What is an arranged marriage, you ask? Great question, Reader! According to OxfordDictionaires.com, an arranged marriage is defined as, "a marriage planned and agreed to by the families or guardians of the bride and groom, who have little or no say in the matter themselves." Basically, the parents agree on the marriage, not the the bride and groom themselves.
Now you ask, "How does an arranged marriage fit into the Indian culture?" Again, what a great question, Reader! Arranged marriages in India are very common. They originally came to be when the Hinduism replaced the Vedic religion around 500 B.C.E.
You then ask about how arranged marriages relate to The Namesake. OMG, Reader, you are on fire! Where do you come up with these questions?! In The Namesake, Ashima and Ashoke have an arranged marriage and proves to affect Gogol's life.
Great! All your questions are answered!!
As for Gogol, the arranged marriage could have had bigger effect on him then previously discovered. Brace yourself, this is going to be hard to explain through a computer screen.
Anyways....
A regular marriage is based on love right? Yes, of course. (Well, sometimes... but that's a whole other barrel of monkeys) So, what is an arranged marriage based off of? I believe that an arranged marriage is based on culture. Or in other words, the common ground of marriage is the shared culture.
For Ashima and Ashoke that statement is generally correct.
Now what happens when the marriage that is based on Indian culture moves to a totally different culture, American culture?
From critically reading, it can be seen that the result of the change comes adversity and identity crisis.
For Ashima, especially, the change is really hard. At the beginning of the novel, she feels like she doesn't belong and "nothing feels right". The unfamiliarity and how uncomfortable Ashima is in the new culture has an effect on her marriage and later Gogol. The name 'Gogol' is seen as an example of how the change in culture has been an ordeal.
Despite all that, I feel like Ashima and Ashoke, throughout the book, become more of a caring couple and less of the couple they were at the beginning of the novel, an arranged one.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Names, Names, Names
*Disclaimer: You probably should read up to chapter 7 of the Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri before reading this post.*
The instructor said something like: "There are three names that people have: one that strangers call you, one that family and friends call you, and one that you use to address yourself."
Well great! Now I have a blog post that has a topic!
I think that those three names accurately describe Gogol's struggle throughout the novel.
For his first name (the one that he gets called by strangers) used to be Gogol, now Nikhil, is purely based on legal circumstances. At first, his legal name is Gogol and then changes it out of hatred to Nikhil. For most people, the name that you are addressed by by strangers is just someway for others to get your required attention. Nothing really more. For Gogol(or Nikhil - now I am confused on what to call him) however, this name is something more. I believe that he wants to stray from his past and literally and figuratively "clear his name". His first name becomes more significant when is changes to Nikhil, as he becomes more confident, "grows a goatee, [and] starts smoking Camel Lights at parties" (105). When strangers call him "Nikhil, he changes into a different person.
His second name, the one that family friends calls him, has also changed like his first name. Unlike the first name, this name has a different significance. The change from Gogol to Nikhil was a lot harder for him and for the people that were close to him. He had to constantly ask people to remeber and admitted that he was "reminding people to forget" (119) the name Gogol. When his parents began calling him Nikhil and completely disregarding Gogol, the name they used to call him, it was unsettling for Nikhil/Gogol. This second name is probably the name that conflicts him the most. Even though Nikhil is a more 'Indian' name than Gogol, it seems as if "Gogol" has more ties to his Indian culture.
Lastly, his third name, the one of which he calls himself. I believe that this name should be regarded as most important and with the utmost reverence. After all, it is the one that reflects what you think of yourself. For Gogol, he struggles with this name. He constantly waivers between Nikhil and Gogol. When he changes his name to Nikhil and when people have began to call him that (his first name), "he doesn't feel like a Nikhil". (105) At this point, I would like to call up Jhumpa and politely scream at her through the phone to tell her to rewrite this classic novel with a more decisive character.
Basically, we are unsure of each of the three names(we have some decent clues, but they keep changing). I think that Lahiri challenges us to find the character's names - the one stangers call him, the one his family/friends call him, and the one he calls himself. Well, my challenge to you reader is what are your three names? Are you as confused as Nikhil/Gogol is? Are your names changing?
Sunday, March 9, 2014
How to Uphold Tradition: The Namesake
Ooookkkayyy time for another boring school mandated book. Psych! The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is actually not that bad. However, I have only read the first two chapters. But so far so good.
Here's a summary:
1. An Indian woman, called Ashima, is pregnant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
2. She really misses India, more specifically, Calcutta and her Family.
3. She gives birth to a baby boy.
4. The grandmother is supposed to send names for the boy, as per tradition.
5. Ashoke, the arranged husband of Ashima, is really enamored with reading. His favorite story is "The Overcoat" By Nikolai Gogol. *Sidenote: He almost died on a train while reading that story.
6. The hospital that the boy was born at requests a name for the birth certificate, however the letter from the grandmother has not arrived yet. So, the boy gets named "Gogol", after his Dad's favorite story. The couple is planning on changing the boy' name once grandmom's letter arrives because Gogol is not a fit traditional Indian name.
