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Chanu
Nazneen and Hasina’s father and Rupban’s terminally unfaithful husband, Hamid is an overseer in the paddy field, and the second richest man in Gouripur. Furious when Hasina decides to elope with Malek, he keeps watch outside the village for sixteen days, hoping his daughter will return so he can chop her head off. She never does return, and Hamid, who would have preferred sons, arranges a marriage for Nazneen to Chanu despite the fact that Chanu, a failed academic, is roughly twenty years Nazneen’s senior.
Hamid Quotes in Brick Lane
The Brick Lane quotes below are all either spoken by Hamid or refer to Hamid. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1 Quotes
“A girl,” said Rupban.
“I know. Never mind,” said Hamid. “What can you do?” And he went away again.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Hamid Character Timeline in Brick Lane
The timeline below shows where the character Hamid appears in Brick Lane. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...a spear in a store back in Gouripur. The spear pierced her through the heart. Hamid soon brought home a new wife, but the woman only stayed a month. Mumtaz rarely...
(full context)
Chapter 3
...laid on the ground, missing flesh and one arm. Rupban spends the day crying and Hamid, having declared her a saint, leaves the village and is gone for three days. Nazneen...
(full context)
Chapter 6
...left to fate, and childbirth is nothing like indigestion. Nazneen now thinks she understands why Hamid would leave for days on end. He needed to be spared Rupban’s misguided saintliness.
(full context)
Chapter 7
...sister does. She wonders why, in Nazneen’s dreams, Rupban is angry. Hasina then writes that Hamid was often unfaithful to Rupban. He even wanted to take another wife, but Rupban threatened...
(full context)
Hasina listens to the jute cutters’ tall tales, remembering a time when Hamid took her and Nazneen to watch the men dive for the fibrous plant. Hussain often...
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...often of Rupban and Mumtaz and life in Gouripur. She thinks of the second wife Hamid brought home and how quickly she left. That is the way with men, Hasina writes.
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Chapter 11
...Mrs. Islam. Razia does some of Nazneen’s sewing and Nazneen thinks about Hasina and about Hamid’s second wife who came and went without a trace. What happens to such women? She...
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Chapter 17
...possessed by an evil jinni. The jinni made her sharpen sticks and try to poke Hamid’s eyes out with them. It made her stop washing. Things got so bad that Hamid...
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Chapter 1
...in the same way it later proceeds: in uncertainty. Rupban’s sharp screams alarm her husband, Hamid, who grabs a club on his way home from the latrine, convinced a man is...
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Hamid returns to inspect his child, who lies sleeping on the bedroll. Rupban gives him the...
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...accepts Rupban’s wisdom and life philosophy, which insists on trusting completely in God’s will. Rupban, Hamid tells his daughter, is a saint. She comes from a family of them. When Mumtaz...
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Hasina, Rubpan and Hamid’s second child, is born three days after Banesa’s death. She is beautiful and stubborn. She...
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...agrees to an arranged marriage with Chanu, a much older man who lives in London. Hamid offers to show Nazneen a picture of her intended bridegroom, but she says doesn’t need...
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Nazneen likewise takes a great deal of satisfaction in her apartment’s fine furnishings. Even though Hamid was the second wealthiest man in their village back home in Pakistan, he never had...
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...misses people, and the give-and-take of real human connection. Her thoughts drift. She wonders why Hamid did not see her and Chanu off at the airport, and if Chanu will want...
(full context)
