Brick Lane and the Concept of Home

As the novel begins, we see the idea of home being important to Nazneen and Chanu. To both, the dream is to return to Bangladesh in time, once enough money has been made. While this is the ideal, the concept of home shifts and changes throughout the novel, leaving Nazneen and Chanu with two different places which they consider home. In the early pages, Dr. Azad describes “Going Home Syndrome.” This discussion comes after Chanu claims he will not let his children grow up in England. Chanu attempts to defend himself by saying it is “natural” and that “[t]he pull of the land is stronger even than the pull of blood.” (18). He makes it clear that he has every intention of returning to Bangladesh. Dr. Azad explains that this will never come to those who think it, that they can never earn enough money. At this time, Nazneen still has high hopes of going home. She dreams of Bangladesh and her sister frequently, and wishes to return to her childhood.

Over time, this ideal of home changes for both characters. Nazneen reaches a point at which she wishes to bring her sister to Brick Lane (146). She sees no likelihood of ever going back to Bangladesh, or perhaps, she does not wish it. Chanu, however, is still rooted in his return. He is decide, “We are going there.”  At this point he has become set in his goal to go back to Bangladesh, though he has no money. This goal of going home has changed from just an idea to a necessity, in order to protect his children from what he believes is too much English culture.

As the novel ends, Chanu has returned to Bangladesh. Nazneen, however, in support of her daughters, and perhaps the freedom she has finally found, stays behind. She no longer wishes for her idealized Bangladesh, but instead for new views in England, for a new life. She goes ice skating for the first time, a final symbol of freedom and liberty. Chanu works to better himself in Bangladesh.

This novel ends with home becoming something quite different from what it was in Old Filth. Old Filth never stopped missing Malaya, never stopped wanting to go back to this home, much like Chanu. However, his intention was to go back to the place where he had felt most loved.  While this too might have been Bangladesh for Nazneen, she makes her home in England because of the opportunities she has found and still feels she can find. The differences in the ways in which home has been defined in these two novels interests me because Old Filth seems to fulfill the most common definition, ‘Home is where the heart is,’ whereas Brick Lane aims to give home  a higher purpose and meaning.