Behind the Brick Lane: Female Labor in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane

• Main Authors: Ya-wen Cheng, 鄭雅文
• Other Authors: Jade Tsui-yu Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/41370632922316779894

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 95 === The thesis intends to read Monica Ali’s Brick Lane as a novel of contemporary scenes in relation to female laborers, focusing on how the lower-class female laborers in the context of global economy behave themselves in Ali’s writing. Besides, this thesis attempts to analyze the cause and effect of the economic performance of female laborers, arguing that, in the era of economic globalization, the lower-class female laborers are marginalized as the minority group. To read lower-class female laborers in the context of global economy, the thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction, while Chapter two clarifies the status quo of female laborers twofold, indicating that gender bias and labor division bring the inescapable pitfalls of the lower-class female laborers. In her realistic yet vivid writings, Ali instructs her readers to experience the discriminated positions that female laborers are situated, and the uneven conditions caused by the biological and the social determinism on female laborers, especially those who grow up in the developing or underdeveloped societies. In Chapter three, Oscar Lewis’s culture of poverty is employed to emphasize the disabilities that the lower-class female laborers suffer. The traits of the culture of poverty play a vital role to hinder female laborers from progressing. The female laborers are instilled with the dogma of obedience, and abide by the traditional arrangement of fate, which is deprived of the future of female laborers. Alienated from the outside world, the lower-class female laborers, influenced by their cultural roots, are probably left behind the world economy. Chapter four draws attention to the possibility of female laborers’ changing agency, which is conducive to (re)constructing their economic roles. The social positioning along with the culture of poverty is decisive to female laborers’ development. The social positioning and the culture of poverty, intertwined with each other, provide female laborers with their preference and performance. Besides, the diverse social positioning involves the distinctive motivations and conceptions toward their own agency, which, in a different strategy, furthermore promises their survival. Chapter five is the conclusion, concluding all the aspects posed in the previous chapters. The thesis, with the ultimate respects to those lower-class female laborers in economic globalization, attempts to arouse the public attention to those no-name heroines.