Instant Connection or Rebound?

            In the Chapter 8 of The Namesake, Lahiri introduces us to the characters Bridget and Moushumi. So far, Gogol has been in two previous relationships with Ruth and Maxine. Maxine and Gogol ended things because she did not understand why he excluded her from important family events and plans. “She felt jealous of his mother and sister, an accusation that struck Gogol as so absurd that he had no energy to argue anymore” (Lahiri 188). After they break up, he soon finds out, from her parents, that she is getting married to another man.

            Bridget is an attractive woman from New Orleans, who works for a small firm with her husband. The two of them have an affair. This affair lasts until “suddenly he imagines the house where Bridget’s husband lives alone, longing for her, with his unfaithful wife’s name on the mailbox, her lipstick beside his shaving things. Only then does he feel guilty” (Lahiri 191). This does not seem like something Gogol would do because it is disrespectful and immorally incorrect.

He keeps his “relationship” with Bridget a secret. His mother becomes progressively worried about him and even asks him if he is going to try to work things out with Maxine. His mother was to find his a suitable match, so she sees if he is willing to call Moushumi Mazoomdar, daughter of one of her friends from Massachusetts. Initially, Gogol has no intention of calling her, but after a while, he agrees to meet up with her at a bar for drinks.

They end up having a great time, and he evens asks her to join him for dinner. They seem to be getting along great, and “her frankness surprises him” (Lahiri 196). She admits that she moved back to New York from Paris because of a guy named Graham. They were engaged, but they broke off the marriage after he made rude remarks to her parents, ultimately leading up to a fight that caused them their future.

It is great that she is honest with him about her past and reason why she came back, but I don know how I feel about their relationship. They are both getting over a tough breakup, and I don’t know whether they actually like each other and are getting along, or if they are on the rebound. They seem to get along great and really enjoy each other’s company, but I am not convinced that they are both in a good place to start a healthy relationship. They are both dealing with the complications of their breakups, and there is a high possibility that one or the both of them are not completely over their previous relationship.

Gogol… Where Did You Go?

            Throughout the novel The Namesake, Gogol Ganguli changes many aspects of his life and experiences many dramatic transformations. “Plenty of people changed their names: actors, writers, revolutionaries, transvestites… One day in the summer of 1968, in the frantic weeks before moving away from his family, before his freshman year at Yale is about to begin, Gogol Ganguli does the same” (Lahiri 97). This is one important example of the changes that Gogol is making because in the beginning of the novel, Gogol did not want a new name and was extremely against people calling him anything but his actual name. In the beginning of the novel, “Gogol [didn’t] want a new name. He [didn’t] understand why he [had] to answer to anything else. He [was] afraid to be Nikhil, someone he [didn’t] know. Who [didn’t] know him” (Lahiri 57). As time goes on, we continue to see more and more changes, as he turns into a completely different person than originally expected.

            There are numerous crucial changes, and I wonder if it would have been better if he had grown up living a cultured and fully Bengali lifestyle with different and maybe more acceptable morals than the morals that he is developing. He is entirely changing the person that he used to be and turning into someone that I think his parents would be extremely ashamed of, not that he cares anymore. Because he basically has a new identity, it is easier for him to ignore any of his parents’ thoughts, and he continues to progressively leave his old identity in the past. “Now that he’s Nikhil it’s easier to ignore his parents, to tune out their concerns and pleas” (Lahiri 105). He is progressively losing the relationship he has with his parents.

            In addition, he begins to take part in many reckless and questionable activities. He gets a fake ID, so he can go drinking and partying. Eventually his irresponsible and careless drinking causes him to lose his virginity to a random girl that he meets in a bar. When he wakes up in the morning, he is completely hung-over and unable to even remember her name.

            It is extremely difficult for me to read these passages because in the start of the novel, I intended and had hope that Gogol… I mean Nikhil… would become a respectable man, who has taken advantage of the opportunities that his family has worked hard and sacrificed a lot for. I hope that he will see the path that he is going down and try to change it before it is too late.

