Saturday, January 16, 2010

The Namesake (Pages 158-220)

Title: The Namesake
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Pages: 158-220
Chapters: 6-9

SUMMARY: Ashima is alone at home when Ashoke is in Cleveland, Gogol in New York and Sonia in San Francisco. She makes Christmas card with her family names on it. She also gets a job at the library and makes some friends who she goes shopping with. Ashoke calls from the hospital informing Ashima that his stomach didn't feel right but he was there for an ordinary checkup. After a while, Ashima is told by the hospital that her husband had expired but she refuses to listen thinking it is a mistake. After hearing the news, Gogol rushes to Cleveland to clean his dad's apartment leaving Maxine behind. After arriving Gogol feels numb and starts to see images of his dad doing regular things such as drinking his tea, sitting and tying his shoes. Gogol goes to the morgue and confirms its his dad's body. He then goes to Boston shaves his hair in traditional Indian way for his dad's funeral. People begin to crowd inside the house when they come to visit and stay with them through this hard time. Gogol begins to keep a distance from Maxine because he wants more time to think about his dad. He begins to remember the old times when he walked in the cape cod with his dad. He soon leaves Maxine for good. After years have passed, Ashima wants Gogol to have a girlfriend and she doesn't mind him patching things back with Maxine but she is already engaged. Ashima sets Gogol in a date with a girl named Moushumi who is a daughter of her close Bengali friends. She is the only girl that dated Gogol and knew his real name was Gogol, not Nikhil. They start to see each other more and discover about their past. They knew each other when they were kids but they didn't talk much. After the parents agree, they get married in a Double-Tree hotel.

QUOTATIONS:
"Gogol remembers having to do the same thing when he was younger, when his grandparents died, his mother yelling at him when he forgot one day and had a hamburger at school" (Lahiri 180).

REACTION: As going through an intense scene in the book, this quote had a double effect on me. It was a difficult time but it also delighted me because it is similar to my culture. In this type of culture (Indian and Nepali), if a father has passed away, the son has to shave his head, put his father's ashes in a pot and throw it in a river. Along side, the whole family takes refuse from meat products. This is where the Indian and Nepali culture begin to differ. In Indian culture you cannot consume meat products and only rice, milk and vegetables and everyone including little kids have to follow the culture. On the other hand, its almost similar for Nepalese culture but kids don't have to follow it because they are completely or at least unaware of their surrounding events plus the family members who follow it not only have to avoid meat products but also salt in their food which makes it taste eerie.

1 comment:

  1. nice personal connections with the story, especially mothers asking embarrassing questions!

    do you like the irony/foreshadowing in the book?

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