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.
WOW!!!! I am honestly blown away. What a truly fantastic blog post.
ReplyDeleteI think you definitely bring up a very interesting point: Why is she even in America in the first place? She's not even happy. It's a shame that she didn't really have much of a choice in marrying Ashoke, and then had to go with him to America just because she's his wife. It's kind of sad to think that in the Indian culture, the woman is expected to marry who she's told to marry, and then go with him wherever he tells her to go. When you think about it, it's kind of ironic that what she wants most is to return to the culture that's the reason she's in America in the first place. Again, fantastic post. Really got me thinking. You are a beautiful human being-- never let anyone tell you otherwise.
-Eliana