Gogol’s Values Every individual has their own values they follow as they are growing up. For Gogol he has gone his entire life knowing and following Indian values and being very family-oriented. When the Ganguli’s move to America and Gogol grows older American values start to take over his life and he becomes more individual. There was a major twist in the novel that rapidly changed Gogol’s personality form individuality to family-oriented. In the end the Indian values were the most significant. Throughout the novel Gogol is affected by American values in many different ways. When Gogol came to America he changed in a big way. He became a very individual person. He didn’t act the same with his parents anymore because of this. It all began when he found out that his parents named him after their favorite Russian author Nikolai Gogol. He was very angered by this because as he got older he didn’t like that name. In class his teacher was talking about the Russian writer and how he was a Genius but had some problems. Nikolai was very paranoid and he didn’t have any friends. He never got married and finally committed suicide by starvation. “Did you know about [Nikolai Gogol] when you named me? That he was paranoid, suicidal, friendless, and depressed?” (Lahiri). All of Gogol’s classmates started to tease him because of his name. This is when Gogol really started to get mad at his parents. “Of all the freaking Russian writers in the universe why did they have to choose the weirdest? What the hell’s wrong with Leo or Anton?” (Lahiri). Gogol eventually lived on his own in New York. When he was living there he got with this girl Maxine. That was his love interest at the time. Ashima’s wish was to have a Bengali daughter-in-law and Gogol... ... middle of paper ... ...d Moushumi Mazumdar. In the end, the values that affected him the most are the Indian values. This is because the end result of the novel he was back to the Bengali values. He was back living with his mother and he married a Bengali woman instead of an American one that he was with before his father’s death. His father’s death is the major reason he went back to being family-oriented. If that didn’t happen then he would still be the individual person he was. He still carries some American values but now he is all about family and back to the way he used to be when he was young. He will continue his Indian culture with his wife and when he has kids. I’m sure he wont go back to full American values now that he is married to a Bengali woman. That is his partner and they do things together so he knows that Indian values are the most important thing to him from now on.
...o assimilate into the society by entering school with a more acceptable name, but Gogol refuses. The acceptance of the society has pressured him to change his name in college, and to hide Gogol from the society. Till the day Gogol understands the reason why his father chose to name him Gogol instead of an Indian or American name, Gogol experienced a lot of changes, as a second generation American immigrant. Gogol has been assimilated to different culture than he ethnically is. At the end, through family, Gogol has come back to his roots. Gogol was not given an Indian name from his Indian family or an American name as he was born in America, to emphasize an individual try to assimilate into a different culture, but in the end, he is still bonded to his roots as the person he ethnically is.
Some may say that people can adapt to a new place and completely let go of their culture; thus they are saying that cultural identity does not continually inform the way one views the world. This however, is not accurate. While people can adapt to a new place and adapt to parts of a new places culture, they cannot completely let go of their cultural identity. It will always impact the way one views the world. Take for example Bharati, the author of the personal essay “Two ways to belong in America”. While Bharti's sister Mira chose to hold on to every aspect of their indian heritage; Bharati wanted to feel like she belonged fully in America. When talking about her sister she says “She is happier to live in America as expatriate Indian than as an immigrant American I need to feel like a part of the community I have adopted”(85). Bharati needs to feel like she belongs, and though she may have broadened her culture; her perception of the world and others is still influenced by her indian cultural
Love in stories is often shown as the path to ultimate happiness, but love causes both protagonists to become distracted from their destiny. After meeting Fatima, a girl he falls in love with, Santiago loses his faith in the significance of his Personal Legend, declaring “I’ve found Fatima, and, as far as I’m concerned, she’s worth more than treasure” (Coelho 123). Santiago nearly decides to stay with Fatima and desist from continuing his quest. However, the alchemist tells him “You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love…” (Coelho 125). Love is not considered as the most important treasure and Santiago's own destiny has to come first. Fatima also urges Santiago to continue his quest, but Gogol’s girlfriend, Maxine, is less encouraging, even holding him back. Gogol deviates from his path to accepting his identity by dating her. Maxine is a typical white American girl, and their relationship distances Gogol from his culture. After Gogol’s father passes away, Maxine asks that he spend more time with her, but Gogol prefers to complete the rituals and follow Hindu traditions, leading them to break up. By conquering love, Gogol progresses on his path toward accomplishing his Personal Legend. The more selfish outlook on accomplishing one's destiny first before even love is a less common perspective shared by these stories. Love and Personal Legends both demand sacrificing what they hold most dear to themselves and accepting that nothing else can come before it, and one must choose to follow one or the
One of Gowda’s prominent values that was evident in her novel was family and the importance of it, distinctly, as family was the centralized conflict of the novel. Family values were passed on to Gowda from Gowda’s parents. “Growing up in Toronto, we didn’t have much family around. So, we became really close to one each other more” (HarperCollinsCanada). As Gowda is of Indian descent living in Canada much of her family wasn’t around. Her parents worked hard, long hours to support their family. Thus, leaving Gowda to value her time with her family as it was rare. In the novel Secret Daughter, Jasu and Kavita were hesitant to leave their family behind as all their life they had their family with them to support as well as help in times of need. “How can I leave you?... He is taking me away from you, from Rupa, all my relatives, my home, my village.” (Gowda 92) Kavita and Jasu
In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker one can see that a person’s heritage is very important and sacred. Dee and Maggie grew up in the same household reared by the same mother. The sisters were exposed to the same values but matured to express them differently. A person’s values and heritage of their culture are cultivated by the way they are taught and what they value important and sacred. A person’s values originate from their exposures growing up.
