Jhumpa Lahiri is an Indian American author who likes to write mainly about the experiences of other Indian Americans. She is a very successful author. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her first novel and her fiction appears in The New Yorker often. One of those works from 1998 is a short story, “A Temporary Matter”, about a husband and a wife, Shukumar and Shoba, whose electricity will be temporarily cut off for one hour for five days. This seems simple enough, but as you read the story you find that maybe it’s their marriage that might be the “temporary matter” itself. The title is interesting from the beginning. It gives us hints about the setting, the characters and their situation, as well as plants the whole theme of the story. The story circles around two big things, the death of a baby and Shukumar and Shoba’s failing marriage. Although this is the case, it also focuses a lot on the little things. Lahiri uses small details to point out the pain and lack of communication between Shukumar and Shoba. When Shukumar thinks back to the last time he saw Shoba pregnant, he doesn’t remember if she looked happy or sad, he remembers the much smaller things, such as the cab. “Each time he thought of that moment, the last moment he saw Shoba pregnant, it was the cab he remembered most, a station wagon, painted red with blue lettering. It was cavernous compared to their own car. Although Shukumar was six feet tall, with hands too big ever to rest comfortably in the pockets of his jeans, he felt dwarfed in the back seat.” As inconsiderate as it may seem, this is actually how many people remember important events in their lives. Important events don’t go through our memory as sequential narratives, but in a series of random feelings, sens... ... middle of paper ... ... all of the little, yet important details. In the end, we understand that all this time Shoba has been trying to tell Shukumar that she has been looking for apartments and finally found one. Shukumar is relieved, yet sickened by the thought of her wanting a life separate from him. This shakes him into sharing information that is sacred to Shoba in hopes that it would always be her mystery; the sex of their baby. We are left with a cliffhanger. All we know is the information the last sentence provides us, “They wept together, for the first time in their lives, for the things they now knew.” Possibly them weeping is a sign of them coming together to grieve. It marks another turning point in their lives, much like when they lost their child. We just don’t know if that turning point is them staying together or weeping in knowing that they are going their separate ways.
Leon F. Litwack is the author of Trouble in Mind. Litwack is an American historian and professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley. He was born in 1929 in Santa Barbara, California. In 1951, Litwack received is Bachelor Degree and then continued to further his education. In 1958, he received his Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager wrote the book that sparked Litwack's curiosity in history. The book was The Growth of the American Republic. Litwack was in the eleventh grade when he first discovered his interest in history. In 1964, Litwack began teaching at the University of California, where he taught an excess of 30,000 students. Litwack has written other books besides Trouble in Mind. One of the books he wrote was Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery in 1979. In 1980, Litwack was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history of this book and in 1981 he was the winner of the National Book Award. He also wrote North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free State, 1790-1860, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, and The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Litwack has also won many including, the Francis Parkman Prize, the American Book Award, and he was elected to the presidency of the Organization of American Historians. In addition to this, Litwack has been an outstanding teacher and received two notable teaching awards. Litwack's first teaching position was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he taught from 1958 to 1964. He also taught at the University of South Carolina, Louisiana State University, and the University of Mississippi. As one can see, not only has Litwack been an exceptionally outstanding author, he has also been a very popular and influential teacher.
Jhumpa Lahiri in The Namesake illustrates the assimilation of Gogol as a second generation American immigrant, where Gogol faces the assimilation of becoming an American. Throughout the novel, Gogol has been struggling with his name. From kindergarten to college, Gogol has questioned the reason why he was called Nikhil when he was a child, to the reason why he was called Gogol when he was in college. Having a Russian name, Gogol often encounters questions from people around him, asking the reason of his name. Gogol was not given an Indian name from his Indian family or an American name from the fact that he was born in America, to emphasize that how hard an individual try to assimilate into a different culture, he is still bonded to his roots as the person he ethnically is.
It’s pretty clear that film and literature are very different mediums and when you try to make one into the other, such as an adaptation, you’re going to have some things that are lost in translation and seen in a different light. When an original work is made into a movie, I think they’re kind of at a disadvantage because they only have a few hours to get the whole story across while also keeping the viewer intrigued by what is taking place on the screen right in front of their eyes. Movies are able to contain special effects, visuals, and music though which can impact a viewer and make a scene stay in their mind longer which is a plus side to being able to view something. Literature on the other hand, has a greater advantage. They can keep the reader entertained for a considerably long time and you’re able to get more information about people and events such as what a character is thinking or what is happening behind the scenes during a specific event. I understand that people are going to have different opinions when it comes to whether a book or film adaptation of a work is the best and it is not always going to be the same for each and every piece of work. One thing I think though, is that The Namesake in both the film and the movie, they’re both accurate and concise in the way that they relate to one another.
The meaning of the first stanza is do the things you need to get done because tomorrow the opportunity may not exist. It states this by saying gather rosebuds while you can because that beautiful flower “tomorrow will be dying” (Herrick 385). The next stanza talks about the Sun’s life from dawn to dusk. By describing it’s race against time it is telling a person that there is not much sunlight so make the most of it To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time and Carpe Diem
The author begins the story with a strong statement, “I found myself in a Chinese funeral parlor because of a phone call I made to my cleaning lady” (Schmitt); it takes the reader right into the funeral parlor and draws the reader into the story: how she got to the funeral parlor and what she doing there was the question I had. She starts the story with some background about how she got to China. Then moves on to the funeral that was happening in her neighbors’ home. She describes how the family was grievously weeping as she was walking toward her apartment. She noticed what happened and wonder why they were weeping. “Do you know why the neighbors are very sad?” she asked her cleaning lady.
