Multiculturalism and Feminist Concerns in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane
Nesbitt-Larking writes, “Arguably the most urgent social and psychological challenge of political societies in the contemporary West is that of accommodating ethno-religious diversities and dealing with more or less entrenched differences within the context of highly permeable states and liberal democratic political cultures”. (Dissolving the Diaspora: Dialogical Practice in the Development of Deep Multiculturalism 352). Three core terms involved in this challenge are Multiculturalism, Diaspora and dialogue with each being a contested domain in the Western political and cultural discourses. For example, multiculturalism that targets at emphasizing equality, generous acceptance of cultural heterogeneity and ethnic divisions has been contested by the intellectuals. Vertovec suggests the end of the older theories of multiculturalism by saying, “The changing nature of global migration, new social formations spanning nation-states and the persistently poor socio-economic standing of immigrant and ethnic minority groups”. Vertovec adds -
“there has emerged in public discourse across numerous settings – especially in Europe –a broad backlash against multiculturalism. From the political Right many critics now see multiculturalism as a foremost contributor to social breakdown, ethnic tension and the growth of extremism and terrorism. From the Left, where numerous commentators were long dubious of a seeming complicity with Empire and willing blindness to class-based inequalities, even previous supporters of multiculturalism came to question the model as contributing to a demise of the welfare state and the failure of public services” (Towards Post-multiculturalism? Changing Communities, Conditions and Contexts of Diversity 84).
Usually a diasporic community member is always an outsider, an
agent of the other, without full citizenship and cultural
submergence. Moreover, among certain individuals and
communities, a recognized diasporic identity can intensify the
persistent existence of tensions and feuds originating in other
parts of the world and resonating among those who have settled
elsewhere. The contested nature of both concepts complicates
intercultural dialogue.
The ideology of multiculturalism reverses from a feminist point
of view. Picher and Whelehan assert that feminism and
multiculturalism can be posited as oppositional in the context
of andocentric cultures as women are victimized by the
andocentric modes of culture, which even under the umbrella of
multiculturalism continues to negate the very ideals of
equality, tolerant co-existence, respect and regard for
ethnicity and minority. The South Asian diaspora women stand on
the lowest strata. Satirically, while the white native female of
a multicultural society enjoys all the liberties, the picture of
South Asian women in their native societies and their position
as diaspora identities of South Asian region is pronouncedly
depressing. This feminist point of view of the pain of women due
to cultural conflicts has become the current dispute for South
Asian writers. Therefore the importance of multiculturalism
within the limits of feministic theory has become a new facet
for South Asian diaspora writers. They are intensely concerned
in discussing the issues of cultural clashes, diversity,
identity, adaptation, amalgamation, exclusion, cruelty, sex bias
and gender discrimination.
Monica Ali‘s Brick Lane
Monica Ali is a diasporic writer stands
for prevalent dichotomy of freedom and suppression in her novel
Brick Lane . The women of the Muslim ethnic minority here are
twice marginalized. Firstly, as diaspora identities living on
the margins of cultured society of Britain, and secondly as a
sufferer of their own precise cultural order that preserves men
supremacy over women. Thus the novel represents in various ways
the predicament of female oppression and suppression in a
multicultural world. The female protagonist Nazneen here gets
married to Channu and settles in England. Her marriage
visualizes a usual male need for finding a useful partner. She
was selected by Channu, not for prettiness or spirit, but for
her usefulness in taking care of everyday domestic duties. But
for Nazneen there are many predicaments in this situation.
Firstly her going away from her motherland is a kind of loss,
she has to suffer after marriage. Then as a diasporic
individual, she is plagued by class distinction in restrictive
and peculiar ways.
