The Namesake

Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, "The Namesake," continues to trace the life of Ashima and Ashoke with their new baby. Ashima finally arrives home with her new baby and begins to notice how her husband truly is as a person. As she begins to look around her home, she feels grateful to be back again, but notices Ashoke's negligence towards the home's cleanliness—dirty dishes, dirty carpet, dirty clothes, dirty everything. Even though Ashima has been at the hospital awaiting to give birth to their child, Ashoke decides to stay home and do nothing, only because he is "a man." At that time, Ashima resignates to having to do everything around the house, but regards she cannot do it all. Ashima becomes overwhelmed with the duties of motherhood and the duties of being a housewife. Ashima then confesse that she is incapable of doing such things, but heedless Ashoke shows no consideration and offers nothing, but a cup of tea to help his wife.

Quote: "She begins to pride herself on doing it alone, in devising a routine."

Question: Why doesn't Ashima confront Ashoke to kindle him into caring for his child?

The Namesake

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, follows the life of a couple that migrates from Calcutta, India, to the United States. The novel begins with Ashima feeling as though it is time for the baby to arrive, and is rushed to the hospital. As she waits for the coming of her baby, Ashima recaps on her life before marriage. Ashima and Ashoke—her husband—were married through an arranged marriage, and are now expecting a baby in a foreign country. Having just migrated into the United States, Ashima, the mother of the baby, is afraid of raising a child alone in a country she is not familiar with, and around people that are "unlike her." As she is about to delivery her baby, Ashima begins to think of how difficult life with a child will be in the United States without knowing anyone around her. When the child is finally born, he remains unnamed until a family memebr arrives with suggestions.

Quote: "It was only after the betrothal that she'd learned his name."

Question: Will the baby be accepted by the American people?

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Johnathan Edward's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," argues the belief that without the presence of a god, humans are doomed for our sins. The only reason we have remained out of hell for so long, is due only to God's sovereign power and his good will. The main theme of the discourse, is the way that religion plays a part in a human's life and the way that a human plays a part in religion. Edwards' sermon states that people are meant to serve God, and that disobeying his rules will cause the world to "spew you out," for "you are a burden to it." "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," illustrates the theme of the book with the continual use of imagery and metaphors, such as being at the edge of hell the way you would hold a spider above a dreadful fire. God has no obligation to retain us from falling into the pit of eternal damnation, yet he conceals our wickedness and keeps us at his side. I certainly did enjoy Johnathan Edward's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," because it gives us a stance in the goodness that God holds among us—no matter how horrid our misdemeanors may be.

Question: Does religion form who we are as individuals?

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, is a memoir of Frederick Douglass's life as a slave and his hope to someday be free. Written by Frederick Douglass himself, the main themes of his story, are the quest to freedom and success, and the power of the human spirit to achieve that goal. In his narrative, Douglass argues the principle of how slavery is ethically wrong, and that the time for abolition has arrirved. Due to being born a slave, Frederick Douglass did not grow up with many opportunites, but he took advantage of any possibility he had to excel in learning—hoping that someday his education will make him free. Frederick Douglass illustrates the themes of his narrative by recapping on his suffering as a slave and his attempts for freedom and escape. I enjoyed reading Frederick Douglass's memoir of his life as a slave, because it gave me detailed insight on how difficult a slaves' life truly was and proved how one can accomplish any goal if we truly set our mind to it.

Questions:
How did Douglass discover at such a young age that an education was the key to freedom?
Why did Douglass' desire to be free seem bigger than the desire of other slaves? Why did it seem like he had more hope than the other slaves?

Bait and Switch

Barbara Ehrenreich's bestselling book, Bait and Switch, shows how difficult it is to find a job in the real American world. In the first "chunk" of our reading, Barbara Ehrenreich says that her ego, Barbara Alexander, was going to easily swift through finding a job s a blue-collared woman, but in our second "chunk" of reading, Barbara Alexander seems to be having a much more difficult time on a task she thought would be very simple to complete. Barbara Alexander was bound to have found a job after a couple of weeks of searching, yet after four months of turning every stone in her path, Mrs. Alexander was nowhere near finding the job that was right for her. Alexander has gone seeking for jobs through several programs that were to help her obtain the job she desired, though no company or interviewer ever called her back for a second chance at the position she hoped to receive. Throughout all that wasted time foraging for the perfect job, Barbara Alexander spent thousands of dollars on internet job searches, job coaches and counselors, and career boot camps—all which were useless in finding a company that will hire her. As she continues her search for the perfect job that will bering her up form the blue-collar class, to a white-collar member Alexander considers herself useless, yet striving for success. Even though Barbara Ehrenreich believed her life as Barbara Alexander would be very simple, in the past few chapters, she is beginning to learn that life in the real world is not as easy as she once thought.

Tone: Determined and Weary

Metaphor: "I am 'angular' in shape..."
Page: 107

Allusion: For a moment I reeled, feeling like a character in an early Pynchon novel..."
Page: 123

Question: Why does Barbara Alexander attend so many programs, boot-camps, and job consultants, only to find a job, when a 'real' average person searches for a job only through simple resources?

Bait and Switch

Bait and Switch, by Barbara Ehrenreich, follows a woman's life who lives undercover as a member of the middle class. Throughout the process, the author, who goes by another name not yet stated, searches for jobs in every place that she can, and arranges for her daily interviews. While being undercover, Ehrenreich learns how that for, "normal" people, losing a job, means entering a painful world causing psychological damage. Ehrenreich then states that as an undercover middle class woman, she has no possibilities of going into poverty or being rejected. Whether or not this is true or not, we will only come to know as the reading continues.

Tone: Informative

Logical Appeal: "In 1993, the Myers-Briggs test was administered to three million Americans; eighty-nine of the Fortune top 100 companies use it to help slot their white-collar employees into the appropriate places in the hierarchy."
Page: 32

Imagery: "She asks me to think of two overlapping circles. One circle is me, the other is 'the world of work,' and the overlapping area is 'the ideal position for you.'"
Pages: 22-23

Question: Why does Ehrenreich go undercover for the writing of her books?

Did mozzies, not a meteor, do for the dinosaurs?

"Did mozzies, not a meteor, do for the dinosaurs?" an article from January 6, 2008 found in the Daily Mail, shows how today, scientists are beginning to believe that the cause of dinosaur extinction may not have been caused by massive meteors or volcano eruptions;instead the cause being nothing but the bite of a tiny insect-a mosquito. Since mosquito's are known for carrying and passing on diseases, the unknown author, who refers to "husband-and-wife team" George and Roberta Poinar as his/her main reference, suggests that the mosquitoes from that time era may have infected enormous dinosaurs the size of "double deckered buses," with deadly diseases. Throughout recent research, different types of malaria dysentery have been found in insects preserved in amber organisms. With this new information, scientists have begun to share their opinions on the new theory, and believe that if it were to be true, then dinosaurs may have slowly died out from several other diseases they may have become infected with. According to the Daily Mail, how dinosaurs died out, still has no exact explanation, but if people begin to believe this new theory, it can be that great controversies may begin to arise on this matter.

Tone: Informative

Question: With this new theory, will scientists begin to research more on the topic and lead people to believe/change their perspective on how dinosaurs became extinct?
Will people begin to fear that mosquitoes may slowly die out the human race just as they are said to have done with dinosaurs?
Why were the mosquito's being examined at the time this discovery was made?

Want to read the article yourself? Click below!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=506440&in_page_id=1965