Throughout
her novel, Brick Lane, Monica Ali
addresses a variety of issues that today’s society is constantly battling. The
story Ali tells covers gender roles, racism, and even crises involving natural
original or ethnicity identity. In one form or another, each of these problems
deals with perception: because one group of people sees another group of people
in a certain way, there is an immediate reaction, and oftentimes a negative
one. However, it is also important to look at how Ali highlights the
misperceptions between two individuals, specifically those who are supposed to
know each other intimately. Not only do these characters see each other in a
warped way, they tend to not see themselves as they truly exist.
One of the
most obvious examples of these misperceptions can be seen between Nazneen, the
main character, and Karim, the young lover she has taken. Once Karim starts
spending time more consistently at Nazneen’s flat, she decides to finally question
why he has chosen her, what does he like about her. Karim responds, “You are the real thing” (321). During
their conversation, Karim elaborates that Nazneen is not overly westernized,
but she also is not overly religious. She is essentially just right for him.
However, it is clear that Nazneen does not feel that way about herself. In that
moment, she clearly gets uncomfortable and drops it on Karim that her husband,
Chanu, is planning on taking his family home to Bangladesh.
Later on in
the novel, Nazneen reflects a little deeper on how she and Karim saw untrue
versions of each other. When she is finally breaking the affair off, Nazneen
closes the conversation by saying, “But there was always 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” (382).
With the passing of time, Nazneen became increasingly aware of herself and the
situation she found herself in. When she finally started seeing things as they
actually were, she was able to make the decision that fit her life the best.
Nazneen has
a similar revelation as Chanu prepares for the departure back to Bangladesh.
Throughout the novel, it remains unclear if Nazneen and Chanu truly love and
understand each other. For a large portion of the novel, they seem to be just a
man and a woman, having a family and growing older together with nothing really
between them. However just as the family is set to leave for Bangladesh,
Nazneen and Chanu discuss the upcoming trip. Up until the last moment, they go
about packing and talking, fully aware Chanu will be alone without saying it
aloud. Finally, they talk about it in as few words as possible, but both
completely understand each other (402). Just as with Karim, it took Nazneen sometime
to become aware of herself and the person she was involved with. Thus, Ali is
pointing out that the truth that lies beyond the misperceptions is necessary to
understand oneself and the world around.