The Namesake (Part 3)

Even though Ashima feels alone she quickly begins to make Bengali friends. She often meets Bengali single men, they go away to Bengali, and come back a married man. With these marriages she gains more Bengali women friends. Six months has past since Gogol was born and it is time for his annaprasan; it is like a baptism in the Christian faith. They feed Gogol little grains of solid food. Ashima's brother is suppose to feed Gogol, but he is not available so they ask their friend, Dilip Nandi, to be their baby's honarary uncle. Gogol get dressed up in traditional infant Begali groom clothes and all of the Ganguli's friends come to witness this special occasion. They have made plans to go to Bengali in December, but when Ashima gets news that her dad has passed away from a heart attack they leave six weeks earlier than their original departure.

Quote: "...her father died yesterday evening, of a heart attack, playing patience on his bed."

Question: How will Ashima's dads' death affect her relationship with America and her American born son, Gogol?

The Namesake (Part 2)

Ashima and Ashoke are still waiting for Ashima's grandmothers' letter with the choices of names for their baby. While they are still waiting for the letter the hospital says they are ready to discharge Ashima and the baby. The hospital tells them that they cannot leave without giving the baby a name to put on his birth certificate. Ashoke explains their situation to the processor and the processor gives them two choices. They can either have "Baby Boy Ganguli" on the certificate and pay for the baby's real name to put on it when their ready or they can name him something for the time being and not pay. They decide to name him something that has significance. In the Bengali culture each child has a pet name or nickname. Ashima and Ashoke believes that the name that they give him will only be a pet name. They try to think of something significant and they come up with Gogol: the English author whose book Ashoke was holding when he had his near death experience. After the processor records the name Gogol Ganguli they are able to take little Gogol out into America. Later on Ashima gets news from home that her grandmother has had a stroke; her right side is paralyzed and she can no longer remember anything including the names for baby Gogol.

Quote: "When Ashima and Ashoke see their son's pet name typed on the label of a prescription for antibiotics, when they see it at the top of his immunization record, it doesn't look right; pet names aren't meant to be made public in this way."

Question: Now that Ashima and Ashoke are no longer able to get the names from her grandmother will they keep Gogol's name the same?

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Part 1)

The Namesake is a good book so far. Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli are from Calcutta, India. They were married through an arranged marriage and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts after their wedding. The Gangulis are awaiting the birth of their first child. While they wait Lahiri explains the difficulties Ashima has being away from her family in Calcutta. Ashima also has difficulties with the English language; she fears that Americans judge her for her mistakes when saying certain words in English. Lahiri tells us the story of Ashoke's childhood. Ashoke grew up with six younger siblings and a love for reading, encouraged by his grandfather. He experienced a near death situation at the young age of twenty-two. While on his way to visit his blind grandfather the train he was on crashed and many died, but Ashoke survived. However, he experienced broken ribs, a broken femur and a broken pelvis. He dreamt of being paralyzed, but he recoverd. In America his baby boy is born and he and Ashima awaits the arrival of the names her grandmother has chosen for their baby.

Quote: "She has never known of a person entering the world so alone, so deprived."

Question: Why does Ashima believe her baby is alone when her and Ashoke are there to nurture and love their baby boy?

Speak

Laurie Halse Anderson wrote Speak, a book about a girl who hid her rape that happened at a party, so that her friends wouldn't get mad. She spent most of freshman year alone and alienated by her friends. They were upset with her for calling the police at the party during the summer. The one class that she enjoyed going to was her art class. The teacher gave made them pick an object out of a hat and for the rest of the year they had to draw, paint, and sculpt that object. This class was difficult in the beginning, but gradually she became comfortable with it. The big theme holding secrets is represented throughout the entire book. She keeps her rape a secret all the way until the end of the year. She finally lets the secret out of the closet and everyone is on her side. I really liked this novel because it presented an issue that millions of girls and women go through: having to keep something a secret in fear of alienation.

Question: If Melinda would have told the police about her rape at the party would her friends had believed her or thought she was lying, like they did at the end of the story?

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass tells his story of growing up as a slave, his want to be free and the journey he took to become free in the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." He compares himself and his situation to the lives of the other slaves. He recognizes how much better of a position he was in, sometimes. Douglass shows how the white slavemasters treated the slaves like animals. He tells of his schemes to learn how to read. He would challenge the white boys that he knew to a read off and tell them that they couldn't read a certain line in a book. They would accept his challenge not knowing that he was secretly learning how to read through them. He shows later on that knowing how to read would hinder him in certain situations. The theme "Quest for Freedom" is apparent throughout the entire story. Douglass expresses how badly he wanted to escape from the chains of slavery in almost every chapter. I really enjoyed reading this narrative because it gave me some insight to how a slave was sometimes treated well.



Question: Was Douglass's "quest for freedom" stronger than other slaves because he kind of got a taste of freedom from living with more lenient masters?