Point-by-Point Comparison Essay No one really understands how hard it is to live in America and have a different native culture, like Gogol and Richard did. With having a different native culture, many different customs come along with it. Not only are there different customs, but language can differ greatly as well. Learning a new language can be very difficult, especially when you have grown up only knowing the one native language that you have. Adapting to new cultures and languages can be hard, but the most important thing that you can have on that journey of adapting to a new culture is your family to help you through it. In both of the stories that I compared, problems with language differences, integration into new culture, and the …show more content…
Gogol and Richard both have an intense bond with each of their families. Gogol doesn’t really bond with his family at first but he starts to bond with his family when his father dies and he learns the true meaning of his name. Richard and his family are from the Hispanic culture. Normally when you are from a Hispanic culture, you spend a lot of time with your family doing different activities. No matter what the circumstances are, your family should always have your back and support your decision. Just like when Gogol wanted to change his name, his family didn’t want him to change it. When he did change it anyway, Gogol’s family didn’t shun him for it. Instead they waited until after his father had died to tell him the true meaning of why they really named him Gogol. Richard’s family is very close to him and supports him one hundred percent in helping him learn the English language and culture. The big idea is that the two families spend time with each other. Even though Gogol chose to leave and go to college, his mom and dad still spend time together with him whenever they get the chance too. Richard gets to come home from his busy public life trying to fit in as an American, to a nice and comfortable private life with his very close family. After all, they are both having to adapt to a new culture and only have their family with them to support
Gogol argues that he was supposed to be Nikhil anyways so it would be fine to change his name since that is what his parents have chosen for him in the first place.Obviously Gogol had a reason to change the name he so desperately held onto at a young age, it 's because Gogol no longer felt like he could handle the character Gogol and thought he could do so much better as Nikhil then as Gogol, he thinks that Gogol, the shy, quiet, attentive boy as opposed to Nikhil , the loud, confident,and party animal is who he should and is to be.In the book there 's a scene where Google is talking to his parents about how people don 't take him seriously because of his name, google was lying.”the only person who constantly questioned it and wished it were otherwise, was Gogol”(Lahir, 5.100).Gogol is constantly questioning his name, himself,and asking himself questions that question his identity.As Gogol becomes Nikhil, Gogol takes on a new atittude he would never take on as Goggle, and thats the new begining of
A pivotal transition in Gogol’s life came when he made the decision to completely change his name form Gogol to Nikhil, as a way to free himself from his family and Indian roots. “ Plenty of people change their names: actors, writers, revolutionaries, transvestites” (Lahiri 97). Gogol justified the act of changing his name in comparison to people in history who have done so the same. Gogol states “ slaves renamed themselves once they were
Relationships between friends and family helps a person shape their identity to who they want to become. Different generations all have different knowledge and their interactions with each other help shape who they become as an individual. The relationships between the different generations show the quest Ashima and Gogol went onto finding their identity, in America. In the novel, The Namesake written by Jhumpa Lahiri shows the interactions between generations and how they affect each other.
I would say if Richard and his parents learned English together, yet still spoke Spanish together his outlook would have been a little different. I think that since his family learned English more slowly than him, he felt that they weren’t the same anymore. His parents wanted to speak English around him more than his first language so it made him feel out of place, he didn’t have anyone to speak Spanish to like in his early childhood years. Richards story, it not everyone’s story. If he stated two sides of the story instead of assuming everyone was the same than his story would have had a better outcome, in my opinion.
Gogol, at a certain point, analyzes people in general appearing of friendship that Maxine's parents show to the absence of such open indications of feeling of his own parents. At first, he interprets this as meaning that his parents don't have an indistinguishable sort of adoration from Maxine's parents. He feels good around Maxine's parents than he does around his parents. After his father's death, Gogol sees things in an unexpected way. His parents’ love could keep running as profound as that of some other couple. The only different is that their culture does not approve of public display. Love is viewed as a private expression.
Language is crucial upon entering a new culture. Eventually all three girls were bilingual but at first they were not, this made it difficult for the girls. Without the language or like Jary the right dialect, entering a culture can become difficult. The second problem when entering a new culture is not forgetting your old culture. In all three cases, the girls were in contrast with their parents when coming home with the morals, rules, and phrases of a culture so distinct to that of their parents.