Callicles comes with a hedonistic belief that pleasure is to be associated with “good” and that pain is to be associated with “bad”, which means a good life is the one full of many pleasures. To refute Callicles belief, Socrates first uses the example of health and disease to explain to Callicles that good and bad cannot happen with a person at the same time, yet pain and pleasure can happen simultaneously. To further enforce his point, Socrates uses the concept of a coward and the brave to provide another argument that pain and pleasure cannot be the deciding factors for what is a good life. In both of his arguments, I believe Socrates is successful based on my personal belief that if someone or something is result in pain, it doesn’t mean that it is bad, and that everyone, good or bad, is capable of feeling both pain an pleasure.
Gogol basically grows up his whole life not feeling comfortable with his identity and who he is. Gogol doesn't feel like he belongs in his parents Bengali family, and he somewhat feels like he is living in between cultures sometimes. Growing up in America has made him feel like an outsider because his parents were always doing things in their culture. Throughout the book Gogol makes great efforts to find out who he really is and he does that by moving away from home. Gogol’s definition of home changes whether it's by getting a new girlfriend or moving to a new place he's not familiar with.
Every person has a different view on how different their cultural morals could be from someone else’s. They can appreciate the contrasting morals it brings to light. In “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake (Medicine Grizzly Bear), the topic of what Wind-Wolf has be taught by his culture can be perceived very differently by someone who doesn’t understand it. “Two ways to belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee, shows how the way two sisters are influenced by their culture affects how they see the same subject. And “Everyday use” by Alice Walker. The ways that someone’s perception of their culture and morals is shown.
Values -Everyone has them. Where do those values come from? In literature, one can find the answer to that question by taking a close look at characters and their values. They can be compatible to real life experiences. Look at the two stories, "Abuela Invents the Zero" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The main characters in the stories are Constancia from "Abuela Invents the Zero" and the Four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth from Little Women. These two stories demonstrate how Experiences can shape, and change values.
Gogol is not completely cut off from his roots and identity. He tries to reject his past, but it makes him stranger to himself. He fears to be discovered. With the rejection of Gogol’s name, Lahiri rejects the immigrant identity maintained by his parents. But this outward change fails to give him inner satisfaction.
Throughout the novel, Ashima and Gogol are at opposite perspectives of their view of “home”. In the beginning, while Ashima is focused on family and prefers to remain close to her Bengali culture, Gogol’s only wish is to become independent and veer away from his Bengali culture. These desires of independency and having a traditional close-knit family direct Ashima and Gogol’s decisions and views of home. Whereas Ashima is focused on family, Gogol continues in his attempt to become fully independent and escape from his home and the clutches of his insistent, traditional parents. After living in New Haven for a few years, Gogol decides to move to New York. His reasons for moving to New York are mainly because...
In the book, The Road to Character by David Brooks, he talks about how the culture can impact our character and change our values and traits based off what the culture says people should be. In
Some events that might influence a person’s values is a death in their family, not having a mother or father to look up to, being ill, a car accident etc. These events could drastically change the way someone develops values. Values influence someone’s motivation to have a legacy in their life. Every decision that is being made in a person’s life is based on their value. Values come from beliefs. For example, when I think of my values or I am trying to change a value because of a certain reason, I always start with what my beliefs are and go back to my values. In my own opinion, values should be something that pushes and motivate someone to be a better person. Everyone has values and they might not be the best values but if I was a social worker, I would have to get over that and still continue to provide them with service that they need. It doesn’t matter what someone’s values are, as long as they strongly believe and motivate them to be a better
In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, the protagonist, Gogol, struggles with his cultural identity. He is an American-born Bengali struggling to define himself. He wants to fit into the typical American-lifestyle, a lifestyle his parents do not understand. This causes him tension through his adolescence and adult life, he has trouble finding a balance between America and Bengali culture. This is exemplified with his romantic relationships. These relationships directly reflect where he is in his life, what he is going through and his relationship with his parents. Each woman indicates a particular moment in time where he is trying to figure out his cultural identity. Ruth represents an initial break away from Bengali culture; Maxine represents
The movie reflects lots of culture shocks between West and East countries. These culture shocks all because people have diverse norms, attitudes and behaviors. Indian do not eat beef as cow is sacred in India. In Indian, the slaughter of cows is illegal. For example, Tod can not be brought Cheese burger with money. Cow is threated sacred and thus beef is not eaten. Meanwhile, we can see that America and India have different attitude in marriage. In America, people has freedom to choose their way to live and love is basis of marriage. In India, get marriage without love is usual. For