In, "The Namesake," Jhumpa Lahiri continues to follow the lives of Ashoke and his new family. In the third chunk, Gogol, their son, is finally old enough to start school. Before taking Gogol to his first day of kindergarten, Ashoke and Ashima try to find a "good-name" for their son to be used only at school. Ashoke proposes the name Nikhil; even though she does not fully agree, Ashima accepts and so they take Gogol for enrollment. As they arrive to school, the family comes upon the very ignorant school principal who states that the school has two other Indian children enrolled, and perhaps the family may know them. Gogol is then introduced as Nikhil, but when he does not respond to the name, his father Ashoke mentions to him his real name and at the end of the day, the principal ignores the parents' decision to call Gogol by his "good-name," Nikhil and uses his pet name, Gogol instead. A couple of months later, Ashima becomes pregnant once more and in May, gives birth to Gogol's sister. At the time of the girl's birth, Ashima and Ashoke had already planned a "good-name" for the new baby, as they did not want to relive the difficult experiences of Gogol's name. The new baby was named Sonali—a combination of both her "good-name" and her "pet-name," though later in life, she will be known by her family only as Sonia. The family learns that in America, life is very different from what they are used to, and that it is now time to adjust to the American society they are now surrounded by.
Quote: "They've learned their lesson after Gogol."
Question: Why are American's so ignorant and why don't they accept other culture's traditions?
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This blog was created as part of Ms. Guy's AP English Class.
1 comment:
American's are ignorant because they are scared. They are scared of what they do not recognize and understand and feel inferior to it,therefore they would try to get rid of it at all costs. So when the opportunity presents itself of learning of something new it gets rejected before it's even tried because it's foreign. So instead of trying to fulfill thier potential of being "the land of the free" they end up becoming the "land of restrictions". So it's not that the America doesn't accept the traditions of other cultures it's just that mostly becasue it wants to assure itself that they'll be safe from whatever this other culture is doing they don't want to try anything new for fear of it.
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