(un)arranged marriage
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| Author | Bali Rai |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young Adult Novel |
The young-adult novel (un)arranged marriage is the first novel by the British-Indian author Bali Rai (born 1971 in Leicester, England).
Content
Plot
Part 1
Manjit lives in Leicester, England with his two brothers Harry (Bilhar) and Ranjit, his father and his mother. His relationship to his parents is not very good, because he does not want to live the life his parents planned for him. It seems that Manjit is caught in the role as the “black sheep” of the family. His best friend is Adrian, called Ady, a Jamacian boy. He helps Manjit to forget his parents and his situation, but sometimes he gets them both into trouble.
When Manny's family set up Harry's wedding. Ekbal, Manny's cousin, visits the family. His father is a professor. Manny and Ekbal talk about how a family should respect each other and Manny gets really mad and desperate because his father tells him that he will also be married at the age of 17. In the summer break Manny often breaks out of home to go hang out with Ady. But most of the time they have nothing to do, so they just spend time together doing unimportant things. Manny meets a nice girl, called Lisa for the first time. Unfortunately he doesn´t know her name yet. Mannys life is going on but now he often thinks about Ringlets (this is how he calls her). Year 9 at school begins and now Manny knows Lisa’s name. He really wants to ask her out but he fears the reaction of Lisa and the reaction of the family. At the same time Ady is dating Sarah, Lisa’s cousin. Manny starts to date Lisa and they start to talk about their families after a while. At the same time Manny's cousin Ekbal and his mum meet Manny's family. Manny often thinks about his (un-)arranged marriage.
Part 2
The second part mainly deals with the arranged marriage of Manjit. After he had committed little crimes and often skives off school especially his father is very angry. His father is convinced that Manjit is going to ruin the family's name because of his bad behaviour. He wants Manjit to be a real Punjabi-man and not like a gorah, innit.[1] From his point of view hard work and discipline are the best way to bring up a kid. Decisions are made by him. So he decides that he must marry a girl from India although Manjit does not know her. When his parents see his reaction his mother tries an emotional blackmail by crying and telling him that she will die if he does not get married.
Moreover Manjit has got problems in school. Because of his bad marks, his teacher Mr. Sandhu talks with him and asks him about the reason. Even if Manjit does not tell him the reason for his behaviour, Mr Sandhu already knows that there must be conflicts with his family because of his relationship with Lisa. Manjit also talks with Lisa about his arranged marriage. Although Lisa tells him that he has to make his own decisions, Manjit seems to be convinced that he has to respect his parents decision. All he wants is a normal life like the other teenagers. He realizes that he is different from the rest of his family. And his family is also aware of this fact. Consequently they try to change him so that he can become a real Punjabi man.
Part 3
Manny and his family arrive in India by plane, he is really shocked when he sees all the poverty in this country, he has always believed this could not be in India because his father told him that India is really nice and full of good people. In general Manny is excited about the flight but he does not want to be in the country of his father. After the arrival at the airport,they take a taxi to get to the village of his family. Manny observes all the houses and landscapes and collects information from his father. After a long trip to the village, Manny finally gets to know his father's big family. Manny gets to know his cousin Inderjit better, he tells him that their family is rich for Indian standards but to Manny they are not as rich as they would live in England. His cousin tells him also about the bad parts of the village and what has happened down those unsuitable streets. After some time, Manny gets really homesick and wants to go back to England badly. But they can‘t leave as planned because their passports are stolen. As a consequence Manny's parents go to sort out the problems. At the beginning, Manny is really sad that he can‘t come with them and especially that they can‘t fly back to England but his mood gets better when he hears that his cousins and some other family members go on a different trip and he can come with them. When Manny gets back from his trip he finds out that his family travelled back to England and left him in India, he feels miserable and angry, thinks everybody betrays him. A letter from Jas arrives, she feels sorry for him and adds some things Ady and Lisa wrote. At least Manny gets to know his youngest uncle Jag. Jag is the “black sheep” of the family because he thinks really modern and western, the other family members can‘t understand his way of life. He also does not want that Manny gets married. Because of his different attitude towards arranged marriages he decided to help Manny to flee the country. The reason why he is able to do so, is that he‘s really rich. The first step is to get the passport. Inderjiit tells Manny where Jag can get them. After packing all his stuff,Manny leaves with Jag in a car. None of the rest of the family notice that Manny escapes because Jag puts some weed in their food. Manny and Jag stay at a hotel some days because there is some kind of delay with the flight.
In the end of part three, Jag gives his last advice to Manny. He should live his own life by making his own decisions. At his point of view,it‘s not selfish to have an own life without upholding all family traditions.