7. Asima really longs to go back to India. She send letters to her family in India. They send some back.
8. Ashima raises the baby with little help of Ashoke who is studying 24/7 at a university in Cambridge.
9. The couple has planned a trip back to India to visit in December.
10. Meanwhile, Gogol's (it's a placeholder name - the letter from grandmom has not arrived yet...) rice ceremony, a traditional celebration that marks the first time the baby will eat solid food, has taken place.
11. Gogol grows up (He is around the age of 1).
12. Ashima get's letters from India saying that Grandmother is really sick.
13. Unexpectedly, the couple receives a telephone call from relatives in India. They learn that Grandmom has a stroke.
14. They change their plans and go to India earlier than expected.
From these two chapters, I have learned about the struggle of upholding tradition in a foreign place.
Ashima really really really really (etc.) wants to be back in India. When in the hospital, she constantly thinks about India. She thinks about her "mother, very soon to be grandmother,"(5) and the rest of her family longing to be with them. In Cambridge, where she is now, "nothing feels normal."(5).
Ashima struggles get a connection to India from America. All she wants is for her son to grow up around his family in India. In an effort to console herself, she writes a multitude of letters back to her family in India.
One of the biggest problems that Ashima struggles with is the authenticity of Indian tradition in America. Even though she does have a Rice ceremony for her son, it is not preformed with the same genuineness as if it would have been held in India. Ashima remarks that the bowls that contain the ceremonial rice is held is not "silver or brass or at the very least stainless-steel" (39) which they would have been if the ceremony was held in India.
It is on everyone's mind, the baby's name. Who in their right mind would name a son after a Russian author?? Well I guess, someone who is really obsessed, someone like the baby's father. Upon picking the name, Ashima said nothing, but only to respect her husband. However, she longs for her grandmother's letter so she can replace "Gogol". I am pretty sure that the name chosen will haunt Ashima for the rest of her life. It is so out of tradition that she cannot bare it. When her grandmother has a stroke and cannot chose a name for Gogol, the name becomes his, and tradition is lost. A pity, really! The name that her grandmother would have picked would be something that would connect her son to their culture and something that she would use to remember her family in India while she lived in America.
I read on to know what happens with Gogol and his namesake.
Here's a summary:
1. An Indian woman, called Ashima, is pregnant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
2. She really misses India, more specifically, Calcutta and her Family.
3. She gives birth to a baby boy.
4. The grandmother is supposed to send names for the boy, as per tradition.
5. Ashoke, the arranged husband of Ashima, is really enamored with reading. His favorite story is "The Overcoat" By Nikolai Gogol. *Sidenote: He almost died on a train while reading that story.
6. The hospital that the boy was born at requests a name for the birth certificate, however the letter from the grandmother has not arrived yet. So, the boy gets named "Gogol", after his Dad's favorite story. The couple is planning on changing the boy' name once grandmom's letter arrives because Gogol is not a fit traditional Indian name.
7. Asima really longs to go back to India. She send letters to her family in India. They send some back.
8. Ashima raises the baby with little help of Ashoke who is studying 24/7 at a university in Cambridge.
9. The couple has planned a trip back to India to visit in December.
10. Meanwhile, Gogol's (it's a placeholder name - the letter from grandmom has not arrived yet...) rice ceremony, a traditional celebration that marks the first time the baby will eat solid food, has taken place.
11. Gogol grows up (He is around the age of 1).
12. Ashima get's letters from India saying that Grandmother is really sick.
13. Unexpectedly, the couple receives a telephone call from relatives in India. They learn that Grandmom has a stroke.
14. They change their plans and go to India earlier than expected.
 |
| The happy family! |
Ashima really really really really (etc.) wants to be back in India. When in the hospital, she constantly thinks about India. She thinks about her "mother, very soon to be grandmother,"(5) and the rest of her family longing to be with them. In Cambridge, where she is now, "nothing feels normal."(5).
Ashima struggles get a connection to India from America. All she wants is for her son to grow up around his family in India. In an effort to console herself, she writes a multitude of letters back to her family in India.
One of the biggest problems that Ashima struggles with is the authenticity of Indian tradition in America. Even though she does have a Rice ceremony for her son, it is not preformed with the same genuineness as if it would have been held in India. Ashima remarks that the bowls that contain the ceremonial rice is held is not "silver or brass or at the very least stainless-steel" (39) which they would have been if the ceremony was held in India.
It is on everyone's mind, the baby's name. Who in their right mind would name a son after a Russian author?? Well I guess, someone who is really obsessed, someone like the baby's father. Upon picking the name, Ashima said nothing, but only to respect her husband. However, she longs for her grandmother's letter so she can replace "Gogol". I am pretty sure that the name chosen will haunt Ashima for the rest of her life. It is so out of tradition that she cannot bare it. When her grandmother has a stroke and cannot chose a name for Gogol, the name becomes his, and tradition is lost. A pity, really! The name that her grandmother would have picked would be something that would connect her son to their culture and something that she would use to remember her family in India while she lived in America.
I read on to know what happens with Gogol and his namesake.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)