Rachel’s blog

 

I actually really enjoyed this novel. I especially enjoyed it because of the fact that although it it fiction, it a novel that really shows some of the things that many people and families all over the world, face everyday, and that some of us are not aware of; a life full of hardships, not having enough money or food and trying to raise your children at the same time. All they can do is hope and pray that thngs will get better. I couldn’t help but be attached to the book and not stop reading it. It evoked many emotions like pity, despair, sadness, but also hopefulness, because of the life of struggles that these charcters had; being forced to marry a stranger at the age of twelve then having to live in a tiny mud house, if you could even call it a house. Then, when everything seems at least okay, the crops are destroyed and things begin to change for the worse. They have to try extremely hard to raise their children while sustaining their farm which is what gives thm life; they battle poverty, hunger, changes, disasters, betrayal, their daughter becoming a prostitute, and death. They just have a terrible life, and even though i did feel some of the pain that Rukmani and her family struggled through its still very hard to imagine exactly what it would be like to have face all the hardships Rukmani had to face in her life; she made it through.

My best entry was My first entry, What’s in a name. When i first started my blog i had no idea what to write about for my first entry but as i thought about the novel, this topic of identity is the one that came to mind and it made me think about it and look at it in so many different ways which made me able to just start typing and i felt great about it. I especially liked how i was able to relate it to one of Shakespeare’s quote; i worked really hard on that first entry,

 My least favorite entry was my Benefits from living in two world entry. I feel this doesn’t really talk about anything really major or important in the novel. I just sort of repeated how they are living in a crazy environment but it’s good at the same time. I feel i could’ve written about a topic a little bit better than what i did in that entry.

The blog i thought was most effective are Cynthia’s because hers was just absolutely great. It seemed like she put a lot of hard work and time into what she wrote and just on her page itself. All her blogs were so insightful and deep, and she even had music and wrote a poem;she made me think about different things i didn’t even think about when reading that novel, The Nameake.

What I learned from my blogs and reading others’ blogs was not only a lot about the books that the other students read and also the book that I read, but I learned and saw how people have their own views and thoughts on different books. Different people tune in to different ideas and themes in their books that maybe another student reading the same book did not. The blogs gave me different ideas of things to notice when reading novels.

Click this link to watch my photostory: photostory11.wmv
This is a project that i think can help people to better understand the issues and events that occur in this novel, The Namesake. It shows you the deeper meaning that certain things as little as a name or a minor event may have in the world and regaurding to human nature,  and trying to find yourself.

A poem written by Valarie H. Casto

I caught a glimpse of a reflection from a mirror in the hall…
I could have sworn it held my mothers gaze…The soft gentle eyes I always longed for…the small lines at the curve of her smile…the outstretched arms ready to embrace, yet ready quickly to guide me back in place…I could almost hear her laugh at a silly mistake made, or her gentle reminders to live and let live…a simple look of displeasure that could send chills down my spine…silently I turned to see my daughters face, one day, she too will see this reflection…the face of her mother, everything she longs to be will reflect from a mirror as she walks down the hall.

As Gogol grows up, he sort of grows apart from his parents like many of us do. Many teenagers especially go throgh stages in their lives where their prents just seem like sort of aliens to them, and it seems like they have nothing in common at all; they seem detached. Gogol doesn’t seem to really appreciate them and what they had to go throug to raise him as an American, he wasn’t understanding towards them, and didn’t really want to have much to do with his Indian culture and background. It seems like in Gogol’s eyes, he was raised in America therefore he was American and did not see himself in any way similar to his parents who were just immigrants to America. This changes a lot through the story and this poem made me think about that. Although you may have been raised in a different country then your parents, they’re always your parents and they’ll always be a part of you and you’ll always be a part of them. In the end i think Gogol can respect all that his parents went through; he understands now why they did all that they did.