The lack of communications between parents, grandparents, and the children can cause a rift between generations. Most teenage immigrants in America goes through the culture duel, where teenagers have to battle with the culture of where they live and the culture of where their parents are from. These kids are usually stuck in between the two cultures and try to create a combination between the two so that not only their parents are happy but so are they. Some children struggle with the names given to them by their parents because they are bullied for how weird their names sound or where it comes from. It is important for children to attempt to understand their names and culture because in most cultures names have a lot of value. In the film the Namesake and the short story “Children as Enemies” you can see how the children don’t like their names and they don’t understand the importance of their names to their families. However in the film the Namesake this changes because the father revealed to his son why he named him Gogol meanwhile in the short story “Children as Enemies” by Ha Jin there is a scarcity of conversations that needed to take place between the parents,
Moving to a new town can be hard, adjusting to a new house and meeting new people. Moving to a new country, however, can be far more difficult. Not only are there new people to meet, immigrants must adjust to an entirely different culture and language. Many find it hard to assimulate into the new culture, while still maintaining they customs and traditions of their old country. One author who writes about immigrants' struggles is Jhumpa Lahiri. She heard stories first hand of the struggle to adjust from her parents, immigrants from India. Some of her short stories are based on her parents' experiences. In the stories "This Blessed House," "The Third and Final Continent," and "Mrs. Sen's," Lahiri shows how the struggle of immigrants to adjust to an unfamiliar culture can lead to misunderstandings and identity crises.
But there are parts in the narrative which feel incomplete and leave the reader hanging. Lahiri skips through the parts where Ashima and Ashoke’s parents die, their deaths only being mentioned later on and fails to bring to the fore the loss felt by them. The change from Gogol not wanting to be known as Nikhil at the age of four to hating his name as a teenager of fourteen is shown in a sporadic manner and seems a little
One of the most difficult challenges faced by the children of immigrants is trying to find the perfect balance between the different cultures they are expected to abide by. They attempt to adapt to the culture that is most widely accepted by those around them while maintaining the culture that their parents have chosen to raise them in. When they begin to integrate into the surrounding culture, the children of immigrants are less likely to be accepted due to the community
His confusion stems from the fact that his name is neither Bengali or American but Russian. Named after Nikhil Gogol a Russian author, he will soon find himself taking the first name of the author. The name Nikhil gave him a temporary sense of identity in which is used to start an American relationship. The relationship with Ruth was a relationship based on their vast difference of being a “Yankee” American in contracts to him being a first-generation Bengali-American. However, he does identify as being a Bengali but a typical “suburban” American. The love he has with Ruth was a taste of what an American relationship would look like. Her parents are divorces and are hippies who accepts Nikhil for who he is. Compared to his own family who questions his love with her. The falling of the relationships is when Ruth left for Oxford and when she comes back Gogol tries to rekindle the fire between them but realizes that there was nothing to rekindle. Their love was just a fling, and a way to express his love for American
The name “Gogol,” satisfied him up until sixth grade when a field trip to the cemetery causes him to believe his name is “peculiar.” The trip ignites a flame and Gogol begins to resent the name he was given. By the time he reaches college he has decided to legally change it. He tells his father that “no one takes [him] seriously,” although the truth was that Gogol himself was the only one who didn't take him seriously. When faced with the question “why,” Gogol replies “I hate the name Gogol, I’ve always hated it” (Lahiri 102).
The Bengali culture states that the official that is the good name of the child should be given by an older person in the family while the nickname can be given by the parents. Ashok named his son Gogol as they await a letter that had the baby’s official name given by her grandmother. The later never arrived hence the child continued using the nickname even out of home where it was to be used. Lastly, the name ends up being his official name in spite the fathers attempt to change it to Nikhil. The principle of the school rejected the name and eluded that Gogol would be used since it was the child’s preference. For the principle, he dint understand the Bengali’s culture. The effect of cultural difference depicted here by Lahiri is exactly the same as to what the immigrants face in
One home in which Gogol lives is that of his girlfriend Maxine’s family, the Ratliffs, where he is truly immersed in the lives and culture of a wealthy American family. After just his first visit, Gogol immediately feels “effortlessly incorporated” into this “beautiful house” (136, 138). Due to both the Ratliff family’s hospitality and the grandeur of their home, Gogol is drawn into their lifestyle and he comes to believe that he feels at home there. However, by claiming to feel at home at Maxine’s house, Gogol rejects a large part of his identity, and his “immersion in Maxine’s family is a betrayal of his own” (141). Since he is not entirely accepting of the Bengali aspects of his identity, he tries to disregard this culture by
This is the central theme in which it is described that not having a strong sense of where one comes from, impacts who they are. One of the biggest examples of feeling like he doesn’t fit in is his name. Due to his name not being Bengali nor American, he feels that he is separated from both cultures and essentially from his family. He expresses that “he hates having to explain to people that it does not mean anything ‘in Indian’. ” He always feels left out, especially during Bengali get-togethers where he does not fit in with Sonia, or with the mothers or with the fathers. Gogol is not self-confident when he thinks of himself as Gogol. When he changes his name to Nikhil, for a while, he is unaware of how to be that person for quite some time. The change of his name expresses his change into adulthood, and it is the first step in him finding out who he is. In a way, the two names represent the two parts of his life; Gogol representing the life his parents laid out for him and Nikhil describing the life he wants for himself. Gogol is the name given to him by his parents which was never supposed to be his real name. He always finds it embarrassing that he has a pet name that was turned into a good name. Gogol represents the life that his parents have laid out for him which is a stable home and a stable life, both predictable and with lots of