts them and raises questions
regarding their roots/backgrounds. This kind of discrimination makes them to
be separated from the settled society and to think about it in a negative way.
22
The settled country considers the practice of a different culture by the

diasporic community as a threat to its own culture and therefore it provokes
the settled society to discriminate the diasporic community. When the
settled society finds a mixing of the diasporic communitys culture with its
own, it feels the danger of fragmentation of its cultural identity.
One cannot assure that these common characteristics of diaspora are
available in all the works of diasporic writers. Based on the theme of writing,
diasporic writers can be divided into two types: writers whose works focus
on their home country and writers whose works talk about the settled
country. The first type of writers locates the novels in their home country in
order to criticize it or to portray their home country and its culture to the
foreign readers or use their work as a tool to remember their home country
always. Works of Rohinton Mistry, Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Ha Jin, etc
can be cited as example for this type. The second type of writers locates
their works in the settled countries to reflect the changes they undergo or to
tear the mask of multicultural nations by portraying its discrimination
towards them or to show their developed condition in the settled countries.
Writers
who
belong
to
this
category
are
Bharati
Mukherjee,
Parameshwaran, Meena Alexander, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni, etc.
VARIETIES IN THE WRITINGS OF FEMALE DIASPORIC

WRITERS
23
Uma
The women writers of diaspora have been writing variously upon the
lives of men and women. There is vivacity in the portrayal of gender which
range from old generation to new generation and represents the various
situations of womens life in an alien land. The women writers portray the
predicament, joys and sorrows, and mainly the issue of identity of men and
women of Bangladeshi Diaspora in the alien land. As women writers they
view gender from a womans point of view and thus extend the boundaries
of human experiences from different perspectives and dimensions. With the
rise of women diasporic writers, the images of immigrated women have
often been discussed in literature. It has been debated that feminism is now
an outdated issue and the women have successfully achieved equality and
defied patriarchal norms. More so, Bangladeshi women writers in foreign
land are equipped with better themes than the perennially penned subjects
like rights of women, injustice, and gender inequality and so on.
A recurring theme in many of the novels of the Bangladeshi diaspora
women writers of the recent years is an exploration of a womans identity, a
study of herself. There is, in the novels of all the women writers - old or new,
a marked pre-occupation with nostalgia, dream and introspection. Trends in
recent fiction unmistakably indicate how the new novelists are trying to
tread fresh paths and this is the surest sign of the continued vitality of an
art. Occasionally, the works of Diaspora women writers are termed as
Antinovels that coined by experimental fiction that gives out certain
traditional elements of novels. It is coined by Jean Paul Sarte 15 in 1948. It
15 . Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 15 April 1980) was a French
philosopher, playwright, novelist, political activist, biographer, and literary critic.
24
illustrates everyday reality which contains all cultural conflicts and worries
as its content. It is the proper subject matter of the novelist interested in
representing reality without imposed interpretations. The reader would be
able to reconstruct reality from direct experience. Most of the women writers
of Bangladeshi diaspora literature have portrayed the enclosed domestic
space and perceptions of their personal experiences. They have composed
almost every imaginable type of work: novels, poems, letters, biographies,
travel books, religious commentaries, histories, economic and scientific
works etc.
Interestingly, the last four decades have noticed a change in the image
of women in their works. The conflicted female characters searching for their
identity replace the long-established depiction of suffering and altruistic
women. They assert themselves and defy marriage and motherhood.
Recently their writings depict the diversity of women rather than limiting
with the lives of women to one ideal. Further, the novels emerging in the
twenty-first century furnish examples of a whole range of attitudes towards
the imposition of tradition. Some of the novels offer an analysis of the family
structure and the caste system as the key elements of patriarchal social
organization.
The landscape of contemporary literature has been transformed by the
rising tide of globalization. Texts are now crossing the borders of nations and
cultures, as newly emerging authors express myriad voices of those once
considered a subaltern. Women writers have moved away from traditional
portrayals of enduring, self-sacrificing female protagonists towards the
25
characters who search for their true identities, no longer characterized and
defined simply in terms of their victim status. In contrast to earlier novels,
female characters from the 1980s onwards assert themselves and defy
marriage and motherhood.
Chapter.2
BANGLADESHI DIASPORA AND BANGLADESHI

DIASPORIC WRITERS
The story of migrating Bangladeshis to different parts of the globe is no
new phenomenon. Bangladeshis have moved to the Middle East and
different other countries from almost all over Bangladesh. However the
striking phenomenon that needs to be observed is that the British
community of Bangladeshi origin is mostly from one particular region of
erstwhile East Pakistan, namely Sylhet, located in the North East of the
present Bangladesh. The Sylhet is have transmigrated to Britain as early as
the 1920s and 1930s, when the country was a part of (East) Pakistan. This
phenomenon remained unabated even in the 1950s and 1960s. The
migration was further enhanced during the 1970s, when the liberation was
commenced in the country.
After independence and establishment of Bangladesh as a free nation
state, the 1970s saw an alteration in the mode of migration and the craze
for gaining passport, as the British government grew more and more
26
sensitive on immigrant issues. The Bangladeshis migrated in large numbers

from particular areas or districts of the country showing a unique
phenomenon of chain migration. After the 1970s the man of the house,
earning in foreign land to make life for the family back home prosperous,
was changed to situations where entire families shifted, evacuating several
districts. Apart from improving the financial status of the relatives back
home, this move affected the economy of the country. Dr David Garbin 16
observes, In 1995 a report indicated that 20% of the Bangladeshi families in
East London were sending money to Bangladesh, whereas during the 1960s
and 1970s approximately 85% were remitting their savings (Garbin). As per
the
statistics
provided
by
Wikipedia,
regarding
the
settlement
of
Bangladeshis in Britain:
The largest concentration is in London, primarily in the east London
boroughs, of which Tower Hamlets has the highest proportion,
making up approximately 37% of the borough's total population
Bangladeshis also have significant communities in Birmingham,
Oldham, Luton and Bradford, with smaller clusters in Manchester,
Newcastle upon Tyne, Cardiff and Sunderland At the time of the
2001 UK Census, 154,362 Bangladeshi-born people were resident in
the UK, and there were a total of 283,063 residents of Bangladeshi
ethnicity. By 2007, the ethnic Bangladeshi population in England
only was estimated to be 353,900. Estimates suggest there are
16 . Garbin, Dr David. Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK: some observations on sociocultural dynamics, religious trends and transnational politics (2005). P.p.1-3
27
about
500,000
Bangladeshis
residing
in
the
UK
(British
Bangladeshis).
This migration had begun as a result of the job opportunities created in
Britain by the shipping companies. The odd jobs on the ship floor were done
by these men who later shifted to catering business as situations and needs
changed drastically.
As a young nation, Bangladesh has not produced so many creative
voices in the diaspora as India and Pakistan have. One of the reasons for this
vacuum might be the average socioeconomic condition of most of the
immigrants in Britain. An interesting fact to note regarding the writers of
Bangladeshi origin settled in Britain is that they are mostly women. Monica
Ali is a first generation diasporic writer, with one of her parents of British
origin and having moved to England at a very early age. As far as her writing
is concerned, she deeply connected with Britain still hanker after her own
past association with the original homeland or association through the
novels. Apart from Monica Ali, recognized as the most popular author of
Bangladeshi origin; another authors of recent recognition are Tahmima Anam
and Shazia Omar who is presently located in Bangladesh. Her debut novel,
Like a Diamond in the Sky (1997), deals with social problems as drugs,
disease, trauma and despair wrenching the life of a twenty-one year old
Deen, making a criminal out of a bundle of positive passions. Niaz Zaman
and Firdous Azims compilation of short stories Galpa: Short Stories by
Women from Bangladesh published in 2006 is another significant work. In
spite of the presence of such promising voices it must be noted that there is
28
dearth of creative authors of Bangladeshi origin in Britain and the number of