After the death of their child Shukumar says that Shoba "treats the house like a hotel" she avoids her husband as much as po...
In “The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed female protagonist is going through a rough time in her life. (For now on, this paper will refer to this unnamed character as the “the narrator in ‘Wall-paper,’” short for “The Yellow Wall-paper. The narrator is confined to room to a room with strange wall-paper. This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse. At first there is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free. The institute of marriage ties the two heroines of these two short stories together. Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were expected to stay married. Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo. This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters.
“Car Crash While Hitchhiking” and “Work” both follow the stream of consciousness of the narrator, which shows the influence of drug on people’s mentality. Both stories are confusing with the narrator moving around the time and place; it seems as if the narrator is talking about whatever comes into his mind without specific plot or message. In “Car Crash While Hitchhiking,” the narrator talks about the family that picked him up, and suddenly switches to the story of him and salesman by saying “…But before any of this, that afternoon, the salesman and I …” (4) In “Work,” narrator says “And then came one of those moments,” (52) when he recalls a memory about his wife while talking about Wayne. Both stories shift abruptly without proper conjunction. In everyday lives, people think of numerous things. However, what they say are limited, as they talk consistently with a specific purpose, considering factors such as time, place, and appropriateness before they speak. On the other ha...
How different are families compared to the past? Lately there has been some major changes in relationships, weather female dominance, or even just having no relationships at all. We also see that relationships are based only on a basis of reproduction and sometimes the child of the relationship is rather irrelevant. In a Temporary matter by Jhumpa Lahiri, the reader can see how relationships have developed with the rest of the world into failing, no relationship, and feminist relationships.
The Perfect Failure: Kennedy, Eisenhower, and the CIA at the Bay of Pigs by Trumbull Higgins is a book that sheds light on the history and surrounding factors of the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. Having lived in Miami for seven years, I have always been curious about why Cubans seem to feel entitled and believe that the United States owes them something. When I asked about this, I was told that the United States failed them during the Bay of Pigs invasion by leading the Cuban exiles into a battle they could not win. They felt great resentment towards the United States for refusing to assist them once they were in Cuba, leaving them at the mercy of President Fidel Castro. After reading Higgins' book, I now understand the basis for this type of thinking and resentment.
to America with grace and compassion. This story by Jhumpa Lahiri, is an allegory establishing an identity with using symbolic meaning between two cultures that intersect. The themes throughout the story refer to immigrant experiences, the conflict of cultures, the contrast of assimilation and the connection between generations. The Namesake, opens the worlds of emotions Ashima experiences, while straddling her two worlds. This story of identity allows readers to travel with Ashima on an intimate journey through her life as an immigrant.
be your last. It also leads you to think of your life and how much you
Amy cries, “Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t” when her husband begins to speak about the dead child, and this does back up the idea that she is unable to reconcile reality with her emotions (Frost 30). They also explain the realistic grasp the husband has on this situation when they say, “ ‘The little graveyard where my people are! /So small the window frames the whole of it.’ At the present, the things of the past are condensed into a mere window to the past” (Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood 10). The husband establishes himself as a more practical and realistic character when he is identified as a farmer and is shown doing the necessary steps to bury the dead child. As a character that is so realistic the husband cannot understand why Amy, the wife, is so distraught so long after the funeral. Amy believes him to be unable to understand when Frost writes, “She let him look, sure that he wouldn’t see” (Frost 15). The practicality of the husband makes Amy feel like she is unable to share her sorrows with him. Through these explanations of the characters Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood effectively show how the husband and wife’s relationship is quite strained as they write, “According to his husband’s point of view the
...etter it starts to rain outside and the reader senses an even more unsettling feeling as she is unable "to go on kneeling with her back exposed to the empty room, so she rose...to sit on an upright chair whose back was firmly against the wall." This reminds the reader of the well known fear of something lurking in the shadows to attack. Throughout the story the reader is given more and more information that continues to heighten the level of suspense. These elements build the solid foundation for the fearful tone that builds along with the story. We, as the reader, think that she is safe in the cab and we feel a sense of relief only to be jolted by the fact that the demon is the driver. We want this wife and mother to escape the evil clutches of the demonic lover and once we believe she is safe we get slapped with the truth. The good guy does not always win.
Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Silence, attempts to analyze the partition in Indian society, through an oral history of Indian experiences. The collection of traumatic events from those people who lived through the partition gives insight on how history has enveloped these silences decades later. Furthermore, the movie 1947 Earth reveals the bitterness of partition and its effect of violence on certain characters. The most intriguing character which elucidates the silence of the partition is the child, Lenny. Lenny in particular the narrator of the story, serves as a medium to the intangibility created by the partition. The intangibility being love and violence, how can people who grew up together to love each other hate one another amidst religion? This question is best depicted through the innocence of a child, Lenny. Through her interactions with her friends, the doll, and the Lahore Park, we see silence elucidated as comfort of not knowing, or the pain from the separation of comfort and silence from an unspoken truth.