The Namesake, written by Jhumpa Lahira, a famous Indian writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for her story collection Interpreter of Maladies, brilliantly illustrates the immigrant experience and the tangled ties between generations. In this novel, the main characters Ashima and her husband, Ashoke, were first generation immigrants in the United States from India. The whole story begins with Ashima's pregnancy and her nostalgia of her hometown, and a sense of melancholy revealed from the first chapter. While Ashima felt insecure and worried about her new life in the United States, her husband Ashoke, rather wanted to settle in and struggle for a new life. All of uncertainty and reluctance of this new-coming couple faded way when their son, Gogol, was born. Psychologically, human beings are often uncomfortable the first time they settle in a completely new environment, and thus might have various kinds of problems on communication, emotional control and social interaction. Psychologists find that this results in being out of our “comfort zone”, “a behavioral state within which a...
Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri, an Indian by descent, was born in London in August 1967, to a Bengali immigrant Indian parents. “Jhumpa” is the nickname easier for the teachers remember his name. The Lahiri family moved from England to Rhode Island when Jhumpa was two years old. Her father was a librarian at Rhode Island University and her mother was a school teacher. At age of seven, Lahiri started to embrace writing about what she saw and felt. While growing up, Lahiri lived two lives: An Indian at home and An American outside of the home. Despite of living most of their life in the western world, Lahiri’s parents called “Calcutta” their home unlike Lahiri who thought Rhode Island as her hometown. Lahiri always felt her family had a different li...
Jhumpa Lahiri in The Namesake illustrates the assimilation of Gogol as a second generation American immigrant, where Gogol faces the assimilation of becoming an American. Throughout the novel, Gogol has been struggling with his name. From kindergarten to college, Gogol has questioned the reason why he was called Nikhil when he was a child, to the reason why he was called Gogol when he was in college. Having a Russian name, Gogol often encounters questions from people around him, asking the reason of his name. Gogol was not given an Indian name from his Indian family or an American name from the fact that he was born in America, to emphasize that how hard an individual try to assimilate into a different culture, he is still bonded to his roots as the person he ethnically is.
Lahiri, a second-generation immigrant, endures the difficulty of living in the middle of her hyphenated label “Indian-American”, whereas she will never fully feel Indian nor fully American, her identity is the combination of her attributes, everything in between.
The divine name certainly falls within the dictionary, lexical and semantic range of Lord/Kurios, and that is why many other versions/translations have seen fit to also include the name in their New Testaments.
In the poem “The Names,” by Billy Collins, the speaker is calmly recalling people’s last names alphabetically as he notices them wherever he goes. At first it seems as though he is playing a game to see how many names he can think of. After reading the whole poem several times, it becomes clear that he is referring to people who died on September 11th. Collins uses imagery, a serious tone, and similes throughout the poem to show appreciation for the memory of the victims that died that tragic day.
It’s pretty clear that film and literature are very different mediums and when you try to make one into the other, such as an adaptation, you’re going to have some things that are lost in translation and seen in a different light. When an original work is made into a movie, I think they’re kind of at a disadvantage because they only have a few hours to get the whole story across while also keeping the viewer intrigued by what is taking place on the screen right in front of their eyes. Movies are able to contain special effects, visuals, and music though which can impact a viewer and make a scene stay in their mind longer which is a plus side to being able to view something. Literature on the other hand, has a greater advantage. They can keep the reader entertained for a considerably long time and you’re able to get more information about people and events such as what a character is thinking or what is happening behind the scenes during a specific event. I understand that people are going to have different opinions when it comes to whether a book or film adaptation of a work is the best and it is not always going to be the same for each and every piece of work. One thing I think though, is that The Namesake in both the film and the movie, they’re both accurate and concise in the way that they relate to one another.
The title The Namesake mirrors the struggle of Gogol Ganguli, child of Ashoke and Ashima, Indian foreigners to the U.S.A. to get personality in the way of life where he is conceived and raised with his strange name. Names do make them mean in India. A considerable measure of practice is done when a youngster is named in India. An Indian tyke for the most part conveys two names, a pet name and an official one. Pet names are for the family and neighbours and colleagues. They convey or may not convey meaning. In any case, official names are kept with a great deal of care and practice.
names to the humor of his family, tells us that he will not be telling us his downfall, for that is his Indian secret. Saying how he must “work hard to keep secrets from hunger”. white folks,” immediately giving the impression that his nationality is going to shape the person he is and how he regales his audience with his hero’s journey.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Over the course of the novel, The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, Gogol is constantly moving, and by the time he is in his late twenties, he has already lived in five different homes, while his mother, Ashima has lived in only five houses her entire life. Each time Gogol moves, he travels farther away from his childhood home on Pemberton Road, symbolizing his search for identity and his desire to further himself from his family and Bengali culture. Alternatively, Ashima’s change of homes happens in order to become closer to family, representing her kinship with Bengali culture. Ashima has always had difficulty with doing things on her own, but by the end of the story she ultimately decides to travel around both India and the States without a real home as a result of the evolution of her independence and the breaking of her boundaries; in contrast, Gogol finally realizes that he has always stayed close to home, despite his yearning for escape, and settles into his newly discovered identity - the one that he possessed all along.