fiction writers is lesser still.
Both Monica Ali (1967) and Tahmima Anam (1975) have created
sensation in the world with their books. Their novels are taken as worthy
accounts of the Bangladeshi diaspora and the Bangladeshi people back
home. The characters that pervade the corpus of their fiction are real life
evidences of struggle, of the Bangladeshi people both at home and/or in the
diaspora.
The
novelists
project
their
characters
with
ardent
vision
of
Bangladeshi; however their experience is tainted by their diasporic identity,

they being British citizens, and their sense of being the second sex. Monica
Ali a British writer of Bangladeshi origin catapulted into fame when her
debut novel Brick Lane (2003) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for
Fiction. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1967, to a Bangladeshi father
(originally from the district of Mymensingh), and an English mother, the
family moved to Bolton, England, when she was three years old and where
she was raised. She had studied at Oxford University and lives in London.
She was named in 2003 by Granta magazine as one of twenty Best of Young
British Novelists. Her second novel, Alentejo Blue, set in Portugal, was
published in 2006. Her third novel is In the Kitchen (2009). Her latest novel
is Untold Story (2011).
Tahmima Anam, a second generation Bangladeshi diasporic writer and
novelist, was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1975, and grew up in Paris, New
29
York City, and Bangkok, due to her fathers work with the UNICEF. Her first
novel, A Golden Age, was published in 2007 and was the Best First Book
winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize. Her second novel to be
published in April, 2011 is The Good Muslim: A Novel. Trained as an
anthropologist, with a PhD from Harvard University, USA, she also completed
an MA in Creative Writing from the University of London in 2005. She
presently lives in West Hampsted, London. Anam comes from an illustrious
literary family in Bangladesh. Her father Mahfuz Anam is the editor and
publisher of Bangladeshs most prominent English newspaper The Daily Star.
Her grandfather Abul Mansur Ahmed was a renowned satirist and politician
whose works in Bengali remain popular to this day.
Through the stories of Both Monica Ali and Tahmima Anam, we can
easily see with our naked eyes, the quest and assertion for identity has
become the most common characteristics of Bangladeshi diaspora writers.
Many of the works of diaspora writers reflect the meditation over the
problem of search for identity. The dispossessed persons search for identity
and alienation is commonplace theme in modern fiction, but for most
Bangladeshi novelists in English this quest has a particular Bangladeshi
immediacy. The Bangladeshi novelists treatment of alienation, their
persistence delineation of rootless characters and an awareness of his
unfortunate predicament are symptomatic of their own problems.
Chapter.3
30
BRICK LANE IS A DIASPORIC WORK

Brick Lane is a diasporic work because Monica Ali is a diasporic figure
that is A Bangladeshi migrant settled in England. She was born to English
and Bangladeshi parents on 1967, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At the age of
three, she came to England with her parents from Bangladesh. She had her
education in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford.
In Brick Lane Monica Ali narrates the story of Nazneen-a village girl
from Bangladesh who has much more resemblance with monica ali in actual
life, marries Chanu, who is living in London. Nazneen arrived in the world in
an exceptional way. When the infant Nazneen was delivered, she at first
made no sound and appeared to be stillborn. Finally, she began to cry, but
for days refused to eat. Rather than take her to a hospital, the mother
decided to leave her to her fate. Nazneen grew to be an obedient girl, unlike
her sister, Hasina, who ran away from home with a love match, defying
her parents wishes for an arranged marriage. Nazneen accepts her fathers
marriage match. Nazneen, orphaned after her mothers suicide and sent to
England at age 17 in an arranged marriage with older expatriate Chanu and
Chanu takes her from Bangladesh to a Bangladeshi community in London.
Chanu fancies himself a frustrated intellectual and continually expounds
upon the tragedy of immigration to his young wife while letters from
downtrodden Hasina provide a contrast to his idealized memories of
Bangladesh. Nazneen, for her part, leads a relatively circumscribed life as a
housewife and mother, and her experience of London in the 1980s and 90s
is mostly assimilated neighbors. Her firstborn dies in infancy, but her
31
daughters Shahana and Bibi thrive. A power shift occurs when Shahana
rebels against her father, an ineffectual martinet; Nazneen the peacemaker
holds the family together. When Chanu falls into the clutches of the
moneylender Mrs. Islam, Nazneen becomes a breadwinner, doing piecework
at home and thus meeting the middleman Karim, who is also an activist
fighting racism. They become lovers; and again Nazneen sees herself as
submitting to fate. But when Chanu, increasingly beleaguered, announces
their imminent return to Bangladesh, Nazneen asserts herself. On one day of
wrenching suspense, she deals forcefully with Mrs. Islam, Karim, and Chanu,
and emerges as a strong, decisive, modern woman.
After marriage she lives in an unknown land with her newly wedded
husband. Due to the lack of her English knowledge, she is unable to
communicate with others but only with her own community people. Her life
slowly changes when her daughter begins to teach her English language, life
and culture. Later on when she begins to earn independently by working,
Karim enters into her life and she finds that her life takes a twist. Due to this
aspect of self reliance and her friendship with Razia, she is able to reject
Karims proposal of marriage and Chanus wish to return to Bangladesh.
Chanu leaves for Bangladesh by leaving his family back in London.
When I read this novel I felt it as a novel of diaspora because the
author Monica Ali belongs to Bangladesh and she lives in England and she
narrates the story of Nazneen she also from Bangladesh and stays with her
husband in England. I tried to find out the main six features of diasporic
narrative in this novel.
32
Monica Alis Brick lane is a novel that has the elements of a true
diasporic character, a group of people who go through the complex situation
of adopting in a multicultural society. She was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
and grew up in England and now lives with her husband and two children.
She has been named by Granter as one of the twenty best young British
Novelists; her Brick lane was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and is now a
major motion picture, and a story collection. Characters in the novel goes
through different form of identical deformity through their emigrant
experiences, most of the characters in the beginning can be found
dependent on their memories from the past land to get over the isolation
and loneliness. But yet there are few extraordinary that form their own
identity and gain independence, for example, Nazneen and Karim. The
characters like Nazneen, Karim and Chanu (husband of Nazneen) are
highlighted as they show the success, confusion and the failure side of the
Diaspora society. Nazneen, a young girl surviving in the foreign land in her
own way and developing into an individual and strong personality, Karim, a
second generation, emigrant who fails to recognize his heritage thinks finally
he is close to his heritage by defining his life through religion and Chanu a
emigrant failure who is always haunted by the past life and homeland
became the example of the emigrant Bangladeshis in England through the
book. The extended discussion of their physiological development in identity
and personal growth will help to show the difficulties and the boundaries an
emigrant has to face.
The novel deals with themes like migration, multiculturalism, religion,
cultural aspects, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence.
33
These issues are not new, and they are more relevant than ever in the
dynamic picture of the world today. This identification of the migrants
identity should therefore be of interest to others as well. Migration has been
a major theme throughout history. The reasons for migration are varied, but
climatic, social, religious, cultural and financial factors have been important.
In general, the common aim of migration has been to improve ones future
prospects through education and work. The issues of identity dependency,
transformation and independence, are important factors in this connection.
After decolonization, many people from the Third World and former colonized
countries migrated to the West in order to secure a better future for
themselves and their families back home. From the industrialized countries
point of view, the immigrants have helped out in an increasing demand for
labour. However, the multicultural societies of today have also been a
challenge. Due to variation in cultural and religious background, finding
identity has proven difficult in relation to any one culture or one modern
world ideas. Finally, the question of finding ones true heritage has been of
significance both in respect of the emigrant and their later generation as
this findings make them create a better future. To find the heritage they had
to face their self-consciousness as this helps them to realize their
dependency and face the reality. For a migrant to find their true
independence he/ she has to face the dependent side of their personality,
only by improving and transforming their personality they can achieve true
independence.
34
The features of diasporic narrative in Brick Lane are: 1) dislocation, 2)

