Nomi Nickel Analysis

The Mennonite community of East Village has separated themselves from the outside world to keep their traditions and beliefs strict for its members and keep outsiders from interfering. Miriam Toews presents Nomi Nickel as the narrator to view the community of East Village from the perspective of an insider who recognizes issues and examines them. Toews’s writing, specifically from Nomi’s point of view, allows the audience to examine the culture from the insider’s standpoint.
Toews’s own Mennonite background shapes how she views the entire Mennonite community and affects how she writes about them. She presents the anxieties of the community about being a minority group, comparing the local culture of East Village and the Mennonites and national
Her childhood was influenced by this community and it has affected her relationships with her family, her self-image, and how she views others. Her sheltered childhood has also led her to idealize the outside world, for example, New York City. Her perception of America, New York City specifically, is that it is a place of freedom away from the constrictions she feels in her own community. Whether her sudden aversion to East Village stems from her questioning of the Mennonite faith itself or the departure of her mother and sister, Nomi is outspoken through the novel about what she believes is wrong with the faith. It is the faith that drove her family to leave, therefore, her constant questioning is understandable. Until Trudie and Tash left, she was dutiful and religious. She made note several times that as a child, she disagreed with Tash’s rebellion. Her aversion to the Mennonite beliefs began after she saw the treatment they put upon her mother and
They are confined to a community of others like them, those of the same religious group. The fact that Nomi does not feel this as she gets older might be indicative of her own thoughts, or further, Toews’s thoughts, of the isolating restrictions in her own Mennonite town. Shielding the citizens of the community from the outside world and the media is indicative of its desire to stay as it is and has always been. Evolving seems out of the questions. Therefore, when Nomi starts rebelling against the church, she is viewed as a threat. The outside threatens the walls East Village has built around itself. The existence of the model village reveals the outdated beliefs of this town. It also reveals a fear of the world outside the walls of East Village. The restricted way of life and strict cultural rules are a defense mechanism; a way to hold on to traditions and beliefs. When Tash makes the remark that Mennonites are a “national joke,” it reveals a mindset in Mennonites, one that revolves around closing themselves off and operating under their own rules. “Tash’s remark ironically relates her own uncertainties about communal allegiance to wider anxieties about national and regional status” (Omhovère, 70). The self-segregation the Mennonites use seems to be a way to not only keep cultural practices and traditions alive, but to keep the