The proper name, Nikhil, and the pet name, Gogol, given to Gogol represents a lot in this novel. In a sense, the two names represent two seperate lives, or the proper name of Nikhil represents a new chance at life. Also, the name Gogol represents the chracters private and intimate life with his family because that’s the name that only his family calls him at home, and the name Nikil represents his public life because that’s the name that everyone else calls him. When Gogol is called by the name Gogol, he’s sort of in the element of his Indian culture, the things that he is trying to shed and get away from, but when he wants to be called Nikhil, it’s sort of like he’s getting the chance to be born again, and he’s shutting the door on this certain, old way of life. Because names do make a statement, it’s easy to see why Gogol might be embarrased or annoyed of having such a different and difficult to pronounce name. Like the majority of people in the world, a lot of us have nicknames that only certain people call us by, then we have our real or full names, and it’s just like if you were to go into a job interview one might say, “Hello, my name is Robert, as opposed to, “Hi my name is Bobby.” The two names symbolize to different worlds and the differences between the two different worlds, especially in Gogol’s case, are so apparent.

Ashoke and Ashima must deal with all the craziness of a new world, and especially that craziness in the United States, which is so very much different from Calcutta, India. This immigrant family is struggling to try to become Americans, and in any situation like this, homesickness is always going to be a factor, and it is, especially for Ashima. It’s hard for them to try and find their place, coming from such a different place to this now very new one, and to try and live an American life while still not losing the Indian cuture and tradition that they came from and that they know. But, even though there are so many hardships involved in being an immigrant, there also seems to be some benefits, because when you think about it, being an immigrant teaches people so much about the diversity and nature of the world and of human beings that you probably wouldn’t otherwise get the wonderful opportunity to experience and understand if you were born and raised and lived in one place throughout your entire life. It still is an emotional journey that takes its toll, but it’s worth it because of all that you can gain.

In an interview, Jhumpa Lahiri says, “The question of identity is always a difficult one, but especially so for those who are culturally displaced, as immigrants are, or those who grow up in two worlds simultaneously, as is the case for their children.” I have a friend who would probably be considered perfectly american, she was born in America, and speaks perfect English, but her father is Korean and her mother is white. Her father has a heavy accent and he sometimes lingers on the morals and values from his Korean culture/nationality. The American world she is being raised in is much different from the world her father was probably raised in, so in that case, he wants to shelter her, raise her, teach her, and discipline her in the way he was, while she wants to have and do the things that many of her friends do, and she sometimes gets embarrased by her fathers “not normal” ways. This is how it is with Gogol and his parents. Gogol most likely wants things in his life that are very different than what his parents want for him. Expectations change through generations, and through cultural regions locations as well. In my case, both my parents were born here in America, and likewise, so was I, but when i was younger and growing up, i lived in an area of lower class. I won’t call it “ghetto” but it was a lot different from the nicer and better area that i live in now. My mom and I too always wonder what kind of personality and  guess “standards” i would have, and also, what would be different in what is important to me, if we stayed in that area.

Jhumpa lahiri, the author of The Namesake, has a richly detailed type of writing. The way she gets so into detail when explaining Ashima’s wonderful dishes, makes me want to taste them and makes me crave them simply because she evokes them so beautifully in her writing. The charcters in the novel are Indian immigrants to America who must navigate between the cultural values of their birthplace and their adopted home. There are a lot of cultural and symbolic things used in the novel, but it seems like Lahiri especially uses food to explore cultural transitions between the American and Indian cultures. An example of this is shown in the beginning of the novel when Ashima is trying to make a spicy Indian snack from American ingredients: Rice Krispies and Planters Peanuts.

        

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”-Shakespeare

This is the quote that comes to my mind when I think about how Gogol struggles because of this nickname that was given to him and how it kind of embarrases him. What are names really? Names are much more than just a label for people and things, if certain people and things in our environments weren’t named what they are, it just wouldn’t be the same. This quote from Shakespeare is an example of that. Rose is a beautiful name because it is associated with such a beautiful flower with such a sweet smell, but if a rose was called something different, the rose  itself wouldn’t be so sweet and lovley. Names identify us as people and also sometimes give a little insight into who we are. An elaborate name may make that person seem interesting in a sort of way. The name Gogol isn’t a name you would typically hear an American person called. He should be proud of the name given to him, because he is representing his culture and his Inidan heritage. He is diverse from others