nostalgia, 3) discrimination, 4) survival, 5) cultural change, and 6) gender
inequality.
DISLOCATION:
Dislocation means to force a person suddenly out of his correct place.
In Brick Lane, we can find that the women characters displacement due to
her marriage. Therefore, her moves from homeland to settled land cannot be
considered as a voluntary one, although the men characters in the novel
come to the foreign land for education and career purposes. Dislocation
causes severe problems to the diasporic people. When individuals/ family
move from their home country to a new land, the foreign atmosphere makes
them sick. Based on the reasons for dislocation, the suffering faced by the
diasporic people too changes. In the case of the forced displacement, the
suffering will be severe when compared with those who move voluntarily.
Chanu lives in London for more than twenty years. He comes there to find a
job and settle there. Nothing more is mentioned about the reason for his
displacement. Nazneen, the protagonist of the novel, due to her marriage is
forced to live in London.
NOSTALGIA:
Yet another problem that emerges among the dislocated and displaced
people is the sense of nostalgia. Nostalgia means a feeling of pleasure and
sometimes a slight sadness at the same time as you think about the things
that happened in the past. In Brick Lane, we can find Nazneen, she leaves
her home country after her marriage in order to settle in a new land with her
unknown husband. Nazneen, the eighteen year old girl marries Chanu, who
35
is twice her age. When her husband goes for a job, she feels lonely and
except words like sorry and thank you she does not know anything else to
speak in English. This problem of communication heads her into forced
imprisonment and she expresses her solitariness thus, in all her eighteen
years, she could scarcely remember a moment that she had spent alone.
Until she married. And came to London to sit day after day in this large box
with the furniture to dust, and the muffled sound of private lives sealed away
above, below and around her17.
Nazneen feels utterly lonely during her initial stage of settlement and
she comes out of it due to her intimacy with her own community people. In
her case, mingling and interacting with the Whites is difficult due to her poor
English knowledge. She starts to live in an imagined space in order to
escape from her lonliness and the feeling of alienation. She tries to follow
her culture and tradition in order to feel at home. In Brick Lane Chanu,
comments, They dont even really leave home. Their bodies are here but
their hearts back there. And anyway, look how they live: just recreating the
villages here18. The loneliness to a greater extent during the initial stage of
settlement which later decreases. This is due to her struggle with other
problems like cultural difference, question of identity and generation gap
with her children. So in the later stage of life, even though she has the
feeling of loneliness, she focuses her attention on other problems.
DISCRIMINATION:
17 . Ali, Monica. Brick Lane, Berkshire: Black and Swan. 2004. Print.p.24
36
The diasporic community even after settling in the new land, attempt
to follow their own tradition and culture and consequently it leads them to
face discrimination. In Brick Lane, Chanu tells Nazneen, to a white person,
we are all the same: dirty little monkeys all in the same monkey clan19.
In Brick Lane, Chanu mentions, racial discrimination as the reason for
not getting promotion. Nazneen narrates his opinion to her friend Razia, my
husband says they are racist, particularly Mr. Dalloway. He thinks he will get
the promotion, but it will take him longer than any white man. He says that if
he painted his sin pink and white then there would be no problem 20. If
discrimination is done racially then it is also carried out on the basis of
religion. The settled society does not encourage other religious practices of
the diasporic community. Many-a-time, the local authorities consider other
communitys religious practices as inferior and condemn it. In Brick Lane,
the society does not allow the Bangladeshi community to follow its religious
practices freely. The police viewed the mosque with suspicion and as
revealed in the narrative, Police had been to the mosque and questioned the
imam for two hours. No one had any idea why, although many predicted
trouble and everyone doubted that a church had ever been treated with
such flagrant disrespect.
Discrimination shown by the people in the settled society cannot be
stopped totally even by the government of that nation. At times, if the
diasporic community is well educated and rich, discrimination faced by them
could be less. In Brick Lane discrimination is shown mostly because of their
37
home country and religion. Due to the problem of discrimination, identity

crisis occurs especially in the life of the second generation. Some of them
prefer to retain their homeland identity, some the settled lands and others
wish to integrate. Karim, Shefali, Shahana and Bibi are the second
generation characters, in which karim prefers to retain his homeland identity
while others wish to mingle with western culture.
SURVIVAL:
Survival in the settled society for the diasporic community is yet
another major Problem. Plants when plucked from a soil and planted in a
new one have survival problem; similarly the diasporic community too faces
problem of survival. They have to adjust to the environment, language,
culture and the society. Many times, even after adjusting in the new
environment they face several other problems such as discrimination,
alienation and identity crisis. During the period of settlement in the new
country, almost everyone in the diasporic community would undergo
psychological trauma. Feeling of loss, sense of alienation from the society,
loneliness and longing are a part of diasporic literature. The Bangladeshi
community in the Brick Lane is mostly uneducated and performs manual
jobs in order to survive. There are various instances in the novel to reveal
the economic problems of the Bangladeshis. When Razias husband dies due
to an accident in his work place, the family suffers due to the economic
needs but when Razia tries to work outside and support her family, the
Bangladeshi community criticizes her. Later, when Chanu could not manage
the house with his salary, Nazneen takes up tailoring to support the family
and after Chanus departure to Bangladesh; this work enables her to support
38
her family. In Brick Lane, Chanu decides to return to Bangladesh for the sake
of his childrens future, but Nazneen and their daughters are not ready to
leave London. Nazneen considers London as a suitable place for her
daughters future than Bangladesh, due to the political condition in the
home country they decide to stay in the settled country.
Nazneen at her later stage looks at the settled society with the idea of
acceptance. Even though in the beginning the diasporic community toil a lot
to adjust with the settled society and its culture, in the later stage she is not
willing to leave it. Finally she tries to live in the settled society by accepting
and adjusting the problems and sufferings she faces. She feels it as a land
with good future for her children and not willing to take their children
permanently from there to her home country.
CULTURAL CHANGE
As already mentioned the diasporic communities do not want to leave
their cultural patterns of existence. Therefore in the settled land, they
attempt
to
create imaginary
homelands,
which
are culturally
and
traditionally similar to the homes they left behind. In Brick Lane, Chanu
thinks that London is not a suitable place for his daughters to grow up.
Chanu comments about the cultural patterns, Its so ingrained in the fabric
of society. Back home, if you drink you risk being an outcast. In London, if
you dont drink you risk the same thing. Thats when it becomes dangerous,
and when they start so young they can easily end up alcoholic 21. So he
decides to leave the country for Bangladesh. Due to the cultural baggage
the elders carry, some of the second generation begins to ruin their lives. In
39
Brick Lane, most of the younger generations of the Bangladeshis are

