Ice Skating in “Brick Lane”

The last few pages of the novel are a description of Nazneen’s first time ice-skating, so I think the activity has important symbolic value in the novel. We first hear about it from Nazneen fairly early in the book, when she watches  the activity on the television and asks her husband about it. throughout the Novel, we occasionally see her dreaming about or considering the prospect of ice skating. This begs the question of why its so important. I think it has many values, first of all ice skating isn’t something you can do very much in Bangladesh, as lakes don’t freeze very much that far South, and the culture has not made the activity significant enough for frozen rinks to be a common thing. Beyond that, Ice Skating can be seen as an expression of freedom. Where Nazneen is constantly kept down by her life and her fate, Ice skating allows one to glide to and fro as one pleases.

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