Ali further illuminates the multicultural issues of identity,
Diaspora, adaptation and the differences among the different
subgroups of indigenous minorities and majority residing in
England. On the one hand are the “Towers of Hamlet” (Brick Lane
18) which are labelled by Nazneen as life in a “Big Box with
muffled sound” (Brick Lane 18) and on the other hand, Ali
depicts vivid scenes of Nazneen’s birthplace Mymensingh
District. This difference has been drawn intentionally by Ali,
because she has to explain the typical alienation of women in
the background of Diaspora throughout the novel. Their condition
is of double imprisonment. It is the enforced imprisonment of
the women by their men, bounding them in their homes, afraid
that they might outsource them, as well as a metaphoric
imprisonment as outsiders to this alien culture. The dullness,
the broken pavement and the dead lawn of the “Tower of Hamlets”
along with its severe closeness and closeness of existence in
those box like flats where one is always a stranger echoes this
peculiarities there. In all her past eighteen years in her
homeland Nazneen could hardly remember a moment, 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 her”
(Brick Lane 18) In contrast the recollections of homeland
disturb her, the beautiful landscape of the Bangladeshi village
flickers through her mind day and night. “The pull of the land
is stronger even than the pull of the blood…They don‘t really
leave home. Their bodies are here but their hearts are back
there. And anyway, look how they live: just re-creating the
villages here” (Brick Lane 16-17). “Nazneen feels herself locked
in the Towers of Hamlet; doing household chores all daylong she
yearns to get out of the ―box” (Brick Lane 18).
This box is representative of a prison, where one is in the
continuous observation of the neighbour. She is enclosed by
eyes and no friends. This demotion to the attic box is a
symbolic imprisonment, because her husband is uncertain in
letting her go. Nazneen‘s diasporic sense becomes tougher when
she walks across the narrow streets of Brick Lane and comes to
the understanding that her being a female in a multicultural
alien society is neither accepted nor recognized. This situation
is in a way not much altered from what she to experience in her
homeland. As a woman, she was a non-entity there, and in the
outside world too she is a marginalized ethnic minority. Her
sense of hurt continues to broaden with each passing day. She is
unable to connect with her husband because of classic cultural
frameworks that does not permit women to be equivalent with men
even in routine matters. Then her position in the household is
more or less of an unpaid servant that requires her to suffering
self-respects.
Another reason for her isolation is that Channu does not like
Nazneen to have acquaintance with “menial class” females;
discrimination within an already intolerant setup; thus
broadening the sense of despair in Nazneen‘s consciousness. This
internalization of feelings shows how women always have to exist
in a emptiness. Ali designates this painful battle of existence
that the immigrants, especially women experience in these words,
“to be an immigrant is to live out a tragedy” (Brick Lane 77).
For women, it is a dual tragedy that they have to experience
continuously in an alien and unfamiliar setting. Nazneen is
unfamiliar with the new system, new language, with the
multicultural world around her. However, the most challenging
task for her is to get used to her husband. She has to succumb
to him totally, shed all her dreams becoming a robot. Constantly
she feels disheartened and as a mediocre being within the
household, subject to the male stare. Being an alien to the
world she has come to live, she asks Channu if she could go out
of the flat. Replicating secondary female position, he replies
“Why should you go out?” (Brick Lane 45). Living in London, in
an open-minded multicultural world, she is symbolically a
prisoner, satisfying the male craving to own. Her interest to
learn English is disallowed because language gives authority and
authority is one thing men would never give to their women. His
denial, “where‘s the need anyway?” (Brick Lane 37) clarifies his
insecurity and fear of losing control.
The control of Channu and weirdness of the outside world
confines her possibilities to gain exposure living under
Channu‘s observation forever. Nazneen culturally learns to be
passive but on the other hand she feels framed-up within her
mental pattern. Nazneen‘s oppressive existence can be measured
through her words “trapped inside the room, inside this flat,
inside this concrete slab of entombed humanity”. (Brick Lane 76)
She is the Lady of Shallot who would stop to live, if she comes
out of this frame. Later when Channu‘s dreams of becoming
wealthy are devastated, challenged with unemployment for long
periods, he purchases a sewing machine for Nazneen so that she
could make money through sewing. The sewing machine is important
in the perspective of her life because it becomes a symbol of
freedom and empowerment for her. It is a turning point in her
married life, because it offers her space to grow socially and
economically. When she makes money, she sends some to her sister
Hasina living in Dhaka, a symbolic act of freedom comparing it
to her earlier dependency upon her husband. Roles have been
changed, as she takes on the role of a ‘male’ for a short period
of time. She becomes aware of this fact and feels tougher. She
challenges the cultural and social mandate and finds a door to
get equivalent rights as men, through economic means. The
symbolic empowerment frees her emotionally too. At this stage,
she advances acquaintance with Karim, an immigrant from
Bangladesh, who like other immigrants from Asia, is struggling
in London for better prospects.