presented as drug addicts. This culminates in severe cultural clash, because
at home parents follow a different culture and tradition and outside a
different one. It often affects them psychologically.
Shahana in the Brick Lane, being born and brought up in London is
unable to accept her fathers idea of Bangladesh as her home country. She
hates to read Tagore and history of Bangladesh. She complains at her
fathers politics about the usage of the English language at home. Whenever
her father insists on matters related to Bangladesh and its culture, she
rejects it: Shahana did not want to listen to Bengali classical music. Her
written Bengali was shocking. She wanted to wear jeans. She hated her
kameez and spoiled her entire wardrobe by pouring paint on them. If she
could choose between baked beans and dahl it was no contest. When
Bangladesh was mentioned she pulled a face. She did not know and could
not learn that Tagore was more than poet and Noble laureate, and no less
than the true father of her nation. Shahana did not care. Shahana did not
want to go back home22. The practice of cultural difference between parents
and children of the diasporic community cannot be stopped by either of
them because they both are born and brought up in different cultures and in
societies.
GENDER INEQUALITY:
The writing by women belonging to diaspora also depicts another kind
of problem namely, the issue of succumbing to or being constrained by their
societal structures. Therefore most often, the writings by the women are
40
critiques of their society. Brick Lane portrays the gender discrimination faced
by Bangladeshi women both in Bangladesh and in London. Women are seen
merely as objects by men in the Bangladeshi society. The novel portrays how
women are dominated by the patriarchal attitudes from their birth till death
and how women themselves accept it as norms of the society. Almost all the
women characters that live in London except Mrs. Islam and Mrs. Azad, the
doctors wife face double discrimination in the new land. They are restricted
by their husbands and elders by using Bangladeshi culture and looked in a
mean way by the Londoners. Nazneens sister Hasinas character portrays
how free willed women are punished by the Bangladeshi society. Her wish
and decision to select a life partner changes her to a life of prostitution and
till the end of the novel her life undergoes negative changes due to the
patriarchal nature of the Bangladeshi community.
In the diasporic community, the society is bothered about womens
behavior rather than that of the men. They do not want their women to be
following the settled societys culture and therefore, enforce several
restrictions on them. In Brick Lane, one can find several Bangladeshi families
sending their daughters to Bangladesh in order to save them from the
cultural change. Once when a girl gets married she is expected to be with
her in-laws and allowed to pay occasional visit to her parents. Without the
elders permission returning to parents home is a dishonor. The diasporic
women writers use their work as a tool to present the gender discrimination
they/ their society face in the home country and later in the settled country
too. By presenting it effectively, they treat their work as a battlefield to fight
against the male domination. In the novels even though in the initial stages
41
women characters are made to face discrimination, in the end they live a
free and independent life at least partially.
Through the reading of this novel one can understand that the
diasporic community gets both positive and negative images from the
settled society. In the initial stages of their settlement almost everything
seems to be problematic and the diasporic individuals only get a negative
view of the society. But later they derive enough experience to face the
sufferings in a bold way and tend to look at the better economic
opportunities for their children. From this, it is understandable that the
diasporic community not only faces problems in the settled society but also
enjoys the economical opportunity. So diasporic experiences are like a coin
which has both sides.
The diasporic writers differ not only in the theme but they also differ
based on generations/ages. The first generation of the diasporic writers
writings may be different from the second and third generations. Most of the
first generation diasporic writers locate their works in their home country as
well as in the settled country. They do this because they are familiar with the
culture and the geographical location of their countries (and cities) of origin
and they inform about their earlier life patterns. Most of the second
generation diaspora, on the other hand, accept the land in which they are
born as their homeland. They are not happy about the way their parents live.
It leads to several kinds of misunderstandings between both generations.
The second generation diasporic writers, through their writings try to send
out a critical message to the South-Asian community, portraying it as still
locked in the obsolete and reactionary customs and beliefs of the old
42
country. They satirise an older generations profligate consumption, false

ethics, superstitious religiosity, blind prejudices and obsession with honor
and status.
When we try to understand Monica Ali, she is a Bangladeshi writer
having possibilities of becoming first and second generation of the diasporic
writer. She locates her work in her home country as well in the settled
county. We cannot say she is familiar with the culture and the geographical
location of Bangladesh because she had came to England at the age of three
with her parents from Bangladesh. We can see in the novel a blended writing
between first and second generations. Monica Ali narrates some characters
as they accept the land in which they are born as their homeland. They are
not happy about the way their parents live. We can say that through this
narration Monica Ali may be tried to send out a critical message to the
South-Asian community being a second generation diasporic writer. Some
characters like chanu, they are familiar with the culture and geographical
location of their countries of origin and they keep it as better than the
cultures of settled country. So we can say, Monica Ali may be tried through
this character to inform about their earlier life patters.
The main six features of diasporic narrative are more applicable in
Monica Alis brick lane and so it is easy to understand it as a novel of
diaspora. My next effort is to find out how the diaspora society forms their
identity in settled country. There are more examples in this novel to
understand the identity formation of diaspora. Nazneen, chanu and their
daughters form an identity in their diasporic life and these identity
formations we can portray through three main phases.
43
Chapter.4
EARLY PHASE: DEPENDENCY

The main characters such as Nazneen, Chanu and Karim, in the novel
at the beginning go through a phase of dependency as they depend on their
44
native land and the connection of home to define them. Edward Said talks
about the concept of exile as a chapter of migrant people where the
achievement out of the chapter is the feeling of lost and leaving ones native
place behind, Exile is strangely compelling to think about possible to
experience. It is the unreliable rift forced between being and a native place,
between the self and its true home: sadness can never be surmounted 23.
This sadness and emotion makes the characters venerable on the idea of
their roots and heritage. The romantic notion of exile is seen as a heroic tale
where the characters are praised and being portrayed as glamorous people
who survive the new land but according to Said this romantic and imperial
idea neglects; the true fear of a literary exile character the fear of the
achievement of exile is evidently undermined by the loss of something left
behind24, thus making them cripple in self consciousness and depended on
the feeling of Home. This chapter will discuss the fear of being alienated and
isolated that Said talks about, the concept of stepping in an outside world
with the feeling of lost and depression.
Exiles, emigrants or expatriates are haunted by some sense of loss,
some urges to reclaim to look back at the risk of being mutated into pillars of
salt.25 As Salman Rushdie said that the person who goes through exile and
emigration faces certain amount of unfastened in their personality that
23 . Said, Edward W. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, India: Penguin, 2001.print.
p.173
24 . Said, Edward W. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, India: Penguin,

2001.print. p.173
25 . Rushdie, salman. Imaginary homelands: Granta Books.1992. Print.p.10
45
creates the urge of hanging on to the few pieces of roots that they have in
the new land. This kind of urges is the reason why a lot of characters in the
book depend on their native customs to remain in touch with the country
they left behind. The longing for homeland makes them dependent on the
dream of going back, only in few cases a migrant will go through
transformation and finally emerges as an independent personality who can
adapt to the existing foreign society. Like the quote by Rushdie the main
Diaspora characters Nazneeen, Chanu, Hasina, Karim and Dr. Azad in Brick
lane faced the harsh reality of exile, migration and lastly the mutation
among the two cultures. These experiences make the characters realize
their true identity as an independent person from the failure and success
they had.
YOU CAN JUST SEE WHAT FATE WILL DO