Outside

            So far, I have really enjoyed reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. The novel focuses on an Indian couple, Ashima and Ashoke, who live in an apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts in August 1968.

            The thing that has interested me most so far while reading this book is how Ashima acts and almost feels like she is an outsider. I am curious as to what her intentions were when she got married and decided to have a baby with Ashoke because she does not seem very excited and content with the life that she is going to have. Before she got married to Ashoke, she was working toward a college degree and tutoring the kids in her neighborhood. Now, her future is going to consist of being a mother, which makes me wonder if she gave up her education and independent future for her marriage? In the end, she admits that she “[doesn’t] want to raise Gogol alone in this county. It’s not right. [She wants] to go back.” (Lahiri 33). She is not happy with life in Cambridge, and she wants to return to India, so she can raise Gogol in the place were she is comfortable and happy.

            “Nothing feels normal to Ashima. For the past eighteen months, ever since she’s arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all. It’s not so much the pain, which she knows, somehow, she will survive” (Lahiri 6). She is clearly disappointed and unhappy with her new life in Cambridge, but it has been eighteen months. Why has she not said something to try to change and improve the way she feels, and why did she move in the first place if she was already happy in India?

            Another thing that could make her uncomfortable is the many differences between America and India that occur throughout the beginning of the novel. Based on her actions, I think that there is a part of her that is still dramatically attached to India. We see the part of her that will not let her stray from her culture and that causes her to constantly think about India. “She calculates the Indian time on her hands. The tip of her thumb strikes each run of the brown ladders etched onto the backs of her fingers, then stops at the middle of the things: it is nine and a half hours ahead in Calcutta, already evening, half past eight” (Lahiri 4). This quotation is an example of how she is constantly thinking about India, and how she may be having an extremely difficult time letting go of her old life and traditions. Counting and keeping track of the time in India may be one of the ways that she keeps India close to her heart, regardless of where she is.

Inflicting Pain on Ourselves

           We judge the Underground Man because he is contradictory to himself, and he inflicts suffering on himself, but we do not realize that we do the same things to ourselves in more subtle ways.

In the novel Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Underground man continuously calls himself a spiteful and contradicts most of the things that he initially states. He says “I am educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am,” and “I am educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am” (3). These are just a few of the contradictions that he states in the first chapter of the novel. We need these contractions and judge him harshly for being conflicting with himself, but we unknowingly do this constantly throughout our lives.

There are weeks when I am swamped with homework and things to do. I have a lot of assignments, tests, and quizzes, and I know that I am going to struggle because there is so much to do, and not enough time to do it. Even though I know how much work that I have and how I really need to focus and do my work, I still waste time by watching television or listening to music or doing something with my friends. In the end, I end up having to stay up extremely late to finish my work and prepare for the tests or quizzes that I have during the week. This is just one of the ways that I unknowingly contradict myself.

Another way that we initially judge the Underground Man is we trace the different ways that he inflicts suffering on himself, yet we also unknowingly do this constantly throughout our lives without knowing or even realizing what we are doing. One of the ways that the Underground Man inflicts suffering on himself is because he does not consult doctors about his liver, but he believes that his liver is diseased. He says, “I am perfectly well aware that I cannot ‘get even’ with the doctors by not consulting them” (4). He talks about his liver pain and how he thinks that there is a problem with his liver, but he refuses to go talk to a doctor and figure out a solution to the problem.

The most constant example of how I inflict suffering upon myself is when I procrastinate on my schoolwork. Like I said, there are many times throughout the year when I procrastinate on my work. I am inflicting suffering on myself because I would not suffer at all if I did my homework ahead of a time, but instead, I inflict suffering on myself by waiting to do my homework.

Things Fall Apart Essay

            Both the tribes in Africa and Christianity have apparent single stories. Many people make assumptions about the traits, beliefs, and actions of a Christian and mistake the intents and mentality that a Christian has. Many people commonly label and categorize the Ibo people in Africa as deprived, uncivilized, and destitute. In the book Things Fall Apart and the poem “When I Say, I am a Christian,” Chinua Achebe and Carol Wimmer go against the single stories of these two focuses and try to give them a more accurate and complete description.

