The Namesake, presents the life of Ashima Ganguli, who has been transported from India
to America with grace and compassion. This story by Jhumpa Lahiri, is an allegory establishing an identity with using symbolic meaning between two cultures that intersect. The themes throughout the story refer to immigrant experiences, the conflict of cultures, the contrast of assimilation and the connection between generations. The Namesake, opens the worlds of emotions Ashima experiences, while straddling her two worlds. This story of identity allows readers to travel with Ashima on an intimate journey through her life as an immigrant.
As a young wife and mother, Ashima Ganguli experiences labor and delivery just like many other American women, in a hospital. Motherhood is offered as a transnational identity, representing the traditional gender roles sometimes considered subordinate. Ashima quietly observes the habits of the American women that surround her. She overhears husbands telling their wives they love them. This is something a Bengali husband or wife would never say. While maintaining many traditional Bengali beliefs and practices, giving birth in a hospital is more typical of an American woman. Traditionally, Indian women are known to give birth in the home where they grew up, returning to their childhood, without the presence of their husbands or inlaws.
The traditional Indian sari that is draped around Ashima is exchanged for a hospital gown that leaves her feeling embarrassed by exposing her lower legs. For this reason, Ashima doesn’t relate to the many American women that wear short skirts, exposing their skin. Ashima is feeling lonely, knowing she will be sleeping alone for the very first time. She has always slept in a ...
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Many practices within diverse cultures are familiar, leading us to the realization that even though people have different beliefs and different values, and come from different countries, there are also many similarities. When analyzing the various practices withing diverse cultures, you begin to see the likeness of a society that reflects your own customs. Through out The Namesake, symbolic meaning contributes to the overall message of being able to establish an identity and embrace the identity of others.
The Namesake, combines the awareness of the Ganguli family’s own ethnicity,
routinely giving expression to what we have come to recognize as a family trying to assimilate to the surroundings they have decided to be a part of. The Namesake had taken the Ganguli family from their life of tradition in Calcutta through a transformation to a life in America.
In “Seeing Beyond Our Differences “by Sheri White, the author writes about how people are different in their appearances, race, and religion. After all, everyone is human and almost identical. The author points out how her mother is from India with a dark skin color and her father is from Indiana with a light skin color. Her parents still able to get married and there is no obstacle in their marriage. As a daughter, the author has never noticed that her parents are different in their skin colors and races. They both are the same as human to her. The author’s main idea is to let people know that no matter what race they are, what religion they follow, or how they look, they all are human. Deep down inside them, in their DNA, they all are 99.9 percent the same and almost identical. In this article, the author uses expressive purpose and descriptive pattern to express her main idea.
One may notice some characteristics of the author's culture as she puts emphasis on the importance of the period of time a woman goes through during her labor and giving birth to healthy newborn and religion in crediting God.
During the summer, I read a novel entitled Nilda written by Nicholasa Mohr. I found the novel interesting and different from ordinary novels because Nilda had a different style of writing, a journal-like style. The story is mainly about the life a young Puerto Rican girl named Nilda during the years of World War II. Nilda goes through numerous experiences that are both good and catastrophic. From camp to miracles and new friends to losing loved ones, Nilda is a novel of surprises waiting to be uncovered.
Since these traditions have become apparent through centuries they are customary and have a tendency to lack individualism, as the group among which a person lives is seen as more important over the individual. In many parts of the world today, you can examine such cultures and see the ways that individuals offer themselves to family and community life.
Naeem Murr's novel, The Boy, is a story about a boy that is put into foster homes all of his life. This boy is exposed to all different kinds of influences that affects his life in a negative way. These are the things that cause the argument in the story; is the boy evil or not?
As much as we may think our lives are so much different from others, there are many ways that they can be similar. I learned this in a novel called “The Other Side of the Sky: A Memoir” by Farah Ahmedi. Although the similarities of our cultures are there, the differences are obvious from the beginning. For example, the way we dress, what religions we believe in, and the food we eat. There are many different ways that our cultures compare, including our religion, how we eat, and our languages.
...d and left with little cultural influence of their ancestors (Hirschman 613). When the children inadvertently but naturally adapting to the world around them, such as Lahiri in Rhode Island, the two-part identity begins to raise an issue when she increasingly fits in more both the Indian and American culture. She explains she “felt an intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new”, in which she evidently doing well at both tasks (Lahiri 612). The expectations for her to maintain her Indian customs while also succeeding in learning in the American culture put her in a position in which she is “sandwiched between the country of [her] parents and the country of [her] birth”, stuck in limbo, unable to pick one identity over the other.