Nazneen, from the beginning of her life, is depended on fate like her
mother Rupban. Rupban was a lady from a holy family background and as a
family heirloom she passed onto some taboo of fate controlling life to her
daughter Nazneen. Her growing up was documented by these words,
As Nazneen grew she heard many times this story of How You Were
Left to Your Fate. It was because of her mother's wise decision that Nazneen
lived to become the wide-faced, watchful girl that she was. Fighting against
one's Fate can weaken the blood.26 The lines represented the taboo believes
that Nazneens mother left her; this kind of taboo made her depended on
her fate. Her life in Bangladesh is the life of an obedient girl who carries the
notion in her mind that her mother is from a family of saint and she was
46
expected to follow certain rules that would govern her earlier life. Nazneen
stayed loyal with her fathers every decision as she would marry the guy her
father chooses for her. She believed in one mantra, What could not be
changed must be borne27 and this played a big role in her getting married
at an early age to a man in London. The lines that describes the first time
Nazneen saw her future husbands photograph is important as it shows how
much she was depended in her father and Fate, she married Chanu because
of her fathers approval she did not raise a question against it is a quality
that she gained later in her life,
as she turned to go she noticed, without meaning to, where her father
put the photograph. She just happened to see it. These things happen. She
carried the image around in her mind as she walked beneath the banyans
with her cousins.28 The quote is significant as it can be the first sign of
rebellious that triggers her first step in finding independence. Her accidently
looking at the picture and thinking about Chanu gives the reader an idea of
her rebellious nature. As the later part of the book explains her migration
from the place she called home, she moved from her home to her husbands
place at England, where she became dependent on her husband to show her
ways. Her life in London, her identity crisis struggle to survive in a foreign
land is the main topic for this chapter. Nazneen from the beginning of her
journey in settling into a new place faces difficulties relating to a complete
different environment, being only able to speak two words in English I am
sorry and Thank you she faces the biggest barrier that is language . Her
47
husband Chanu talks about different English poet and their works to her that
leaves her clueless, communication gap between the couple leaves her
confused as Chanu would talk about the importance of learning English but
will not let her learn the language. As a result this makes her depended on
Chanu to explain how everything works at the new place, Nazneen is blinded
by her husband form the start as he acts to be modern but remains
conservative until the end, Nazneen would stay ignorant about the English
culture through the first few chapters in the novel until she meets Karim,
Why should you go out? If you go out, ten people will say, I saw her
walking on the street. And I will look a fool. Personally, I dont mind if you go
out but these people are so ignorant. What can you do?29
This shows how the Bengali culture and norms would dictate the life of
the characters even after leaving Bangladesh they carry the tradition that
makes them move backwards in this fast forward moving time, the fact that
Nazneen was denied the chance to study English language made her
progress in identity development late. According to Said Nationalism, in
the people who lives in exile, is important as this is the only way they stay
connected with their homeland thus forcing the migrant to be depended on
the taboo norms in their culture through it hampers the progress of their
modern life. Nazneen is amazed by the new things she sees in London, she
gets puzzled why the women in England would want to slim down when they
are healthy and the slimming dog notion where the women slim their dogs
for fashion this is different to her as in Bangladesh being slim is a sign of
poverty. Things that happen around her makes her own identity to be
48
question she wonders is her traditional culture is good for her or English is
the modern culture to follow. Nazneen because of the liberal freedom in
different norms of English culture starts to like it; she compares notes that
make the cultures different. She admires the British peoples idea of self
reliance and liberal freedom as they intent to mind their own business rather
than commenting on others. Such a freedom is missing in the Bengali
culture, the women in the Bengali society share their personal and family life
to each other; the unity makes them feel close to home. Nazneen being the
rebellious she is, feels that this openness hampers ones personal space like
when Nazneens first child Raqib was born Mrs. Islam a fellow housewife tries
to manipulate her in how to raise him. This is when she really started to
respect privacy and the individual space in life.
Within the Bangladeshi community, the concept of privacy is missing
as the women help each other out but when someone tries to get out of the
circle and live freely by wearing English cloths, working with the men,
learning English, they spread false rumor of family problems and isolate
them from the group. For example in the novel, what the women did with
Razia, they would isolate her because she started to wear English clothes
and learn English. Her progress in finding her identity made Nazneen inspire
to do something with life. Mixing with different community and learning
another culture is the way of fitting in the modern world but according to the
traditional Bengali women in the book it is considered a taboo. They think if
the women learn the other norms of many culture their own tradition will
suffer as according to the native society women carries the tradition
foreword; Nazneen is isolated from sharing her life or her problems as she
49
knows the deeds she did is against the traditional native culture, the
frustration of not sharing her life makes her confused about what is right A
few times she had imagined conversations with Razia. She played them out,
reading both parts, trying a new phrase here and there. [...] They did not
speak of him. It was not possible`30. To have a separate life except the life of
a Bengali woman was not acceptable by anyone, even to Razia who is
considered modernized by her activity. Nazneen fear of culture and her
limitation as obedient Bengali women made her realization of self
consciousness difficult, as we will discuss later how it actually helped her
discover her identity. She goes through series of situation through
transformation to finally go into a state of self discovery and achieve her
independence.
IDEAL CHANU
Chanu is a character who faces difficulties with his identity as a
working class immigrant citizen in England; his dream of the Ideal Chanu
who will get everything he wants in life is the only dependency he has and
this false dream lead to his destruction. Chanu is very passionate about
English poetry and needs approval from another character to prove his point.
His character is of somebody who is delusional and has difficulties
understanding his potentials; he lives in the mindset of the native land he
scolds and complains about his life. Chanu has to change his job constantly,
(due to low payment) as his situation in job market is so terrible that after
working for sixteen years in London city he can only afford a cheap flat at
Tower Hamlet and for his children Shahana and Bibi a community school.
50
According to Bruce a famous book reviewer at literature magazine; Chanu is

the failiure who fails to understand the reality, this works as a positive factor
for Nazneen to gain her identity. For Nazneen chanu is foolish, vain, quits his
job in anger, and takes self-improvement courses and makes plans without
finishing them. He claims his failures are the result of British racism, and he
wants to return to Bangladesh, which has become a paradise in his mind.31
His dream of being successful never fulfills and he fails to gather even
the amount to go back home, his identity of a man in the foreign land is lost
as he fails to understand the reality of his immigrant shortcomings. In his
own words he discovers his failure and feels hopeful for the time yet to
come, he feels the world will soon understand his worth and give him the
credit that he deserves. Chanu has the false idea that if any person is
educated in English he can have anything he wants, his perception changes
and he finally realizes the reality. He struggles to understand the life of a
migrant and finally after leaving the life of a migrant for several years he
gets defeated by the reality.
HE SPOKE BANGLA
Said says Exile and Nationalism goes hand in hand, for an exile
person who is alienated from motherland attempts to be the most patriotic,
they look back to their heritage and culture by staying in a group or forming
one, more common is the pressure on the exile to join-parties, national
movements, the state32. Looking at this, the only character that comes into
2001.print. p.183
51
acknowledgement is Brick Lanes Karim he is the only character in the novel

who found his identity in the culture he was not born into. Through Karim is
described as the young promising man who finds his own way but still the
symbol of his identity crisis is the stammering . Nazneen notices that Karim
stammers only when he speaks in Bangla not in English, this works as a
notification of Karims identity confusion. His identity background is much
more complex than Nazneen or Chanu; he is a British born Bengali who
works with the migrant Bengalis thus making his identity go through a Limbo
stage. Due to his boundaries as a second generation migrant Karim is
confused about his actual identity as a result he suffers from stammering
and seeks approval for his decision. He depends on the group and his beard
to be recognized as Muslim Bangladeshi, such bindings change his character
completely at the end.
These major dependencies of the characters make their journey
towards transformation more evident as by being dependent they face the
need to transform. In the novel, the concept of realization happens by seeing
the other character fail miserable. The character Nazneen understands her
dependency and transforms into an independent person.
Chapter.5
SECOND PHASE: TRANSFORMATION

