The novel centers around the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi immigrant who has married

Chanu Ahmed, a man years her senior, in a loveless arranged marriage. She relocates to
London to start her new married life with her husband.
Nazneen meets many people of Bangladeshi origin during her arrival, and learns of new
traditions as well as the struggles of maintaining her own old traditions. However, as the
years pass on, Nazneen becomes increasingly frustrated with Chanu and his lack of
decisiveness as well as his unwillingness to allow her to travel alone, as part of his religious
beliefs.
Nazneen gives birth to Raqib. At this stage, Chanu begins to get frightened that his son will
be exposed to western corruptions like drugs and alcohol, and he states that will move back
to Bangladesh with his family soon to avoid this from happening. However, Raqib dies as a
child and Nazneen and Chanu heal their relationship as a result.
Nazneen also maintains contact with her outcast sister, Hasina, who ran away with a man to
Dhaka in a love marriage. In her letters, Hasina describes her life working in a factory and
then later as a prostitute.
Nazneen herself gives birth to two daughters, Shahana and Bibi. Chanu still has not
completely changed his ways and continuously vents his anger out at the way that
Bangladeshi’s and Muslims are treated in the community. Chanu begins to get more and
more worried about the escalating drug use in the community and becomes more
determined than ever to return to Bangladesh. In order to get the money for this, he takes
work as a cab driver, allows Nazneen to work, and borrows money from wealthy Mrs. Islam.
During Nazneen’s sewing work, she meets Karim, who brings her sewing supplies from his
uncle’s store. They soon engage in an affair.
At the same time, Mrs. Islam employs her two sons as thugs to pressure Nazneen and Chanu
into giving her more money than they owe. The affair and financial difficulties result in
Nazneen having a mental breakdown.
After she recovers, she regains her independence and ends her affair with Karim. Chanu
leaves for Bangladesh alone and Nazneen and her daughters remain in London. Nazneen
begins her sewing business, and the novel finishes with her finally fulfilling her dream of
going ice-skating.

Chanu
He is the husband of Nazneen and is about forty years old at the start of the novel. He is an
educated man and works in a state institution but later quits to become a taxi driver. He plans
to turn back to Bangladesh with his family. He has good intentions but does not let Nazneen
go to English language classes. Chanu is portrayed to be warm-hearted, yet even a gentle man
has his limits. His main aim is to return his family to Bangladesh and to give them a more
traditional upbringing, but his family do not accept this. At the end of the novel, he turns
alone and accepts Nazneen’s propose for divorce.
 Karim
Karim is the lover of Nazneen and is a second generation immigrant in London. He has an ill
father and in the book it is shown that Karim is interested in political activities. He is elected
as the leader of Bengal Tigers. He speaks in English better than in Bengali language and he is
attracted to Nazneen. Karim is an important character as he helps Nazneen to discover herself
and to help her become integrated into society in England and to finally stand up for herself,
especially to her husband Chanu. However, his relationship with Nazneen does not last.
Nazneen
She is the protagonist in the book. She lives in village in Bangladesh until she is 18 and then
moves to London where she lives within a Bengali district. She reads and write in her mother
tongue however she does not know English though she spends long years in London. Nazneen
has a husband (Chanu) and three children. She also has a lover by the name of Karim.
Towards the end of the novel she stops her love affair with Karim and divorces from her
husband. Nazneen is portrayed as a typical Muslim woman who is oppressed under the
patriarchy. Her husband is chosen by her father. She obeys Chanu’s demands without any
opposition. She is not an educated woman and this shown to be her weaker side. However,
she later discovers herself and makes decision by herself, e.g. by choosing to divorce Chanu.
Hasina
She is the sister of Nazneen and is not an obedient person like other women in the Bengali
society. However, she is subjected to serious events throughout the book. Hasina becomes a
prostitute to make ends meet and marries her own love interest instead of obeying her
parents' wishes. Hasina is an important character in the novel because she represents
women, who do not obey patriarchal rules.
Shahana
She is the daughter of Nazneen and Chanu. She is born in Brick Lane, London. Shahana has
never been to Bangladesh, so; she does not like there nor does she like the Bengali culture.
She does not want to turn back to Bangladesh as her father Chanu wishes and as a result
there is a clash between her and her father Chanu. This situation can be regarded as clash
between first and second generation in immigrant society. In the end. her father is unable to
make her go to Bangladesh to lead a more traditional, cultural lifestyle.
Dr. Azad
He is a very close friend of Chanu and has a high ranking status in British society. As a result,
he does not live in Brick Lane as it is perceived to be a ghetto area. He has gained a high
status in British society but he has not been able to develop strong relationships with the
British Bangladeshi community and strives to stay away from them. In the book, we notice
that Dr. Azad does not introduce his family to Chanu and Nazneen and throughout the story
he keeps his distant from the Brick Lane area and its community and sees himself as an
important intellectual.
 Themes

