Brick Lane

Nazneen’s beautiful sister has a life of romantic adventure. Hasina appears in the narrative in the opening chapter and subsequently through her many letters. This passionate character wields her a beauty as a tool, allowing her to make up her own rules. Hasina’s impetuousness is the foil for her stoic sister. The opposition of their characters reveals why their bond is strengthened by separation. Hasina runs off with her lover as a teenager, embarking on a lifetime pattern of succumbing to passion, with fateful consequences. In marked contrast to her self-reflective sister, Hasina acts before she thinks. However, her letters reveal a growing awareness of how she creates her own fate.

Nazneen’s husband through arranged marriage is Bengali, though he has lived in London since he was 24. He is a homely but kind and gentle man burdened by lofty ideals. He is talker rather than a doer, yet sees himself as an intellectual ready to change the world. He arrived in London with a degree in English literature from Dhaka University, without funds but with lofty ambitions. His dreams of greatness were dashed when he realized English people are unable to distinguish between a penniless foreigner with an education and an uneducated worker. He is 40 when he marries Nazneen, a woman half his age. Neglecting his body, he is guided by the spirit of eternal youth and struggles to combat encroaching cynicism as he ages and the world changes around him. He vows to fulfill two promises: to be a success and to eventually return home.

Nazneen`s nervy employer, the young Bengali middleman for his uncle’s garment trade, is her introduction to all things “radical,” a word he substitutes for “right.” Karim is Nazneen’s guide to a political and sexual awakening. Born in London, he stammers in Bengali but has found his voice in English. This is telling, as his political beliefs never seem grounded in the body. His disdain for Western culture arises from the physical repulsion over father’s sacrifice of religion for pills. Hotheaded and competitive, he believes the path to bettering the condition of his people is through struggle. In marked contrast to Nazneen’s dreamer husband, he is a man of forthright action who puts words to political action.

This character reveals the growing Muslim identity in being politically radicalized, arising from the struggle for adaptation to the capitalist Western world. His evolution depicts how a slick young Bengali activist can be easily radicalized through the opportunity to display talent in oratory and leadership. Over the course of events, he changes his appearance to reflect this change in identity, going from jeans to traditional Muslim garb.

A Bengali medical doctor befriended by Chanu. He is described as a “small, precise man who, contrary to the Bengali custom, spoke at a level only one quarter of a decibel above a whisper, calculated to have his listeners lean in, to hang onto every word.” With his title, the doctor represents immigrant social aspirations and success. He is not a man of learning, however, but a simple medical doctor who entered a “love marriage” with a woman whose family facilitated his higher education. Through his unusual friendship with Chanu, Dr. Azad develops wisdom about love that assists Nazneen in her crucial emotional turning point.

Mrs. Islam is a shadowy figure who factors significantly in the book’s themes of fate and time. A manipulative Muslim woman with two henchmen sons who enforce her hegemony in the community, Mrs. Islam is a usurer who takes advantage of immigrants by lending them money at such a high interest that the debt can never be repaid. Her ambition to know everyone’s private business serves to enhance her own power and wealth by learning their secrets. She has been in London for thirty years by the time she meets Nazneen and ingratiates herself to Nazneen immediately. She is dishonest and cruel, making up challenges and tests for her prey because she can’t be direct about the very corrupt nature of her activities. She is the personification of the iron fist that Nazneen’s mother felt in her stomach before she was born. This devilish character hides behind a handkerchief, symbolizing the multiple veils worn by the females disempowered by traditional Muslim culture. She pretends to be weak before she pounces on her prey.

Nazneen’s friend serves as a role model for a Muslim woman who finds her autonomy after being liberated from servitude by her husband’s accidental death. She is a strong and big-boned woman whose cutting humor is sourced in an unsparing eye for truth. Her anecdotes arise out of a realistic, practical approach to life. She has two children, a girl and a rebellious son that she cures from addiction through tough love. They live in a cluttered apartment full of children’s toys, an example of the cluttered living conditions of poor immigrants. This character reveals the importance of mourning as a clearing out the clutter of life in order to make space for the new.