52
Most people are principally aware of one culture, one setting, one
home; exile are aware of at least two, and this plurality of vision gives rise to
an awareness of simultaneous dimensions, an awareness that to borrow a
phrase from music-is contrapuntal33 in Saids Reflections on Exile the
concept of exile is viewed as an experience that lets people compare their
own life and culture with the other. He talks about a sense of achievement of
the native, the winning feeling that he or she has by able to correspond side
by side with a foreign culture. This sense of achievement produces certain
changes in identity of a migrant they start to transform themselves and their
cultural practice and add the habits of the foreign land in their own culture.
Finally, the migrant finds their self- consciousness and starts understanding
the flaws in their current living; through according to Said Exile moves
according to a different calendar, and is less seasonal and settled than life at
home34 but he later states how this fast movement in culture and identity
shapes the main purpose which is, finding their oneself in actual words
finding their Identity. In Brick lane the transformation is shown as a vital
turn of the characters identity, like Said says all the transformation does not
occur in a settled form, for example, few characters transform into opposite
direction that meaning they change into being more nationalistic and
religious which explains the sudden vertical change in their characters. Self
consciousness is found in many forms whether its by acknowledging the
33 . Said, Edward W. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, India: Penguin, 2001.print.p.186
2001.print.p.186
53
fact of being alienated or just realizing the native heritage, this chapter will
look at this consciousness through the characters of migration.
Transformation in the book is defined by the ability to adopt in a
society. The character that develops and continues to develop even after
their full transformation is the hero of the book. Depression, Home sick,
desire, deceive and finally religious shapes a lot of character in Brick lane.
Nazneen, Chanu, Karim are the main protagonists who are portrayed as a
representation of Bengali Diaspora generation; they go through radical
transformation and changes their destiny.
ICE E-SKATING
The point of transformation for Nazneen happened when she first took
the big step out of her home; it looked like she wanted to run away from the
reality. She took the longest walk and she kept on walking until she felt lost,
the most important part of this walk is the fact that for the first time in her
life she spoke in English with a stranger. by doing so self confidence that was
needed for her to change become aware was gained, now her reality started
to shift she realize that she didnt needed to feel lost like all the women in
Brick Lane. She removed one barrier on her own but when she went back to
the overloading apartment, she felt trapped again, the furniture in the
apartment works symbolic of the nonsense barrier that can be broken by
Nazneen. Chanu gathers bunch of stuff that is not necessary for their home
they create a barrier for her the barrier of baggage and disappointment. The
novel gives a lot of metaphorical incident that shows how trapped Nazneen
feels in her family, her depression are shown through real live incident for
example, When Chanu and her two daughters where watching the attack in
54
the Twin Tower and all the survivors were trapped inside, it seems that
Nazneen feels trapped in the book, she is trapped in this life where she looks
free but her true identity is hiding somewhere waiting to be found by her. In
the transformation chapter the process of her finding self-identity will be
discussed.
Nazneens major transformation in her identity occurred when she
starts fascinating about the snowstorms or snow globes from Dr.Azad. The
tiny glass full of snow starts to mesmerize her, and she gets amazed in how
a simple shake fills the globe with snow. Dr.Azad explains true meaning of
the globe and says that the globe are similar to life and the struggle that it
brings, he says if you (Nazneen) are strong and confident in your life than
everything including a storm will sooth itself down. Nazneen seems to
understand Dr.Azads metaphoric use of snow globe and this is a symbolic
term of her realization of her identity.
Not knowing about her identity and future, Nazneen goes through
some life changing changes as she stars working to fix the loan Chanu took
from Mrs. Islam. She starts taking control of the families financial situation
that makes her powerful enough to think about her. In the mean time she
starts having an extra marital affair with Karim is the reason behind Nazneen
facing difficulties in life is the complex situation of self realization she is into
the Stress of her affair, the conflict between her dawning self will and her
upbringing of uncomplaining acceptance Chanus Determination to return to
Bangladesh, Shahanas steadfast refusal to do so and her own ambivalence
towards this, along with the fraught fatherdaughter relationship, takes its
toll on Nazneen and she collapses. She collapses not only physically but also
55
morally the change she goes through when she falls in love with Karim is the
high point of her transformation, she hides the affair from everyone she
knows and then single handedly ends it in correct time. Her identical growth
as a person is expressed in the last time she speaks to him,
She touched his hand for the last time.Oh, Karim, that we have
already done. But always there was a problem between us. How can I
explain? I wasn't me, and you weren't you. From the very beginning to the
very end, we didn't see things. What we did--we made each other up."35
Her realization of her self-consciousness is the final transformation she
goes through, she embraces her change and reaches for her dream. The
novel ends with the scene where Nazneen is taken to an ice skating ground
to celebrate her freedom. This is the representation of the dream she has of
snow and ice by freeing herself from the barrier of un-respectful house life
the character fulfilled her transformation and became started feeling a free
agent. She became a woman of self realized and transforms into an
independent person her husband Chanu refuses to be in a real world and
treats the emigrant life as a life of high achievement thus failing to
understand his true potential and worth in Britain facing defeat at the end.
GOING HOME SYNDROME

Chanu is the only character who doesnt moderately change with self
realization; he starts with a high hope of being somebody big in the English
society and gets the opposite of his dreams. He doesnt transform for good
or for bad the major transformation in his character is his later realization of
his own worth; at the end he leaves the country he had came to with hope
35 . Ali, Monica. Brick Lane, Berkshire: Black and Swan. 2004. Print.p.p. 454-455
56
and dreams. His dream of being successful never gets fulfilled and he fails to
gather significant amount to go back home, his identity of a Bengali
man(who provides for his family) in the foreign land is lost as he fails to
provide for his family and makes his wife work at home for money.
When I came I was a young man. I had ambitions, big dreams. When I got
off the plane, I had my degree certificate in my suit-case. I thought there
would be a red carpet laid out for me. I was going to join the civil service and
become Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. That was my plan. And I
found things were a bit different.36
The big dreams and the success that he wanted in his life shapes a
false identity around him and he fails to understand his true worth and
instead of trying to improve it he lives in a false identity where he thinks he
is the intellectual and everybody else has no education at all. Chanu would
refer to the fellow Bengalis as low class and unrefined These people are
basically peasants and they miss the land. The pull of the land is stronger
even than the pull of blood.37 His fake identity gets the better of him as he
tries to set himself apart from the rest, in doing so he is losing his true
identity to the fake. He fails to transform into the his fake identity thus as a
result he fails himself he admits defeat and says, I cant stay, said Chanu,
and they clung to each other inside a sadness that went beyond words and
tears, beyond that place, those causes and consequences, and became a
part of their breath, their marrow, to travel with them from now to wherever
57
they went.38 Chanu losses his own self in false identity but there are other
characters
who
shine
over
their
identity
transform
into
something
completely opposite their nature.

Karim is the character in the novel that surprises through his
transformation, he starts from a Bangladeshi British boy who is modern in
thinking and turns into a religious man who suffers from guilt and
redemption from his deeds. Karims personal life is mentioned very less but
there is a complete identity crisis, he feels disconnected to his father and to
his heritage as he had never been to his native country so to feel connected
he creates a group An exaggerated sense of group solidarity, and a
passionate hostility to outsiders, even those who may in fact be in the same
predicament as you39 so according to Said the only way an migrant
character can connect to the native land on a foreign land is creating a
group that feels alike . He starts questioning his relationship with his work
and Nazneen, in the beginning the portrayal of Karim is as a ruthless boy
who gets what he wants even if it is Nazneen, a married women mother of
two daughters but gradually his weakness and transformation is shown. He
starts his transformation with the group and with his relationship with
Nazneen, his relationship with Nazneen matures and he starts looking for
redemption that can relieve him of his guilt. Self realization in his character
is important as this is the point he transforms, he loses his own self and
identity in order to feel connected. The result of such transformation is the
2001.print.p.178
58
fact that he lets go of his love and becomes dependent on the group to
support his identity.
Chapter.6
THE THIRD PHASE: INDEPENDENCE
59
Hugo of St. Victor, a twelfth-century monk from Saxony makes it clear

twice that the strong or perfect man achieves independence and
detachment by working through attachments, not by rejecting them. Exile is
predicated on the existence of, love for, and bond with, ones native place;
what is true of all exile is not that home and love of home are lost, but that
loss is inherent in the very existence of both. 40 so for the perfect
independent migrant character example will be the one who rises above all
complication and variation of life. The essay also says the love and affection
for the native land should not be lost but the independent characters should
find their inspiration from the bond of their land. Brick lane portrayed
characters that shine into this example of perfect migrant; these characters
go through the extreme separation of identity and culture but like a strong
man introduced by Hugo wins over these obstacles and earn their
independence.
Exile for many characters in the book works as the beneficial aspect in
building up their identity, as the previous chapters discussed the dependent
and transformation of exile characters, this chapter will discuss the final
completion
of
identity
development
independence.
The
idea
of
independence is gradually achieved in the foreign land; the exile had to win
through several barriers to get to the stage of mental independence.
Independence in the book is represented by the steps that Nazneen
and Karim take to become the representation of two groups of immigrants;
these two groups are the first generation who finds their individuality and

2001.print.p.185
60
the second generation who finds their native connection. Both the character
suffer from beginning to end of their dependence and gradually transform
into an independent individual who is capable to fit in the both native and
foreign culture.
Nazneen from the start depends on the fate or man to guide her
through her life but all of this starts to change when she finds confidence in
change. Changing and becoming a new in-dependent individual did not
happen overnight, according to Lone the changes came in gradually through
actions that was taken by Nazneen through her journey at a new land, Very
gradually she starts to break away from the thought of predestination which
has influenced most of her life and to take steps towards an independent
life, making her own decisions41.
I WILL DECIDE WHAT TO DO