Racism
When Chanu and Nazneen move to London, they take up residence in Brick Lane, a
multiethnic neighborhood. Nazneen meets a lot of other Bangladeshi immigrants like herself
and becomes invested in the community there. Chanu, however, who must work is exposed
to the outright hateful racism of the rest of the city of London. As an immigrant, he is ignored
and despised, treated like dirt. They can't seem to see past the color of his skin. Chanu on the
other hand is responsible for being averse to the culture in which he's working, opposing any
white man and decrying their traditions in favor of his own.
Disenfranchisement of Women
As a Bangladeshi girl, Nazneen is given in an arranged marriage by her parents to her
husband, Chanu. Although he treats her well overall, it is not a particularly loving marriage. In
England Nazneen finds herself wanting to work like the other women around her. Chanu will
not permit her to work nor even to leave the house without a male escort, as is customary in
their native culture. Nazneen has no control over her important life decisions as she is the
subject of her husband's will. Later on Chanu becomes determined to move back to
Bangladesh, so he allows her to work in order to help them move faster. Eventually Nazneen
is fed up with her lifestyle and starts an affair with Mrs. Islam's son. She leaves Chanu and
stays in London with her daughters when he moves. Free of his dominant rule, she opens her
own sewing store and begins to live out her dreams.
Motherhood
Nazneen gets pregnant with her son not long after the move to London with Chanu. Both are
excited to become parents, eager to raise the boy in the traditions of their culture. Chanu in
particular wants to ensure his son is raised to respect his Bangladeshi culture, so he decides
to move the family back to Bangladesh. Tragically the boy dies before they move. The couple
is knocked low, but somehow they unite in the midst of their sorrow. The loss brings them
closer together. In a few years Nazneen is the proud mother of two daughters, fulfilling her
loss.
Family
The Ahmed family is the center of Nazneen's life. Her lifestyle is determined by her family and
her position relative to her husband. As is customary in his culture, Chanu controls her every
move and does not allow her much personal autonomy. Nazneen finds solace in her children,
first the son who dies, and later her two daughters. When their son dies, Nazneen and Chanu
reunite over their grief. They become a more harmonious couple and learn to listen to one
another better. Unfortunately Chanu soon forgets that connection as social pressure
persuades him to act out of fear of assimilation into British culture. In the end Nazneen
chooses her daughters over her husband. They were married by tradition rather than love,
but they did develop a kind of love for one another. But ultimately Nazneen finds her family
and her purpose in her daughters and is committed to raising them in London.
Quotes

1.
“Sometimes I look back and I am shocked. Everyday of my life I have prepared for success,
worked for it, waited for it, and you don't notice how the days pass until nearly a lifetime is
finished. Then it hits you--the thing you have been waiting for has already gone by. And it
was going in the other direction. It's like I've been waiting on the wrong side of the road for
a bus that was already full."
Nazneen
Looking back on her adult life, Nazneen realizes there was a great deal of wasted time. She
has always believed that she has limitless potential to accomplish her dreams, but she
allowed society to dictate her actions. Caving to cultural expectations, she obeys her
husbands strict rules for her and didn't pursue her passions for a very long time. After this
speech she decides that she must leave him and accomplish something for herself and her
daughters, a win for the women.

2.

"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."
Nazneen
When Nazneen decides to end her affair with Karim, she gives him this explanation. She
claims that she did not behave as herself when she entered into the affair. And she assumes
he could not have either. Following a vision she had in her head of the perfect lover, she
placed the format onto Karim and pretended it fit. Their lack of communication costs them
the relationship.

3.

“If you think you are powerless, then you are”

Nazneen
Having lived most of her life as a subject, Nazneen comes to realize that she did it to herself.
She had always questioned when she would be allowed to pursue her dreams and take
charge of her life, but she had never said she would. She had relied upon other people for
permission rather than making her own way despite their disapproval. In this quotation she
explains that by asking the question you have already removed responsibility from yourself
and thus made yourself powerless in the conversation.
 4.
“Life made its pattern around and beneath and through her.”
Narrator
Ali describes Nazneen as a victim, but this is not the mentality she eventually adopts about
herself. Nazneen comes to believe that she was responsible for not seizing her moment. Ali,
however, describes how events transpired which ran over her. "Life" -- or perhaps "time" or
"fate" is an appropriate substitute -- transpired around her and consequently had changed
her inside and out.