Part 4
After Manny's trip to India, he flies back home to his family but he directly feels that something has changed because his father beats him and does not change his way of view, so Manny has to marry the girl his father chose, but this just makes him stronger to fight for his rights, that’s why he starts to work in a local supermarket with his best friend Ady because Manny wants to save money to escape his wedding. In the end of the chapter he meets Lisa after a long time again, but Lisa doesn’t want Manny anymore and she wants that he leaves, but Manny wants to stay because he will have a revenge on his family. He is angry about his family's point of view, so he wants that they now get to know how it is without a son. So the plan, Manny thinks of, is to act like he changed his mind, so he will act to make his family believe that he wants the wedding and he cannot believe how nice his parents are right now. He never ever expects that his father can be the kind to him and his old man also gives him more money just because he “wants” the wedding now. That’s why he talks to Ady about it and prepares himself with Ady three days before the wedding starts. Today it is Manny`s wedding and his father is again very very nice to him and very calm and friendly. So for now everything is planned and the wedding party can start, so they go to the church hall where the party goes on. At the party, Manny got very angry because one of Harry´s friends makes a racist joke and many starts to get very angry, but normally nobody of his family takes him seriously and that is the scene where Manny starts to break up the wedding. It is not just the wedding day today, it is also his 17 birthday and suddenly he broke up everything, so he broke up the wedding with his best friend´s help and escapes himself from the wedding.
Finally at the end: Manny is a free man now. He can do whatever he wants and is his own man with his own rules, but there is one thing he lost, he lost his family.
Characters
Manny is the main character of the novel and also the first person narrator. He is Indian but lives with his family in England. Since he wants to be rather British than Indian, he is the black sheep of the family. Manny and his best friend Ady go to school in Leicester, where he also got to meet his later girlfriend Lisa. The main point of the novel is, that his father wants an arranged marriage which causes a conflict.
Harry and Ranjit are Manny’s older brothers. Both just speak Punjabi and work in a factory. Ranjit already got married to a Punjabi girl called Jas. Manny has to share a room with Harry which is why they hate each other. Both have Punjabi friends, so they cannot speak English very well.
The mother is not described in detail. In addition, Manny does not like her too much. His father is a violent, alcoholic and racist person and a strict Punjabi as well. He really believes that the Jat Punjabi religion is the only right way to live. He also does not care about Manny’s education or anything except the point that Manny should get married to an Indian girl.
Ady is a young Black boy who lives with his family in Leicester. He is Manny’s best friend for ages and they go to High School together. He likes to play soccer and during his spare time Manny and he do shop lifting. Ady does not have such strict parents as Manny does.
Lisa is Manny’s later girlfriend and goes to the same High School as Manny does. She lives together with her parents and understands Manny's problems at home and always offers him to stay at her house.
Sarah is Ady’s later girlfriend and Lisa’s best friend.
Uncle Jag lives in Australia and he has got a girlfriend and a daughter. He came to India to visit his family. Jag likes the western culture more than the Indian culture which is why he can understand Manny's way of thinking. His character gets really important as soon as Manny wants to escape from India to get back to England.
Autobiographical elements
Bali Rai started to write this novel when he was 28 and by reading (un)arranged marriage, it can be figured out that there are some parallels between Manny's story of life and the one of the author himself. Both grew up multicultural and multiracial as Punjabis in England. They both worked in a supermarket. The differences between the author and the character Manny are e. g. that Bali Rai was not told to get married as a teenager and the fact that he was born in Leicester.
Bali Rai himself says : This novel is partly autobiographical with the rest based on the true life experiences of friends and family.[2]
Reviews
Bali Rai’s (un)arranged marriage is commonly seen by critics as worth reading because of the issue the novel deals with. What the author can be criticized for is the language he uses. Some critics consider the novel being classified as young adult novel and its easy, colloquial writing style makes it accessible. But on the other hand one might argue that the use of different accents throughout the novel gets annoying, especially when they are used for no apparent reasons and critics think that the writing is not the memorable about the novel. The widely held opinion about the story itself is that it deals with an important affair. The book helps to show the topicality of arranged marriages, which are even in the 21st century an often occurring phenomenon and spread around the whole world.
"Arranged marriages are still happening every day. We tend to think of them as either something of the past, or something that only happens far away. In this book, Rai reminds us that arranged marriages are happening in neighbourhoods like ours."[3]
In some reviews, it is also mentioned that Rai gives both points of view about arranged marriages, acceptance as well as refusal. Although the main character does not want an arranged marriage for him; there are other characters who are satisfied with this way of life. Secondly it is mentioned that the book shows the conflict about living in two different worlds (two different cultures) at the same time, really well.
"Rai shows the reader why it is so hard to be accepted by the family and in school or in other situations and how it feels – in order to manage that - to live two different lives at the same time. The book provides an insight into Indian traditions and the potential for conflicts which come up because of a lack of communication and tolerance within the family."[4]
Further some reviewers think that the novel itself is predictable and many passages are not memorable, because they are written too technically to remember. Concluding, the reviewers come to the opinion that (un)arranged marriage is a young adult novel without high literary claim that deals with an important issue.