In order to prepare for
the AP Literature Exam, I have decided to choose prompts and write essays and
outlines for the open questions. When scrolling through the prompts, I came
along this one prompt that I really thought fit well with the novel The Name Sake, that I read over the
summer...but as Ms.Clinch says: "Never write on a book that you haven't
reviewed! It's death." Hence, I took the time, to review my annotations
and some notes for Lahiri's novel. Below is the following prompt that I will
attempt to answer and discuss using The
Name Sake.
Prompt:
Sonsyrea Tate’s statement suggests that “home” may be conceived of as a
dwelling, a place, or a state of mind. It may have positive or negative
associations, but in either case, it may have a considerable influence on an
individual. Choose a novel or play in which a central character leaves home yet
finds that home remains significant. Write a well-developed essay in which you
analyze the importance of “home” to this character and the reasons for its continuing
influence. Explain how the character’s idea of home illuminates the larger
meaning of the work.
So here it goes:
The
Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a classic,
powerful, culturally-dilemma novel through which Lahiri strongly enriches the
essence of tradition and family, more so, the importance of leaving home and
it's value through indentity. In this novel, Lahiri constructs the Ganguli
family, with a man Ashoke and his wife Ashima, who have an arranged marriage in
Calcutta. As per the tradition of the Bengalis, the women must follow the man,
and so Ashima, post-marriage, accompanies Ashoke to Cambridge, Massachusetts- a
beginning to a new life, a cultural shock. The story revolves around their son,
Gogol, who suffers through his life due to his name- a traditional,
non-American, ethnic identity. The character of Gogol is vital in the
novel in order to portray Lahiri’s purpose, that is, to illustrate the beauty
of an individual, their identity, and their roots from which they originated;
in fact, the novel illustrates that identity can neither be changed nor
suppressed as it is innately assimilated within us.
The instant the son of Ashoke and
Ashima is born, he is faced with "crisis"- a name. This definition of
a name, is often and blatantly defined as a stamp of identification; although, from where
the Ganguli family were brought up and raised, the name given to any individual
was not just a tool for identification, rather family connection, a symbolic characteristic,
a family representation. The name, was nonetheless the "root of a
tree," that kept family alive within oneself. Gogol, the son, lived a
tough life as a child; he dealt with issues ranging from love, bullying, and
family loyalty, and blamed it on his parents. It is important to note here that
even though his parents did absolutely nothing to hinder his life or cause
trouble, he blamed his parents for his quandary, more so, he held his parents
responsible the negative aspects that emerged because of his name. In a sense,
Lahiri portrays a common misconception about life- that your parents are the
cause of worries, when in reality, they haven't. This misconception often leads
to disloyalty in regards to parent-child relationships and such disloyalty is
clearly the primary cause of the "tangles between generations." The
truth lies in the fact that a child does not have the ability to recognize
themselves for who they are when faced in a new situation, in this case, a
cultural shock. Not only is this truth present through the novel, but also
universally. At times, this disloyalty amongst family members questions
societies motives: Is society built upon changing those that are different?
Why? How does this harm families? Is society causing a child to lose their
roots, traditions, and cultural values?
Lahiri's narration of Ashoke's
thoughts really enhanced the essence and importance of being close to the roots
through which one originated as it has one's "true" identity. Ashoke,
who was slowly dying, did not tell his child about his death, yet still
suffered through his sons constant nagging and stubbornness. Why don't our
parents say anything when we are stubborn? It was astonishing to realize that
parents want us to learn independence, hence their lack of interference in our
lives. They "duty" remains to give us a name, identity, some values
and cultures, and let us loose...like a bird. The beauty of the book, was the
fact that Jhumpa exhibited the role of the parent and the child implicitly,
without attacking the audience. She led the audience to introspect about
respect.
Jhumpa Lahiri, truly exhibits a work
of literary fiction as she constructs a plot that depicts a universally
applicable theme of loyalty and the importance of values that originate within
the home. Nonetheless, the authors diction, writing style, and pathos, was well
presented in order to fulfill her purpose- to make the audience decipher over their behavior towards their family and
how these values translate into future behaviors through life endeavors.
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