Carol Wimmer depicts a more accurate illustration of what it means to be a Christian through her poem, “When I Say, I am a Christian.” Hi-Call Gospel Magazine and Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul by Health Communications have published her poem. In the poem, Wimmer expresses her view of Christianity. She shows that Christians do no think that they are superior or more able than any other race. One of the significant lines in the poem, “When I say, I am a Christian / I’m not trying to be strong / I’m professing that I’m weak / and pray for strength to carry on.” This line demonstrates that being Christian doesn’t correspond to thinking they have more skills and abilities than anyone or that they are more competent than anyone. It means that Christians understand that they are going to struggle and have difficulties throughout life. The goal of a Christian is not to strive to believe that they are better than anyone. According to Wimmer, Christians understand that they will struggle and there will be many moments of weakness in their lives, but they look to God when they are in these situations. They admit that they are weak, but settle these problems by praying to God for the strength to carry on throughout life.

            Carol Wimmer shows that there are different perspectives of what it means to be a Christian. There is no one perfect definition of what actions a Christian can or cannot do. According the Bible, it is a sin to get divorced, but around fifty percent of Christians have experienced a divorce. Just because these people have been divorced, that does not mean that they are no longer Christians. Christians believe that there is one God and believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If a person believes in this, but has experienced a divorce, that does not mean that they are any less of a Christian than any other Christian. There are obviously going to be people that believe that they are a “better Christian” than another because they think that they are a more successful “follower of God.” Carol Wimmer expresses a more complete story of Christianity in the same way that Chinua Achebe expresses his perspective of a more complete story of Africa.

            Chinua Achebe provides a more complete and full story of Africa, and specifically Nigeria with his novel Things Fall Apart. In the poem, Wimmer shows that Christianity isn’t some perfect religion where everything in life works out. That is not anywhere close to what being a Christian means. Being Christian means making mistakes and a life with just as many struggles and challenges as there are in any other life. Christianity doesn’t prevent problems from entering and taking over your life. It changes the effect that it has on the person and how the person chooses to respond to the issue. Achebe uses a similar method in his novel Things Fall Apart. Achebe creates a protagonist Okonkwo who clearly has many issues and flaws. This is a similar method to Wimmer’s because he is demonstrating that Nigerians are not perfect. He traces the good and bad sides that Okonkwo has throughout the story. This is important because he is actively showing that Okonkwo is nowhere near perfect, which relates to the same view that Wimmer has on Christians.

            Both Achebe and Wimmer stray from the single story of Africa by showing a more complete story of what they believe presented in a very straightforward manner. Achebe creates the characters and group in Nigeria the way that he thinks that it is. He does not create a perfect Nigerian culture where everything is perfect. He had no intention of writing a book about a perfect Nigerian civilization. He wrote this book to show his view of Africa from the way that he sees it. He does not depict Okonkwo as a flawless man, and he does depict Umuofia as a perfect and sophisticated civilization. There is no doubt that the Ibo people are much more civilized than they are given credit for because of the single story that people have about Africans in general, but there are many flaws and problems with their society.

There is an excessive amount of religion, violence, and injustice in their civilization. Achebe does not ignore these factors to make it seem like a perfect tribe. He uses these flaws to strengthen the story of the Ibo people because people can relate to the problems and injustice occurring throughout the book. Wimmer uses this same method to show a more complete story of Christianity. In her poem, she does not describe a perfect Christian who is strong and powerful. She depicts the Christians in her poem by showing their strength but also their weakness. She does not deny the fact that Christians, just like anyone else, have their moments of weakness, vulnerability, and doubt. Christians are normal people whose lives are sometimes full of hesitation and challenges they must overcome. Like Achebe, Wimmer does not display a perfect Christian with a perfect life and no problems. She admits that “When I say, I am a Christian / I’m not claiming to be perfect / My flaws are far too visible / but God believes I’m worth it.” She does not want people to read her poem and conclude that Christians are better and any more significant than anyone. She wants people to understand that when she says that she is a Christian, it means that she is equal to everyone else in the problems that occur in her life but she has a different way of coping with them, which is by relying on the strength and her belief of God.