The first action towards independence she took was questioning the
path of predestination with her first child Raquib, when Raquib was
hospitalized nearly dead Nazneen fought her mothers idea of living it on
Fate she took her son to a hospital and nursed her son back to health.
Through at the end Raquibs health fails again and he dies of illness but for a
few days Nazneen was happy to take the matter into her own hand and
being able to nurse her son. According to Lone, it is the first action she took
that meant something to her and she knew its a beginning of her
independence, This is probably the first time in her life that she acts out of
41. Lone, Sissel Marie. Race, Gender and Class in the Inheritance of Loss and Brick Lane,
The University of Oslo, Spring Term 2008.p.40
61
her own free will and that she understands that action can be vital42. This is
the biggest step she took as in the previous chapter it is shown how
dependent she was on fate and predestination. The ideology of her mother
when she was ill has been broken by Nazneen and this broken ideology gives
her identity that her mother had missed to gain.
The second step she took was when she proposed to her husband to
work to earn for the family through her intention was to save for the return
home trip but she stood against conventional Bengali culture. She convinced
Chanu to buy a sewing machine and thus started earning for herself, she
feels independent this became her source of income and confidence to face
Mrs Islam. For the first time in Nazneens life, she is in-charge of her own life
she starts taking all the financial and domestic decision and that makes her
capable of to standing for herself. She gradually starts taking control of her
own life. Nazneen becomes confident enough to question her life as she
begins to feel suffocated in her marriage thus resulting into her fourth action
to announce her independence. The affair with Karim is the final step she
took to go against her tradition and predestination; this action made her
more in control as she started to take her own life decision herself, for the
first time in her life she becomes the dominant part in a relationship with a
man. In this respect she is challenging her cultural background, her religion
and her marriage.43 Lone explains the reason why Nazneen went from being
the faithful wife to a dominant mistress; she says the challenges that she
42 . Lone, Sissel Marie. Race, Gender and Class in the Inheritance of Loss and
Brick Lane, The University of Oslo, Spring Term 2008.p.42
62
took against her culture and religion made her come out of her mothers
concept of living it to her fate and be this new women who takes her
independent decision.
After she came out of her barrier, she acknowledged her problems and
her limitations. According to Lone, Nazneen starts to learn about politics and
dominant aspects of countries from Karim, Chanu never took interest in her
and he never taught her about the world on the other hand Karim shows her
a world where she can know and learn about different things a world where
she matters. Lone argues that this is the reason for their end of the affair
But his knowledge also makes Nazneen aware of her own lack of education
and knowledge, One day she attends a political meeting with him 44. The
power that Karim had over Nazneen, the power of knowledge began to
backfire when he explains the religious aspect of their relationship to her.
Nazneen realizes that Karim started to believe that she has dependent on
him to live this free life thus resulting her to end the relationship. This is the
final dependency she had and eventually she overcomes it.
All this action she took to announce her independence is just a buildup
for the final resolution of her identity; she takes the most important and
crucial decision of the book she decides to stay in London and raise her kids
by her own. From the day she came to brick lane Chanu and Nazneen saved
for the day they could go home but after all that suffering and hard work
Nazneen decides to stay back. Lone discusses the decision as a step for
Nazneen to pay respect of her new found independence, She is not the
submissive, passive wife any longer, and she has gained the strength to take
63
control of her own life.45 It is clear to the readers that Nazneen is now
independent and free of Fate.
Brick Lane begins with a Nazneen who was sold to the pawnshop of
fate and ends with a Nazneen who is enterprising enough to attempt iceskating wearing a sari46. This is the line that Haque describes the character
in and through the chapter we do see the amazing change and personal
growth she has for example, Nazneen has been obsessing about ice-skating;
she would watch only the skating competition and at the end by doing iceskating herself she achieved her fantasy, reached the ultimate resolution of
her character. Nazneen succeeds Alis representation of the first generation
successful emigrant who survives the new nation and finds their true
identity. She also pays attention to the other group, the second generation
who are the offspring of the new found identity emigrant their journey is
different they face the alienation from the two nation their motherland and
their home land.
KARIM? HE WENT TO BANGLADESH

Karim who is the most developed character from second generation
finds his identity as a Bangladeshi Muslim through his journey as a Diaspora
migrant. Karims character development happens from the first time he
steps into Nazneens apartment, what Karim did for Nazneen is that he
became the substitute of Chanu; all the missing qualities of Chanu were in
46 . Haque, Easmin. White teeth & brick lane: perspectives in Diaspora literature,
BRAC.p.3
64
Karim. The pair was capable of filling up each others lacking, Karims lack of
knowledge about the native land, religion and love was fulfilled by
Nazneens presence in his life, Nazneen embarks on a secretive, bold and
passionate affair with him. Karim also engages Nazneen critically in her
faith she also argues the affair with Nazneen make him realize about the
religious steps he needed to take to be a Muslim. From being an unreligious
man he became a leader of a London based religious group, his activity after
the group selection was the major development in his character. His
approach and appearance towards the affaire begin to change; he becomes
more devoted to Islam and started questioning his relationship with
Nazneen. This makes the final transition of his identity as he starts behaving
like a Bengali man driven by his culture and religion. Monica Ali portrays two
different transitions of both of the character she explains the action they
takes and why this action changes their course of identity and make them
independent from their barrier.
CONCLUSION
Based on my discussion in this dissertation, I argue that the changes
and the dynamic transformation of the characters in novel help to prove the
Diaspora Culture as a form of a mixed culture where adapting to situation
and changing lifestyle is allowed. Gender role change, younger generation
understanding life better, achieving perfect resolution by challenging
65
oneself, realizing one true self by facing the reality and finally settling in
completely new place and making it their home is the ultimate identity
independence, this are the major point that is focused in the dissertation
making it a refined analyzed work of identity development in Diaspora
literature.
Monica Alis Brick Lane is a book of fiction; in which the main concern
is how ones identity deforms and remakes in realization of fictional space.
The writer is highly influenced by the post colonial Diaspora theory and as
subject of Migration; she is motivated by the idea of melting pot identity
that travels with the generations of Diaspora individual as a learned culture
rather than inherited. The protagonist of the story is portrayed initially as
helpless and clueless migrant gripped by the massive changes in the life at a
foreign land but gradually she becomes interested and progressive subjects
as she stretches, changes, adopts and modifies her individual circumstances
and therefore resolves into independent identity making.
My work with this dissertation, along with my observations, has been
interesting, motivating and increased my knowledge on the subject.
Particularly In order to complete this dissertation I would like to draw the
attention to the endings of both novels. I feel that Ali has a last message to
the reader in the final scene, suggesting what the future will bring - both for
the characters and for people of the Third World in general. These prospects
are closely linked to the individual changes the various characters
experience towards the end. Towards the end, Chanu finally decides to
realize his dream of returning to Dhaka. Nazneen makes decision to stay on
in England without her husband; she wants to change her present life. In the
66
end of the novel she is confident women who feel she can cope on her own
in the world out there, and she is ready to take the step. In karims case he
started to feel confused at his immigrant life where he was imprisoned by
the both culture and finally took the high road of religion to fall back on his
identity, his act of becoming a spiritual group leader made him come close
to his heritage.
The limitation of this dissertation is the limited amount of community
that has being used as example of Diaspora, only Muslim community is
discussed. Through the limitation are quite visible but the idea of identity
crisis is explained in general version and this help the dissertation to be
useful to understand any country or religions migrant ideology. As Said
commented in Refections on Exile, he commented about the exiles of Jews,
Palestine and Armenians as universal phenomena of exile people, he says all
this exile population for the same pain and suffering in religion and
nationalism is later described as migration and that makes the theory of
exile applicable for any migration and Diaspora generation. He talks about
the territory beyond not-belonging and us outsiders conflict, a place
where people is united because of their banishment. And just beyond the
frontier between us and the outsiders is the perilous territory of notbelonging; this is to where in a primitive time peoples were banished, and
where in modern era immense aggregates of humanity loiter as refugees
and displace person.
I would like to end this dissertation by invoking what could be called
the ice skating image. This image is referred to several times throughout
Alis novel and expresses her main message in a gender perspective: the
67
importance of believing in one self, to never give up and the significance of