Analysis
Monica Ali's Break Lane is an exposé about immigrant life for women. Her protagonist,
Nazneen, is brought to London by her new husband of an arranged marriage, Chanu.
Attempting to live in harmony with the people around them, they make friends with several
ex-pats and try to preserve their culture amidst the abrasive and unaccommodating London
society. Their marriage struggles until the birth and very shortly after the death of their only
son. In the midst of grief, they come to understand one another better. Nazneen has two
daughters after that. Chanu is miserable with his life and determines to move back to
Bangladesh, treading all over Naznee's hopes and dreams in the process. After a brief affair
she decides to leave him and raise her two daughters in London alone.
Nazneen's is a story of awakening. It starts with her marriage, which is not of love but of
necessity. Her parents decide that she will marry the significantly older Chanu, according to
the tradition of her culture. Although she knew this was a possible fate, Nazneen is somewhat
shocked by the reality of her marriage. She's swept off to a foreign country where she is
forced to live with a stranger and to befriend many other strangers. Her constant
disenfranchisement by her husband's harsh rule leads her to resent him. As she later realizes,
however, Nazneen is responsible for her feelings of resentment because she has allowed
herself to become his subject. Anywhere along the lines she could have said no and left.
Granted she would have definitely faced awful obstacles along her solitary journey, but she
would have been free. This acceptance of responsibility is what finally gives her the strength
to leave Chanu, with the children.
As an immigrant, Nazneen struggles to adapt to her new cultures. She does better than Chanu,
however, who openly rejects all things British. He feels threatened by the culture and does
not see how it could ever be compatible with his own beliefs. Knowing that compromise is
the path to harmony, Nazneen tries to both embrace London and to remember Bangladesh
and her family. She writes to her sister, Hasina, who is really struggling back him. By
practicing open-mindedness, she soon finds that she has many friends in London. Chanu's
biggest fear is confirmed when she decides to stay in London when he says they must move.
In his mind she has rejected her people completely, but to Nazneen it was a necessary step.
She is no more afraid of assimilation than she is of her husband.

Symbols, Allegory, and motifs.

 Let it up to fate
A common motif in the novel is the idea that a person should not try and change fate. Nazneen
is left up to fate from the moment she is born, and her parents do nothing to save her. Later in
her life, Nazneen is told once more she must submit to fate and do what she is told and submit
to her parents’ will completely. Nazneen’s mother also refuses to try and fight for herself and
insists that everything must be left up to fate.
Symbol for death
After seeing the man, she will have to marry, Nazneen sees a group of hawks near an old
building destroyed by a tornado. As Nazneen thinks about her future husband, she also thinks
about the death the hawks are drawn too and makes a parallel between herself and the people
who are devoured by the hawks. Thus, the hawks symbolize here death and are used to
transmit the idea that Nazneen feels hopeless and weak when she thinks about her future and
how she has no control over it.
They are racist
Another common motif in the novel is the idea that Chanu considers everyone to be racist and
blames racism when he doesn’t get what he wants. No knowing what else to believe, Nazneen
decides to trust her husband when he complains about racism and even tells her friends about
it. Some of them however, women who have more experience, tell Nazneen the truth and how
white men all racists are not prejudiced. Instead, when someone doesn’t get what they want, it
usually means they did not deserve it.
Too much furniture
Another common motif in the novel is the idea that the Bangladeshi people moving to England
liked to buy more furniture than they needed. In Nazneen’s house, she can barely move
because she does not have enough space and one day, she counts more than eleven chairs in the
apartment. When Nazneen visits Razia, she notices the same problem in her apartment as well.
The idea that Bangladeshi families have too much furniture is a common motif in the novel.
All the things we will do
Another common motif in the novel is Chanu’s insistence he will succeed in seeing his dreams
come true. Chanu often talks about the library he wants to build or about the house he wants to
build in Bangladesh. These dreams fuel Chanu and make him want to move forward with his
life even when life gets though. His dreams and his attitude is a common motif that appears in
the novel time and time again.

Story
Now comes the part of the story that caused controversy when Monica Ali's best-
selling novel was announced for filming. The attacks of 9/11 take place, anti-Muslim
sentiment increases in London, community meetings are held, Karim starts growing a
beard and becomes more militant and then Chanu, of all people, turns into a
spokesman against extremist militancy and in favor of a faith based not in politics but
in the heart.
 The book's sentiment aroused so much opposition among Muslims in London that
the novel could not be filmed on Brick Lane (the center of London's Bangladeshi
population), but in fact what Chanu says is deeply felt and seems harmless enough.
Without getting into the politics, however, let me say that the film's story surprised
me by being less about the illicit love affair and more about the marriage, Nazneen's
deepest feelings and the two daughters -- the young one docile, the older one scornful
of her father.
"Tell him you don't want to go home," says Shahana. "I've never once heard you tell
him what you really feel." But what Nazneen really feels is a surprise even to herself,
and the final notes of the film are graceful and tender. Watching it, I was reminded of
how many shallow, cynical, vulgar movies I've seen in this early summer season, and
how few which truly engage in matters of the heart. "Brick Lane" is about characters
who have depth and reality, who change and learn, who have genuine feelings. And it
keeps on surprising us, right to the end.