The idea of independence and autonomy had played a great role in destroying family connections across generations. Immigrant families have been coming to the United States for decades now. The connections across the family members in generations are not as they used to be because of the concept of independence and autonomy. This idea has damaged family connections by causing a huge gap among generations. In the article “Unaccustomed Earth” the author Jhumpa Lahiri presents an immigrant family that struggled in maintaining its connections from being lost by the problems caused by the idea of independence and autonomy. Lahiri states that after the death of Ruma’s mother, Ruma’s relationship with her father took its worst form because of the communications
There are many cultures that place a huge importance in names and the naming of their child. In these cultures a name is more than a nice-sounding label, a name can tell a story and pave way for a destiny. Many believe that while it might be easy to brush off names as less important than personality or parenting, it's not so far-fetched to say that a name is one's destiny.
“Running in the family,” is a fictionalized memoir, written by Michael Ondaaji. Michael Ondaatje is a writer from a Ceylonese origin. Due to his parents’ divorce, He was forced to leave his native country with his mother at a young age. After living in Canada for twenty five years, he decides to visit Ceylon; and learn about his family and ancestors. The memoir represents glimpses of the author’s family history. It presents a story about the author’s great grandfather, who is an immigrant physician. It describes his grandfather, a rich lawyer, and his extravagant Grandmother Lalla. Furthermore, it contains multiple stories from the author’s childhood. It predominantly focuses on the author’s parental conflict. It indicates his father’s dipsomania and solitude; as well as, his mother’s suffering.
“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance,” transcribed George Bernard Shaw in Immaturity. ‘The Lowlands’ portrays the life of two siblings, born 15 months apart, in the late 1950’s themed land called Calcutta. Jhumpa Lahiri excerpts the book’s title from the section of the city called Tollygunder. During every north-eastern monsoon, the lowland fills with water reaching the height of a bicycle, which remained for the rest of the year. Udayan and Subhash grew up together in this marshland, each bound to be together and often mistaken for the other. This novel shows how two people who are considerably identical can be so much different when faced with distinctive circumstances and life choices. It complicates the age old tale of sibling rivalry and enriches the readers with true love and captivates the way both the brothers swear by each other. Lahiri’s works are usually based on characters who journey to another country and the challenges they come across; deriving from her own personal experience as being born in London to her Bengali parents and the way of life she has overcome. This tale takes us on a high tide while teaching us the bitter reality of the highs and lows of actions which would haunt families for the rest of their lives.
In spite of having lived all her life in the U.K and the USA, she knows the subtle nuances of typical Bengali life and culture, like the back of her hand. While her Pulitzer- winning collection of stories Interpreter of Maladies is mainly based on her experiences in Kolkata, her novel Namesake powerfully depicts the angst, the disillusionment of the Bengali immigrants to the US, whose children grow up rootless ─ aliens to the culture of their country of origin, not completely comfortable in the society in which they actually live. The latest novice in the world of Indian writers is Jhumpa Lahiri. She embarks upon the much debated topic of cultural identity of Indians in far off lands. Her debut book "The Interpreter of Maladies" stormed the literary world as it won the esteemed Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Her first novel "The Namesake" a striving endeavor to graph the lives of a family of immigrants through the eyes of a young boy. Both her books have acknowledged criticism as well as great compliments but she merits a site for undertaking a subject long disregarded by other Indian writers. The U.S President Barack Obama appointed Jhumpa Lahari as a member of the President’s Committee for the Arts and
In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, the protagonist, Gogol, struggles with his cultural identity. He is an American-born Bengali struggling to define himself. He wants to fit into the typical American-lifestyle, a lifestyle his parents do not understand. This causes him tension through his adolescence and adult life, he has trouble finding a balance between America and Bengali culture. This is exemplified with his romantic relationships. These relationships directly reflect where he is in his life, what he is going through and his relationship with his parents. Each woman indicates a particular moment in time where he is trying to figure out his cultural identity. Ruth represents an initial break away from Bengali culture; Maxine represents