The contact has its own complications. It leads to Nazneen
sensual developing for handsome Karim. But she always remains
concerned by the realization that such an act could result in
stoning to death in her inborn land, though practised with
choice in a liberal multicultural society. She can neither
accept the Western dating practice nor have an extramarital
relationship. In her comatose lies the realization of all those
reserves that like an iceberg lie sunken underneath the
conscious. Karim gives her social and political exposure in the
multicultural society of London. This freedom is significant for
Nazneen. Attending a political meeting with Karim, she senses a
new wisdom of power. She votes for Karim when he contests
election. She takes part in his success by raising her hand. She
feels a new sense of joy began by the realization that she could
change the course of events. This episode makes her aware of her
role in society that she can impact significant decisions of
society. It plugs her with potentials of empowerment and offers
her chance to be herself and be loved. It indicates more than
sexual freedom for her. She has been taught to refute herself
and to succumb, first to her father, then to her husband. She
has lost her freedom by succumbing to the male supremacy and as
a result had become a non –entity. In a very unusual way, Karim
offers her an anchor, which Nazneen in Towers of Hamlet never
found. These Towers of Hamlets symbolize refusal and abuse. She
keeps on fluctuating between Bangladeshi loss and England’s
denial. Ironically she remains deferred, not finding an anchor
even with Karim whom she leaves eventually understanding the
fact that there is no future for them. This is a wretched
exposition of a woman‘s ailment according to ethnic culture from
which she cannot free herself though living in a liberal
society. The Bengali women’s alienation and diaspora within a
cultural perspective is dual as it is complex as well as
bidirectional.
Brick Lane represents economic degradation of women as far as
female perspectives is concerned. Hasina is incapable to pay the
rent of her home. Women are distinguished professionally from
men as they do not seem to have the same working situations as
their male equals have. Hasina’s life is significantly
subjective by male power, supremacy, physical abuse and sexual
exploitation. Local gender sexual separation outspreads even to
the public arena of paid work, causing in gender discrimination.
She is discriminated in the garment factory because of her
gender. She was earlier abused at the hands of Malik, her
husband as he used to beat her and remarkably how women are
trained to be slave minded can be judged by her landlady’s
solace “better get beaten by your own husband than beating by a
stranger” (Brick Lane 58). Later Chowdhury comes into her life
with the disguised relationship of “father-daughter‘. He later
degrades her in every way just because she is working in a male
milieu; exposed to male lasciviousness. The incident of Abdul
and Chowdhury alters her course of life as she turns into a
prostitute in order to stay alive. Like ‘Jane Eyre’, she is
impatient and craving to take part in the world around her:
“She’d have to propel herself into the future by whatever means
possible or she’d be trapped forever in a place whose time had
already passed” (Brick Lane 54). So her predicament is
everlasting, and the change of perspective from a strictly
patriarchy social order to a liberal, multicultural Western one
does not mark any significant change in her life and existence.
Conclusion
Ali has drawn attention to the characteristic
conflict in the multicultural discourse. The plights of
diasporic women in Brick Lane draw attention to the fact that
women are doubly marginalized in the multicultural centre of the
liberal west. It looks in Brick Lane that the two terms feminism
and multiculturalism are in conflict with each other because the
inconsistency which exists between the two always discriminate
women considering them sub ordinate to men. To attain the
feminists’ rights, the situations need be changed; which does
not mean the eradication of different ethnic cultures, but
working out a way to redefine it in a non-gendered way. It would
be best if a gender free society is formed in which women are
allowed protection through a sympathetic feminist discourse. It
would be relevant to mention to her to their explicit Muslim
identity. It needs to be stressed that religion as such has
nothing to do with how men exploit women or control their
conditions to their advantage. It is because a typical and
culturally accustomed mind-set permits men to control and the
change of environment from convention to liberal does not affect
any change in this already culturally conditioned mind-set.
Works Cited::
- Ali, Monica. Brick Lane . Black Swan: Doubleday, 2003.
- Nesbitt-Larking, P. "Dissolving the Diaspora: Dialogical Practice in the Development of Deep Multiculturalism." Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 18 (2008): 351–362.
- Pilcher, J. & Whelehan, I. Fifty Concepts in Gender Studies. London: Sage, 2004.
- Vertovic, S. "Towards Post-multiculturalism? Changing Communities, Conditions and Contexts of Diversity." UNESCO International Social Science Journal 61.199 (2010): 83-95.