SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW: 'THE NAMESAKE' Name: Varun Kumar Khare Roll no. : 150793 Course: SOC171B Plot:- The movie starts off with the life of two bengalese named Ashima, a classical singer, and Ashoke, who has settled in USA. Ashima, married in India, moves to the USA, leaving behind her family and the well-known familiar life. She tries to adjust to the new lifestyle and to assimilate the cultural differences. Ashoke on the other hand could adapt to the external culture, better than her due to longer experience in this surrounding and well-defined future goals. In time, the couple grow to love one another though it is hard for them to express their feelings. Ashima gives birth to a boy and a …show more content…
Throughout her pregnancy, Ashima was afraid of raising a child in "a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare." Her son, Gogol, will feel at home in the United States in a way that she never does. When Gogol is born, Ashima mourns the fact that her close family does not surround him. When she arrives home from the hospital, Ashima says to Ashoke in a moment of angst, "I don't want to raise Gogol alone in this country. It's not right. I want to go back." Ashima feels alienated in the suburbs; this alienation of being a foreigner is compared to "a sort of lifelong pregnancy," because it is "a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts... something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect." She has no motivation to live in Calcutta with the family she left over thirty years before, nor does she feel excited about being in the United States with her children and potential grandchildren. She is just exhausted without her …show more content…
Inside, Indian culture and value system are adhered to, while out there the American code of conduct is supreme. All first generation settlers want their children to do well and get good jobs. They want their children to exploit the situation and derive maximum benefit for themselves, but they must follow the Indian moral and cultural code at home. Ashima and Ashoke try hard to instil the Indian culture, despite being surrounded by the American culture all around. For example, when Gogol was in third grade, they sent him to Bengali language and culture lessons every Saturday, held in the home of one of their friends. The second generation immigrants are not attached to their cultural past, on the contrary; they find it easier to accept America's hybridity. Both Gogol and Sonia grow in suburban New York and choose American over Bengali culture, as opposed to their parents’ choice. Gogol's shifting in with Maxine is an assertion of his independence, and his desire to completely merge with the American culture. Gogol is schizophrenic as he is split between two nations, India and America, between two names, Indian and Russian, between two value systems, traditions and conventions. Genetically he is tied up to his traditions and has unique self; racially he is alien, and second class citizen in
There he makes this identity of himself to try to totally forget his parents’ cultural identity. He changes his name to Nikhil and later ends up moving to New York with a girl by the name of Maxine. “He is overly aware that they are not used to passing things around the table, or to chewing food with their mouths completely closed. They avert their eyes when Maxine accidentally leans over to run her hand through her hair” (Lahiri 277). This quote is describing Maxine and Gogol having a meal with his parents. This whole scene is very awkward for both because Gogol’s parents aren’t used to doing things the American way. When the two are leaving his parents’ house Gogol’s father says to him “Drive safely, Gogol” (Lahiri 279). This confuses Maxine because she is not familiar with his real name. He doesn’t want to be reminded of who he was before. By chapter 8 Maxine and Gogol are no longer together due to
( Lahiri 78). This quote symbolizes the single idea that Gogol and his father originated from the same origins and are both interconnected in some similar way. Even though it may seem that at a point in his life, Gogol may be able to detach himself from his family and name, but only to the extent of realizing that he cannot fully escape from what he has and who he is.
...zation leads to Gogol’s discovery of his true identity. Although he has always felt that he had to find a new, more American and ordinary identity, he has come to terms that he will always be the Gogol that is close to his family. While Gogol is coming to this understanding, Ashima has finally broken free from relying on her family, and has become “without borders” (176). No longer the isolated, unsure Bengali she was when arriving in Cambridge, Ashima has been liberated from dependent and powerless to self empowering. The passing of her husband has forced her to go through her life as a more self-reliant person, while at the same time she is able to maintain her daily Indian customs. This break-through is the final point of Ashima’s evolution into personal freedom and independency.
The children of emigrants have had little to no opportunities or exposure to learning their native heritage. Even with this input, they live in a different world Sara identifies this conflict stating, “I’m not from the old country. I’m American!” (Yezierska, 137) Imagine placing your child from your homeland and removing the food, language, values, behaviors, everything that makes it what it truly is and trying to teach your values surrounded by new ones. Mr. Smolinsky openly rejects the integration of his daughters “I don’t want another Americanerin in my house” (Yezierska, 144). In the Smolinsky family, as with other immigrant parents, there was no degree of flexibility toward changing their ways of thinking to adapt to raise their children in America. Take the Americanization of Indian children who were kidnapped from their families as a part of an attempt to “civilize” Indians. Americans in a humanitarian effort dressed and taught these children how to act white and trained them in low-class
Ashima prepares the meals and ensures that her children remember to abstain from eating meat and fish as she had done when the children’s grandparents passed away years ago because, in their culture, this is what families must do to mourn their loss and show respect for a loved one who had done so much to support them when they needed them the most. Again, even though the family was living in the United States, they continued to follow all of the Hindu customs and traditions because that was their heritage and the way that their parents were brought
At first Gogol despised his culture and tried to do everything possible to get away from it. Previous girls Gogol dated were never Indian. He was initially attracted to American girls. The fact that they were completely diverse from his culture is what captured his attention. Dating someone who wasn’t closely related to his culture was an unthinkable thing to do in Bengali society, so it made Gogol’s reason to disobey flourish even more because to him it was exci...