            Like Achebe, Wimmer traces the beliefs of Christians throughout her poem and provides a more accurate story than the typical and single story of what it means to be a Christian. Because many people do not look further in Christianity and base their thoughts solely on the single story, many people think that certain things make someone less of a Christian than someone else. Like Wimmer points out in her poem, there is no single and “right” description of a Christian because all Christians have a different extent and belief as to what it means to be Christian. Because many people do not understand this concept, they automatically make assumptions about people or assume that they are not Christian because they go off of what is typically known about a Christian.

This applies to Achebe’s depiction of the Ibo people in his book because before reading the book and gaining knowledge of the true story of Africa, many people would judge them based on things that they think are uncivilized in the same way a person would judge someone based on things that seem “un-Christian-like.” An example in Things Fall Apart is that they harvest crops throughout the year as a main source of food and economy. Many people automatically assume a civilization is uncivilized because they are gathering crops, but in the book, the harvest measures a man’s respect and success. "Yams stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a great man indeed." (33) Both Achebe and Wimmer make these points to add detail to the single and incomplete story of Christianity and Africa.

            By creating flawed people and concepts, Achebe and Wimmer are able to demonstrate a more truthful and genuine portrayal of Nigerian people and Christianity. They show how assumptions can be extremely far off from the actual matter being discussed in the single story. Both Achebe and Wimmer show the different sides of the civilization, character, or religion to the point where people understand both sides of the situation. If Achebe or Wimmer had written a poem about how perfect Umuofia or Christianity was, then they would just be creating another single story, instead of defending the single story already being told about the topic, but instead, he creates an imperfect civilization to help show his more complete depiction of the Ibo people.  

Be A Man

In Chinua Achebe's book "Things Fall Apart", Okonkwo has a strong and clear philosophy of what being man really means. This definition involves being everything that his father was not, and he is constantly in fear that he will become like his father.

Okonkwo takes in Ikemefuna, a young boy who has been taken from his village in family due to his father’s actions. Okonkwo begins to care for the boy and admires many of his qualities. He grows fond of him for the three years that he lives with his family, but things begin to crumble when he is faced with a decision on whether to be loyal or to be what he thinks defines him as a man. He is given a choice. He has the option to go into the woods and be a part of the death of Ikemefuna, or he can stay home because the others understand it may be difficult to destroy someone who has helped and positively affected your family. Okonkwo knows that the progress in the manhood of his son, Nwoye is because the influence that Ikemefuna has over him. “Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son’s development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna” (Achebe 52). Okonkwo turns his back on the child who loved him like a father and who deserved more than he was given.

            Another way that Okonkwo “controls” his manhood is by holding full power and influence over his wife and children. It is apparent that he loves his children, some more than others, but he very rarely  admits to them that he loves him. He thinks that that affection and emotion makes him vulnerable, weak, and less than a man than he hopes to be. He wants to be a man, and so he thinks that the way to achieve this is by putting a guard up and never truly letting people in. “Okonkwo was specially fond of Ezinma. She looked very much like her mother, who was once the village beauty. But his fondness only showed on very rare occasions” (Achebe 44). 

            There is no doubt that Okonkwo has total control over his wives. He has all of the power in the relationship with each of his wives. He tells them to do something, and they do it. End of story. If they fail to meet his standards and expectations, then they can expect a punishment, and an extremely angry Okonkwo.

            There are many ways to describe a man. It is very upsetting that Okonkwo’s definition of being a man leads him to be a part of the murder of a child who loved him and whom he loves, but never admitted. The wall Okonkwo put up guards him and prevents him from ever having true emotions and feelings for any of his wives or kids.