being able to live an independent life in dignity. When Nazneen arrives in
England as a young woman, she is fascinated by the ice skating shows she
watches on television. It seems fantastic to her that people can exercise
such control over their bodies. To Nazneen, the ice skaters symbolize
freedom and the ability to do what at first seems impossible - it is about
total control and believing in oneself. In the last scene of the novel, Razia
and Nazneens daughters bring Nazneen to a skating rink to surprise her, at
first with a scarf covering her eyes. When she is allowed to look she sees the
ice: She looked at the ice and slowly it revealed itself. The criss-cross
patterns of a thousand surface scars, the colours that shifted and changed in
the lights, the unchanging nature of what lay beneath. A woman swooped by
on one leg47.
The thought of skating is not frightening to Nazneen. She
feels strong and confident, and her attempts to enter the ice can be seen as
another personal step towards freedom and independence. The image
illustrates that Nazneen by now is fully able to appreciate her new life in
England. She has proven that she can make her own living for herself and
her daughters, and she is proud of it. The fact that she herself is able to
decided whether to return to Bangladesh or to stay on in England makes her
feel free. She also realizes that she would not be able to experience this
freedom in Bangladesh. In many ways the female characters, which had no
expectations or dreams before they came to England, are those who turn out
to be the most content in the end. The story about Nazneen therefore has a
very happy ending. Nazneen is still young when she starts her new life: To
68
get on the ice physically - it hardly seemed to matter. In her mind she was
already there48. For Nazneen anything seems possible now. But could she
skate in her sari? Razia gives her the answer: This is England, she said.
You can do whatever you like49.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
1. Ali, Monica. Brick Lane, Berkshire: Black and Swan. 2004. Print.
2. Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary homelands: Granta Books.1992. Print.
3. Said, Edward W. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, India: Penguin,
2001.print.
Secondary texts:
4. Cacciottolo, Mario. Brick Lane protesters hurt over lies. 1.01.15.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5229872.stm.>.
5. Cohen Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: UCL Press.
McLeod, J. 2004. London: Routledge, 1997.
6. Garbin, Dr David. Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK: some observations
on socio-cultural dynamics, religious trends and transnational politics
(2005).
7. Haque, Easmin. White teeth & brick lane: perspectives in Diaspora
literature, BRAC University Journal, vol. I, no. 2, 2004, pp. 149-152.
69
8. Hall, Stuart. Who Needs Identity? Questions of Cultural Identity. Eds. Stuart Hall &
Paul de Gay, London: Sage, 1996.
9. Hornby, A S. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.
10.
Jain, Jasbir. ed. Dislocations and Multiculturalism. Jaipur: Rawat,
2004.
11.
Lane, Harriet. Alis in wonderland. June 1, 2003. The Observer.
1.01.15.
<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/bookgroup/story/0,13699,991601,00.h
tml>.
12. Lau, Lisa. Re-Orientalism: The Perpetration and Development of Orientalism by
Orientals.Modern Asian Studies 43.02 (2009): 571. Print.
13.
Lone, Sissel Marie. Race, Gender and Class in the Inheritance of
Loss and Brick Lane, The University of Oslo, Spring Term 2008.
14.
McLeod, A. L. The Literature of the Indian Diaspora: Essays in
Criticism. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 2000.

15.
Safran, William. Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of
Homeland and Return. Vol.1. No.1, 1991.

16.
Sakaria, Neela. Meet the author. June 2004. Bookwire. 1.01.15.
<
http://www.bookwire.com/MeetTheAuthor/Interview_Monica_Ali.htm>
17.
The Encyclopedia Americana. 1989.
18. Toloyan, Ahaching. The Contemporary Discourse of Diaspora Studies, Comparative

Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 27.3 (2007): 647-655.
70
19.
Weheliye , Alexander. Black Europe and the African Diaspora,
2009.
20.
Wieviorka, Michel. Racism and Diaspora, Thesis Eleven, 52
(1998): 69-81.
21.
Where Im coming from. June 17, 2003. The Guardian. 1.01.15.
<http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,979007,00.html>.
22.
Wikipedia/ British Bangladesh/Bangladeshi
diaspora/diasporicliterature/diasporas.1.01.15.
71

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1. DIASPORIC LITERATURE 10

MAJOR THEMES OF DIASPORAS

DIASPORIC LITERATURE AND DIASPORIC WRITERS

Chapter 3 BRICK LANE IS A DIASPORIC WORK

YOU CAN JUST SEE WHAT FATE WILL DO

Chapter 5. SECOND PHASE: TRANSFORMATION 46

GOING HOME SYNDROME

Chapter 6. THE THIRD PHASE: INDEPENDENCE 52

KARIM? HE WENT TO BANGLADESH 56

whether to accede to their

ancestral Islamic cultural identity or should display a collaborative position

This dissertation is an endeavour to go beyond debates concerning

discriminated against in foreign countries, and how literature represents this

of today have also been a challenge. Prejudice and intolerance, especially in

. Lane, Harriet. Alis in wonderland. June 1, 2003. The Observer.

In an interview with Bookwire, Ali is asked if there was any personal

community in England. Ali has been accused of giving a negative portrayal

described. Even when discussing major universal themes like history,

is promoted by the use of vocabulary, imagery, personal characterizations,

transformational stage of diasporic characters and their ability to adopt in

independence and the barriers in front of diaspora to overcome to get to the

diaspora in the English language was in 1876 referring "extensive diaspora

MAJOR THEMES OF DIASPORAS

Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return gives six

characteristics, which are as follows:

1. Dispersal from an original homeland, often traumatically, to two or

6 . Cohen Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: UCL Press. McLeod, J.

mistakenly identified or used synonymously with terms such as exile,

comply with the reigning definition of the people as a cohesive political

DIASPORIC LITERATURE AND DIASPORIC WRITERS

Literature which emerges from the background of diaspora has led to

Even though the movement of diaspora happens from time immemorial,

Hence the diasporic communities

10 . Wieviorka, Michel. Racism and Diaspora, Thesis Eleven, (1998): p. 71

antagonistic, discourse, practices and positions11 portrays the condition of

individual/communities attachment to the homeland and the urge to belong

Modern Asian Studies 43.02 (2009): 571. Print.

The settled country considers the practice of a different culture by the

Parameshwaran, Meena Alexander, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni, etc.

VARIETIES IN THE WRITINGS OF FEMALE DIASPORIC

BANGLADESHI DIASPORA AND BANGLADESHI

sensitive on immigrant issues. The Bangladeshis migrated in large numbers

dearth of creative authors of Bangladeshi origin in Britain and the number of

Bangladeshi; however their experience is tainted by their diasporic identity,

BRICK LANE IS A DIASPORIC WORK

The features of diasporic narrative in Brick Lane are: 1) dislocation, 2)

home country and religion. Due to the problem of discrimination, identity

Brick Lane, most of the younger generations of the Bangladeshis are

country. They satirise an older generations profligate consumption, false

EARLY PHASE: DEPENDENCY

24 . Said, Edward W. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, India: Penguin,

YOU CAN JUST SEE WHAT FATE WILL DO

According to Bruce a famous book reviewer at literature magazine; Chanu is

acknowledgement is Brick Lanes Karim he is the only character in the novel

SECOND PHASE: TRANSFORMATION

GOING HOME SYNDROME

completely opposite their nature.

THE THIRD PHASE: INDEPENDENCE

Hugo of St. Victor, a twelfth-century monk from Saxony makes it clear

40 . Said, Edward W. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, India: Penguin,

I WILL DECIDE WHAT TO DO

KARIM? HE WENT TO BANGLADESH

importance of believing in one self, to never give up and the significance of