In many culture, there are values that can make the person respectable with other people or can be Incomprehensible. Gogol's mother has humility to accept the other when ask her son to back to his girlfriend but he didn't. She is able to change impression of her son and compatibility for Max but she didn’t. This example shows how she wasn’t selfish of her son and her culture.
Everything was changing in Gogol’s life in light of the fact he was moving to college where no one knew him or had any prior expectations. Gogol was attempting to reinvent himself with just the change of a name, which worked for awhile, and it would have continued to work if it would not have been for his parents’. Whenever he went home, his parents’ would refer to him as Gogol and it would pull him back into an inferior,
Ashima is new to America and its culture and shows great adjustment in the face of struggles. She first arrived in America after her marriage during early adulthood. As her children grew, she often feels upset that she is losing her family
At an early age, Aaliya is married off to an older man. But he's useless, stupid, and impotent, and their marriage is never consummated. After he mercifully divorces her. Aaliya is left with their spacious apartment, much to the chagrin of her own family, who thinks she should hand it over to one of her child-rearing siblings. She refuses, and her family hates her for it.
Aishwarya’s is an influential family with control of land resource, the scenes at the puberty attainment celebration of how the guests eat meat, drink alcohol and the display of violence makes one fathom about the caste status of her family which is not typical of an upper caste rank. The business of her father again reinforces the same. Aishwarya’s family’s acquired cultural capital gives them the dominance of inquiry, respect and authority. By virtue of migrating up the economic ladder, they are accorded the same status and privileges as that of the upper caste rank. In the end when inquired about the caste status by the Uncle, Murugan replies he belongs to the “caste of humanity” and the uncle remarks that there is a differentiation between the humans, he insists on knowing whether he belongs to the rank of a lion, tiger or a dog. He is thrashed, abused and called a “low caste dog”.The scene is particularly very symbolic as the family brings the couple back to their home town where they have dominance and the use of violence to work out things in their favour. They make the girl throw away the “nuptial thread” the “symbol of marriage” and hence break the alliance between them. Th scene also depicts how Murugan isn’t considered a capable human worthy of marrying Aishwarya, for her father even remarks “How dare you aspire for my daughter?”. The visible barrier of caste and class separates the couple. Aishwarya’s family is considered superior in the social hierarchy and for the maintenance of the purity of the family they would stop at
“But fortunately they have not considered it their duty to stay married, as the Bengalis of Ashoke and Ashima’s generation do,” (Lahiri, 276). More traditional Bengali’s do not believe in getting divorced and instead stay together even if they are unhappy or do not love their partner. In America, people tend to get divorced if they are not happy in their marriage. “They are not willing to accept, to adjust, to settle for something less than their ideal of happiness,” (Lahiri, 276). The American dream is to be happy and healthy and live prosperously and to own your own land. Part of that American dream is being happy in their marriage. So when American’s are not happy in their marriages they get divorced and marry someone else. Gogol has come to adopt this view rather than the cultural view of his parents’ generation. When Moushumi cheated on him, he did the American thing and divorced her. He wanted to make his parents happy which is why he married Moushumi. “They marry within a year… It’s not the type of wedding either of them really wants… Gogol and Moushumi agree that it’s better to give in to those expectations than to put up a fight,” (Lahiri, 219). Neither of them really wanted the wedding they had. Their whole marriage was for their parents and to make their parents happy. Moushumi was never really happy from the start of the marriage. And they married way too quickly, it is evident that
Ashima and Ashoke’s kid was born and they were nevervous to know if he was healthy or not, both Ashima and Ashoke checked to see if their first child was completely normal with all body parts which he was. Ashoka beliefs and scared when he holds the baby he's not going to be careful enough to hold him. Three family friends came to the child's birth,Maya and Dilip Nandi and also Dr. Gupta came to visit the baby boy in the hospital. Dr. Gupta gives him his first book as a gift. Ashima thinks back to her and Ashoke’s families in India he hasn't seen or meet his grandparents and vise versa he's only met the family they made in America. Ashima and Ashoke send a telegram to Calcutta, they let the extended family know that the baby boy was born
When comparing Indian cinema with other cinema from around the world it is evident that narrative attributes are one of the key components that contribute to Indian film’s reputation as a ‘unique world cinema.’ Indian cinema separates itself from other world cinema styles through a number of aspects including its approach to aesthetic elements, such as camera angles and acting methods as well as its integration of song and dance. In order to further explore the proposed explanations for its unique narrative characteristics, I will examine the history behind aspects of Indian cinema and how they have developed. In addition to this, I will compare and contrast cinematic components of Western and Indian cinema including plot development, character/actor attributes, and song and dance origins. I will also look at the role historical and mythical tradition play within the context of cinematic theme and examine several theories that explore the underpinnings of narrative attributes that make Indian cinema unlike any other.
Directly and indirectly, the family and friends of Arjie all impress upon the boy their views on race and gender. The familial love of Arjie’s extended family is at times hurtful and confusing, but it nevertheless serves to guide Arjie through the growing up process. The lives of family friends merge with Arjie’s for only short periods of time, yet the values that these friends cherish linger on in Arjie’s conscience. Arjie’s peers grow up with him seeing the world through eyes that are near in age, thus their views on race and gender truly open Arjie’s eyes during his journey into maturation in Selvadurai’s Funny Boy.