Amy Tan’s ,“Mother Tongue” and Maxine Kingston’s essay, “No Name Woman” represent a balance in cultures when obtaining an identity in American culture. As first generation Chinese-Americans both Tan and Kingston faced many obstacles. Obstacles in language and appearance while balancing two cultures. Overcoming these obstacles that were faced and preserving heritage both women gained an identity as a successful American.
America is a beautiful seventeen year old girl from Tepoztlan in Mexico who crossed the border with her brother-in-law to the US to make a better living, things did not go according to plan and this led to some actions and reactions that summed up bringing out her inner character. The character America has an interesting perspective on her decision making process which one can attribute to many factors of her culture, origin and I believe her age.
In “My Two Lives” Jhumpa Lahiri talks about her hardship growing up in America coming from two different cultures. At home she spoke Bengali with her parents, ate with her hands. According to Jhumpa’s parents she was not American and would never be. This led her to become ashamed of her background. She felt like she did not have to hide her culture anymore. When Jhumpa got married in Calcutta she invited her American friends that never visited India. Jhumpa thought her friends would judge from being part of the Indian culture and isolate her.However her friends were intrigued by her culture and fascinated. She felt like her culture should not be hidden from her friends anymore, and that coming from an Indian-American culture is unique. Jhumpa believes that her upbringing is the reason why she is still involved with her Bengali culture. Jhumpa says“While I am American by virtue of the fact that I was raised in this country, I am Indian thanks to the efforts of two individuals.” Jhumpa means that she is Indian, because she lived most of her life and was raised here. In the story Lahiri explains that her parents shaped her into the person she is. Growing up coming from two different cultures can be difficult, but it can also be beneficial.
How different are families compared to the past? Lately there has been some major changes in relationships, weather female dominance, or even just having no relationships at all. We also see that relationships are based only on a basis of reproduction and sometimes the child of the relationship is rather irrelevant. In a Temporary matter by Jhumpa Lahiri, the reader can see how relationships have developed with the rest of the world into failing, no relationship, and feminist relationships.
Experiencing a society of multi-cultures is beneficial through a variety of concepts to epitomize each individual identity. A person may vary in the degree to which he or she identifies with, morals, or...
Bharati Mukherjee’s story, “Two Ways to Belong in America”, is about two sisters from India who later came to America in search of different ambitions. Growing up they were very similar in their looks and their beliefs, but they have contrasting views on immigration and citizenship. Both girls had been living in the United States for 35 years and only one sister had her citizenship. Bharati decided not to follow Indian traditional values and she married outside of her culture. She had no desire to continue worshipping her culture from her childhood, so she became a United States citizen. Her ideal life goal was to stay in America and transform her life. Mira, on the other hand, married an Indian student and they both earned labor certifications that was crucial for a green card. She wanted to move back to India after retirement because that is where her heart belonged. The author’s tone fluctuates throughout the story. At the beginning of the story her tone is pitiful but then it becomes sympathizing and understanding. She makes it known that she highly disagrees with her sister’s viewpoints but she is still considerate and explains her sister’s thought process. While comparing the two perspectives, the author uses many
In the end, what we learn from this article is very realistic and logical. Furthermore, it is supported with real-life examples. Culture is ordinary, each individual has it, and it is both individual and common. It’s a result of both traditional values and an individual effort. Therefore, trying to fit it into certain sharp-edged models would be wrong.
Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Silence, attempts to analyze the partition in Indian society, through an oral history of Indian experiences. The collection of traumatic events from those people who lived through the partition gives insight on how history has enveloped these silences decades later. Furthermore, the movie 1947 Earth reveals the bitterness of partition and its effect of violence on certain characters. The most intriguing character which elucidates the silence of the partition is the child, Lenny. Lenny in particular the narrator of the story, serves as a medium to the intangibility created by the partition. The intangibility being love and violence, how can people who grew up together to love each other hate one another amidst religion? This question is best depicted through the innocence of a child, Lenny. Through her interactions with her friends, the doll, and the Lahore Park, we see silence elucidated as comfort of not knowing, or the pain from the separation of comfort and silence from an unspoken truth.