At the beginning of the novel,
Nazneen accepts her life, her situation, and her marriage because she doesn’t
believe she has any other choice. Her affair later in the novel with Karim
shows her that she does have control of her own life. Her affair is liberating,
not because of her newfound sexual awakening, but because of her newfound
understanding of free will.
In the
beginning of the novel, Nazneen feels trapped and bored with her life, but she
doesn’t feel she has the power to change those feelings. She believes immensely
in “fate” and that each person is destined to follow their predetermined fate.
Upon discovering her sister, Hasina, has run away with a man named Malek, she
wonders, “If fate cannot be changed, […] then perhaps Hasina was fated to run
away with Malek” (10). Her strong belief of fate is seen again when she thinks
back upon her wedding, “I would of wept on my wedding day. I did! I did weep.
What good did it do?” (78). Nazneen does not feel she has the ability to change
her fate, which is why when she does begin her affair with Karim, she uncovers
that she can control the path and direction of her life.
When Chanu
decides to attend a “Bengal Tigers” meeting with Nazneen, she initially is
anxious because Karim and Chanu will be in the same place. But during the
meeting and “[s]itting next to her husband, in front of her lover, she gave way
to a feeling of satisfaction that had been slowly growing”(293). Nazneen almost
didn’t care if Chanu found out about the affair, because she was happy to
finally be in control of her own destiny. Later on, when she tells Karim her
family is moving back to Bangladesh, he tells her that she can divorce Chanu
and marry him. Nazneen considers this possibility but realizes, “She had seen
what she wanted to see. She had looked at him and seen only his possibilities”
(377). Although, her affair with Karim was liberating, it was not liberating
because of Karim personally, more the idea of him. To choose to marry Karim
would be no less passive than moving back with Chanu. Ultimately, Nazneen
decides, “I will decide what to do. I will say what happens to me. I will be
the one” (339). Nazneen decides to no longer let anyone else control her
destiny.
Ultimately,
Nazneen discovers her life is what she makes of it. Her decision to neither
marry Karim, nor move back to Bangladesh with Chanu, proves her revelation of
free will. Her affair with Karim was merely what triggered her realization of
controlling her own destiny, not the sexual liberation in it of itself.
I definitely agree with you here. I enjoyed the book’s ending message about liberation through independence. I think the similarities between Karim and Chanu also speak to this overarching theme. Nazneen’s experiences seem like a broken record; she seems bound to repeating the same mistakes. During one of Karim’s rants about the West and Islamic terrorism, Nazneen thinks to herself, “It seemed that just as Chanu had lost an invisible audience, Karim had gained one…While her husband talked less and less, Karim talked more and more” (341). Here, near the end of her affair with Karim, Nazneen begins to truly grasp the degree to which her husband and her lover are similar. In an effort to escape fate and rebel, she ends up in a relationship with a man whose personality resembles that of the man she is trying to avoid. Later, when ending her relationship with Karim, Nazneen tells him, “Always there was a problem between us… From the very beginning to the very end, we didn’t see things. What we did – we made each other up” (382). Nazneen sees beyond the façade of the thrill of romance with Karim and realizes he is not a good match for her. This realization is, indeed, a mark of maturity for her. She exhibits awareness of what lacks in her life, and she finally takes the initiaive to choose the course her life will take.
ReplyDeleteNazneen’s transformation from blindly following fate to realizing the control she possesses over her own life certainly is inspiring. The examples listed in this post successfully illustrate that Nazneen comes into her own: She discovers that she has her own mind and thus can act her own way and say what she wants even if others may not approve wholeheartedly. Ultimately, Nazneen develops a sense of independence within her traditionally strict upbringing that her culture has instilled.
ReplyDeleteOne instance in which Nazneen’s transformation makes itself clear occurs on page 282. She and her husband Chanu have a conversation. Little does he know that Nazneen is having an affair with another much younger man, Karim. She thinks, “Whatever I have done is done” (282). Not only does she accept her actions, but “This thought came to her, as fresh and stunning as the greatest of scientific breakthroughs or ecstatic revelations” (282). At the end of their conversation, Chanu mentions that Nazneen does not seem to be listening. She replies, “Oh…she’s listening. But she is not obeying” (282). Chanu does not even get upset at this comment; he may even be delighted. Clearly, Nazneen has developed a greater sense of free will over the course of the novel.
I agree with your view on the transformation as well. It was clear to me from the beginning that Nazneen’s attitude on fate was set due to her religion and the values she was raised to follow as a child back in Bangladesh. One of the passages that stuck with me throughout the book that relates to this is when Nazneen is remembering her childhood and her mother. When she asks her mother a question about her father, the only response is: “If God wanted us to ask questions, he would have made us men” (60). This view on gender roles seems not only imprisoning but it displays a clear sense that females lack freedom to make their own decisions. While reading and observing the customs of Nazneen’s culture, I continued to feel worse and worse for Nazneen right up until she began to transform into the character that she is at the end of the novel. After she begins to “revolt” against Chanu in the tiniest ways possible (58), it opens the door for making other decisions that go against his will such as talking to Karim. As she begins to question her fate more and more, she begins to gain her own sense of independence, which culminates at the end of the book with her telling Chanu she will not go back. Her transformation took time but finally ended and allowed her to be happy pursuing her own interests and desires.
ReplyDeleteYour post on Nazneen's seizure of her own fate is very interesting. I agree with your view on how Nazneen when into her life in London with a passive view, believing that fate is what drives all the events in her life. At the beginning of her life in London Nazneen overhears Chanu describing her to a friend, she realizes that she expected much more of her marriage. "What had she imagined? That he was in love with her? That he was grateful because she, young and graceful, had accepted him? That in sacrificing herself to him, she was owed something? Yes. Yes. She realized in a stinging rush she had imagined all these things. Such a foolish girl. Such high notions" (11). Nazneen had imagined that her marriage would be more intimate. When she realizes that it will not be what she expected she accepts her fate and tries to be a good wife. Eventually Nazneen rejects this role and defies fate by taking on her lover, Karim. Nazneen rejects fate with this action, and then later when she decides to neither go back to Bangladesh nor marry Karim. She decides to take her life into her own hands. "I will decide what to do. I will say what happens to me. I will be the one"(339). Nazneen makes this final decision to free herself from her fate and take her life into her own hands.
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