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Fate vs free will in literature
Fate in literature
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From the origin to his first name to the unforeseen consequences in his past romantic relationships, Gogol Ganguli’s identity is formed over the course of the novel, The Namesake. Gogol’s name derives from his father’s near death experience in a train accident and how his parents legally named him with his pet name, a name that alienates him from the rest of his American environment. Aside from his name, Gogol is unable to connect his love life with his Bengali culture; he often finds himself being separated from his Bengali family or his Western family, and he struggles to find a middle ground to bind them together without leaving another entirely. After recently changing his name to Nikhil, Gogol is reborn, feeling that he can choose between …show more content…
However, when he discovers the origin of his birth name, Gogol starts regretting changing his name. When his father dies from a heart attack, Gogol’s life reevaluated his view on his identity, expressing regret and shame, as he loathes his birth name throughout his life. By the end of the novel, Gogol’s remorse is shown in the Christmas party, where “without people in the world to call him Gogol, no matter how long he himself lives, Gogol Ganguli will, once and for all, vanish from the lips of loved ones, and so, cease to exist. Yet the thought of this eventual demise provides no sense of victory, no solace. It provides no solace at all” (289). It seems that Gogol’s mistake of fighting for a new name results with nothing he wants, nor any sense of satisfying closure. Gogol’s captivating love life can also relate to this quote. Gogol’s relationship with Maxine causes him to move into her house and be separated by his own family. To Gogol, Maxine is an escape from his own family, but he faces a dilemma: choose to stay with his family or Maxine. When Ashoke’s unforeseen death occurs, Gogol’s heart aches with …show more content…
Throughout Gogol’s story, there is a sense of pattern to the agony suffered from Gogol; whether it’s the origins of Gogol’s namesake or it’s his past relationships, the novel shows a recurring theme of mishaps. The outlash in Gogol’s name is the basis his loss of identity and inability to connect with his heritage, which itself is an oversight. These “string of accidents” shape Gogol’s growth. In a way, these incidents are a blessing in disguise because of their lasting effect on the character, and Gogol has reacted them help establish his morals and values as he
In the conversation between Gogol, his kindergarten teacher, and Gogol's father, Gogol is confused and refuses his name as Nikhil. "She bends down so that her face is level with his, and extends a hand to his shoulder:
I find many elements of this work very interesting, but a few constant threads of the story truly engaged me. I am fascinated by the recurring mention of issues surrounding his name and by the consistent application of magic in his life and the life of the Dagara people.
Many critical interpretations of Absalom, Absalom! move towards the common conclusion that the way narrative works in the novel makes impossible the passing of meaning from one subject (teller or author) to anot...
There he makes this identity of himself to try to totally forget his parents’ cultural identity. He changes his name to Nikhil and later ends up moving to New York with a girl by the name of Maxine. “He is overly aware that they are not used to passing things around the table, or to chewing food with their mouths completely closed. They avert their eyes when Maxine accidentally leans over to run her hand through her hair” (Lahiri 277). This quote is describing Maxine and Gogol having a meal with his parents. This whole scene is very awkward for both because Gogol’s parents aren’t used to doing things the American way. When the two are leaving his parents’ house Gogol’s father says to him “Drive safely, Gogol” (Lahiri 279). This confuses Maxine because she is not familiar with his real name. He doesn’t want to be reminded of who he was before. By chapter 8 Maxine and Gogol are no longer together due to
In the novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri mentions a short story named “The Overcoat” written by Nikolai Gogol numerous times. This “mentioning” is also known as an “allusion.” The Namesake is about the Ganguli family and their transformation to an American family. Gogol Ganguli is the character that is closely related to “The Overcoat” which is about the life and also the death of a man by the name Akakiy Akakievitch. Besides the fact that is is named in The Namesake, “The Overcoat” can be related to the novel. Through the themes and the what happen with the characters can be seen as paralleled with these two texts.
Throughout The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri cultural differences are seen. They are closely related to names and identity. Your identity is shown through your name and sometimes people may not be able to see themselves as their name shows them. Many cultures think certain names are ordinary but they also see names that are not ordinary or weird in some way. Throughout the book, you see the distaste Gogol has for his name. He does not like it and goes to great lengths to change it, although still maintaining part of his Bengali and Russian roots. Also seen is the distaste for his culture not wanting to keep in touch with the Bengali language trying to assimilate to American culture, which can be seen throughout the novel as conflicting with one another.
For us it may seem naïve that he was content to be identified with his fiction, and his fictional hero, but at the time such an identification offered a new way of reading and new ways of seeing the world and the individual’s place in it, however disturbing that might be. (Maclachlan VII)
He feels relief and confident. No one knows him as Gogol, but Nikhil. His life with a new name also gets changed. His transformation starts here. He starts doing many activities which he could not dare to do as Gogol.
Over the course of the novel, The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, Gogol is constantly moving, and by the time he is in his late twenties, he has already lived in five different homes, while his mother, Ashima has lived in only five houses her entire life. Each time Gogol moves, he travels farther away from his childhood home on Pemberton Road, symbolizing his search for identity and his desire to further himself from his family and Bengali culture. Alternatively, Ashima’s change of homes happens in order to become closer to family, representing her kinship with Bengali culture. Ashima has always had difficulty with doing things on her own, but by the end of the story she ultimately decides to travel around both India and the States without a real home as a result of the evolution of her independence and the breaking of her boundaries; in contrast, Gogol finally realizes that he has always stayed close to home, despite his yearning for escape, and settles into his newly discovered identity - the one that he possessed all along.
Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, is a tragic drama that portrays a great deal of irony. Oedipus, the protagonist, suffers serious misfortune that is significant in that the “misfortune is logically connected with the hero’s actions” (AbleMedia LLC). When the reader learns about the background of Greek culture and the life of Sophocles, this tragic drama is able to become more alive and valuable. It is important to familiarize oneself with the author because it allows for a greater connection to the dialogue presented. Through the character development of Oedipus, one can see how ironic circumstances can turn a prideful king into a tragic figure.
In this fragment, Iago uses resources like the animalización and the use of erotic language to put of relevance the savagery and the monstrous thing in Othello. These words provoked
Nonetheless, this really is a tale of compelling love between the boy and his father. The actions of the boy throughout the story indicate that he really does love his father and seems very torn between his mother expectations and his father’s light heartedness. Many adults and children know this family circumstance so well that one can easily see the characters’ identities without the author even giving the boy and his father a name. Even without other surrounding verification of their lives, the plot, characters, and narrative have meshed together quite well.
The entire basis of this book deals with communicating from both character to character, and narrator to reader, on a very high cerebral level. Because of this analytic quality of the book, the most important events also take place on such a high level. In fact, the major theme of the novel, that of the narrator searching for his past self, as well as the cognitive change between the "...
Acknowledging Barthes’s theory allows the reader to break free of dictatorship the author may posses by promoting the reader to freely think about the pieces of literature such as Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon. Autonomous thinking gives the reader the advantage of discovering the duplicity of a potential underlying connotation or simply deciding not to delve deeper for hidden implications that may be sought out by the author. Barthes’s, The Death of the Author, provides the reader with knowledge and enlightenment in order to have the freedom to dive and think critically about the subject and characters written about in the narrative by Balzac. Barthes’s, The Death of the Author, proposes literary theories that can be directly related to the subjectivity of how a reader chooses to synthesis the meaning or meaninglessness of Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon.
In many literary works there has been a predilection for choosing themes such as family relationships as plots, because it seems that this type of topics go straight to the receptors’ heart, creating new connections and perceptions of life.