Extraa the curious incident

When it was first published in 2003, the book was promoted as a glimpse into Asperger’s
syndrome. Author Mark Haddon later disavowed the connection, perhaps because so
many people with Asperger’s objected to the portrayal of Christopher Boone.
Asperger’s isn’t mentioned in the novel itself: Christopher says he has “some
behavioural difficulties”. But his character adheres to some common ideas about
neuratypical people that are espoused in movies such as Rain Man: he has unusual
mental abilities (he can instantly count a herd of cows outside a train window, and has a
precocious mathematical ability) and he’s unsettlingly devoid of empathy for other
people

In Mark Haddon's contemporary novel, "The curious incident of the dog in the Night-
Time", the protagonist, Christopher Boone, does seem completely unsuited to narrating
a novel, as he takes on his authorial voice, thus demonstrating symptoms of his
disability, 'Asperger's Syndrome.' This is a syndrome that enables him to see the world
only through his limited perspective, which is closed, frightened and disorientated -
which results in his fear of, and inability to understand the perplexing world of people's
emotions. His description of events can be somewhat unreliable as he is unable to see
the real truths that lie before him. As he narrates, readers are confronted with his
peculiarities - whether it is not liking to be touched, his fear …show more content…

However, what makes him a fascinating narrator is how he has learnt to deal with some
of his phobias - as he also cannot bear loud noises, physical contact, strange people or
unfamiliar places, he uses coping strategies such as 'groaning', 'screaming', 'hitting'
fasting or even 'crawling' into small spaces. We see his distress at being grabbed by the
policeman at the scene of Wellington the dog's death, which results in initiating one of
his coping strategies, 'hitting'. Later we learn, Christopher attacks his father after his
novel has been discovered. Overall, Christopher does convey to readers that his biggest
underlying fear is of physical assault/illness, thus why he carries his 'Swiss Army Knife'
and gets out the 'saw blade' when feeling scared. Christopher's phobias may suggest
that he is unsuited to narrating a novel; however by including such accounts of how he
deals with them single-handedly adds twists to the plot, as such sideline traits make the
book readable apart from when he goes into excessive detail about mathematics and
complex scientific explanations. Christopher is completely suitable to narrate this novel
in a sense that he also caters for various audiences - people who live with or without the
syndrome. The most engaging aspects of Christopher's narrative include

En annen tekst.
In the Novel, The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, we are
shown that the truth is not always accurate and that lies are sometimes necessary.
Christopher Boone is a 15 year old who has Asperger’s Syndrome, which lies in the
Autism Spectrum. Due to this condition Christopher does not understand emotion,
metaphors – which he considers a lie – and knows all the prime numbers up to 7,507 as
well as all the countries and cities of the world. Christopher’s life revolves around the
truth and throughout the novel he is seen to grow and learn to cope with different
things when dealing with lies. Most events in this novel are situated around a lie that has
been told; nearly every character tells one and has to face the …show more content…

Judy left with Mr. Shears and this caused trouble to Ed, with not knowing what to do, he
lied to Christopher. Christopher was lead to believe that his mother had a fatal heart
attack and had died later in hospital. Ed was faced with a major decision to make and at
the time lying was the only option furthermore seeing the idea that lying was necessary
in that case. Christopher would have struggled to understand the concept of his mother
leaving with Mr. Shears due to his condition. Later in the novel, Christopher discovers
letters that his mother has sent him since she has been gone. Here we see the effect
that a lie has on him; he began to feel sick and dizzy. Christopher curled up into a ball
and started to have a bad stomach ache, the next thing he says he remembers was
waking up and discovering that he had been sick all over him self. Christopher learns a
lot from this lie. He goes on an adventure to find his mother as he is scared of his dad;
this is because of the lie by omission Ed told. Ed killed Wellington and never admitted it.
‘I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said “Trust me,” because he had told a lie
about a big thing’.
Christopher took the tube in London and managed to find his way to his mother.
Without Ed’s lie, Christopher would have never been able to learn as much as he did.

The notion of truth or its reverse, untruth, dishonesty and lies is the main concern of
Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious