Is It Too Late?

So as we keep reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, we found out the Gogol s father Ashoke died. Gogol who has been practically neglecting his family for a while now, comes home. I guess it takes a death in the family for Gogol to finally visit. I believe Gogol feels bad for never visiting his family now that his father is gone. I don't think he realized how important he was to him until he was gone. Gogol at one point is reliving some of his past memories with his father. "Over the rise and the fall of the wind, he could hear his fathers laughter. He was standing there, waiting for Gogol to catch up, putting out a hand as Gogol drew near."Try to remember it always," he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. "Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go."" (Lahiri 187). Ashoke has always been there for Gogol and always loved him. Gogol just could never see that because he was to busy being mad at him for his name and the traditions his family lives by. Gogol probably wants to make up for lost time but he knows its too late. I believe the reason he calls up Moushumi Mazoomdar is because she is Bengali and he knows that his father would have liked that.

Whats Wrong with Gogol?

As I keep reading the The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, I learn that Gogol seriously hates his name. He questions why his parents would name him something so odd. "I don't get it. How come you guys name me after someone so strange? No one takes me seriously," (Lahiri 100). But the only person who didn't take the name Gogol, seriously, was himself. So Gogol decides to change his name because, well, he can. Even his father gives him permission and tells him,"In America anything is possible. Do as you wish."(100). Now Gogol is no longer Gogol. We can now refer to him as Nikhil. Later we read that Nikhil's father, Ashoke finally tells Nikhil about the story behind Gogol. "He tells Gogol the story of the train he'd ridden twenty-eight years ago, in October 1961, on his way to visit his grandfather in Jamshedpur. He tells him about the night that had nearly taken his life, and the book that had saved him, and about the year afterward, when he'd been unable to move."(123). So Gogol finds out that he wasn't just named after an Author, but an Author of a book that had saved his fathers life. Still confused and mad about the whole situation Gogol asks his father if he reminds him of that life. Ashoke replies," Not at all [...] You remind me of everything that followed. AW, well wasn't that sweet, Ashoke. I'm sure that Gogol is feeling pretty bad about changing his name now.

The Namesake: Ashoke

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a novel about a husband and wife who have just recently moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1968. At the start of the novel Ashima is going into labor with her husband, Ashokes child. In the first chapter we learn bits and pieces from Ashima and Ashokes past. A few years later Ashoke had been in a train accident where he almost died. A few hours before the accident, Ashoke met a man named Ghosh, who he had shared a compartment with on the train. Ghosh said to Ashoke "Do yourself a favor, before it's to late, without thinking to much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late" (Jhumpa 16).  After this the train crashes and Ashoke has a near death incident. You would think after this he would do what ever he could to see as much of the world. But he does the exact opposite. There is something holding him back from taking Ghoshs advice. I hope to find out more about Ashoke in the following chapters and finding out the reason he does the exact opposite of what Ghoshs says to do.

Notes from Underground:Consciousness

Notes from Underground is a book by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and it is about an "underground man" who we do not know much about. What we do know about him is his emotions and how he feels about himself and the world around him. The underground man describes himself as “overly conscious,” and because of this it makes him a more developed then other men. But he believes that because he is so overly conscious it holds him back from living his daily life. He thinks that if he went through life with more of a narrow mind then he could go about living his life day by day.The underground man also blames his consciousness on the fact that he can never make a direct move in his life. He say that normal men act immediately and do not think about what they are doing before they do it.
  The underground man says describes his overly consciousness as a "sickness" but also admits that he takes pride in having it. The underground man takes pleasure in his own pain. Even though he despises himself for who he is, he still thinks he is better and more worthy then people around him. Because of this him blames himself for everything around him and this only leads to him being more miserable of a person.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

There are many stereotypes and single stories about Africa and Christianity and its not that these are untrue, but they are incomplete. In his novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe strives to complete the story of Nigeria by telling stories of the Ibo people at the turn of the century.  Dargan Thomas in her article, “How valid are Christian Stereotypes?” tries to paint the full picture of  Christians and the single stories that people associate with Christianity. Achebe and Thomas complete their stories in different ways. Achebe does so by telling the story of Okonkwo and the Ibo people and Thomas through a magazine article which reveals the statistics of many of the stereotypical things associated with Christianity.

A single story about Africa that Achebe tries to complete is that everyone there is poor and in needs  help.  The main character in Achebe’s novel, Okonkwo reveals to us that not everyone in Africa is deprived, “Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife.”(Achebe 8)  Obviously there are parts of Africa that are poverty stricken but that is not true of the whole continent. One reason we think that the people of Africa are  so poor and in need of help is because of how the media portrays  and simplifies it as one place.  Many things about what we hear and read are true but we must remember   that it may be incomplete or a single story.

There are many stereotypes and single stories about the Christian faith but one that Dargan Thomas tries to complete is that all Christians are Republicans. “A 2008 Barna study found 51 percent of Republicans have spiritual beliefs that qualify them as “born again” Christians. Significantly fewer Democrats hold the same beliefs, but it’s still a pretty high amount: 38 percent.”(Thomas 2)  So about half of the Republicans have Christian beliefs but what people forget is that a little less then the 40 percent of the Democrats have those same Christian beliefs.  . So in the end it comes down to what the individual believes as most important and not a stereotype that the world has given them.

Another single story about Africa that Achebe strives to complete in his novel Things Fall Apart is that all Africans are uneducated. Okonkwo and the Ibo people may not be scientists and world renowned doctors but they can live on their own and they are smart enough to take care of themselves and their families.  The Ibo people are not able to just run to a store and buy their food; they have to grow it themselves. “Okonkwo spent the next few days preparing his seed-yams. He looked at each yam carefully to see whether it was good for sowing. Sometimes he decided that a yam was too big to be sown as one seed and the he split it deftly along its length with his sharp knife.” (Achebe 32) The process of farming takes a lot of skill and knowledge about the earth around them and how to use it correctly. This is a skill that many Americans who think Africans are so uneducated wouldn't even be able to know how to do and that is why Achebe tries to complete it in his novel.

Dargan Thomas also explains why the stereotype that “Christianity is only an American thing” is very off in her article.  “The U.S. still has the largest number of Christians of any country, with over 246 million people who identify as Christians—almost 80 percent of the U.S. population. But there are 2.18 billion Christians around the world. And only 11.3 percent of those live in the U.S.”(Thomas 1) Evidently there are many Christians in America but in the whole world they only make up about 11 % of the believers. Percentage wise there are also many other countries that have a much higher rate of Christianity then the U.S.

 There are many single stories about Africa and the Christian faith that the world hears about but they forgot that these stories are incomplete.  Achebe and Thomas both try to complete these stories in their texts “Things Fall Apart,” and “How valid are Christian stereotypes.” Achebe through the story of Okonkwo and the Ibo people, and Thomas in her magazine article. When looking at a place or a faith or anything that could define a person or community it is important to know everything about them and not just assume with the stereotypes that people hear about.  

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Things Fall Apart

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe whenever somebody does something wrong it always affects the people closest to them. An example of this, is in chapter thirteen when Ezeudu dies. In this chapter Okonkwo accidentally shoots Ezeudo sixteen year old son. "Guns fired and the last salute and the cannon rent the sky. And then from the center of the delirious fury came a cry of agony and shouts of horror. It was as if a spell had been cast. All was silent. In the center of the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was the dead mans sixteen year old son,"(Achebe 124). Since his son was a clansmen, Okonkwo had to flee from his clan. But not only did Okonkwo have to flee the land but also his wives and children had to leave too. This was all because of an accidental shooting. This shows us that as a whole the family system is more collective because if one person does something wrong then everyone in the family must suffer. Also in this chapters Obierika remembers his wife's twin children who he had to throw away. "He remembered his wife's twin children, whom he had thrown away. What crime had they committed? The earth had decreed that they were an offense on the land and must be destroyed." (125). Because  these twins were thought to be offensive the whole family had to suffer even though there was no crime committed.

Sally Kohn: Let’s try emotional correctness

In this TED talk, Sally Kohn talks about being emotional correctness. Now we always hear people saying that ideas are politically correct but sometimes its not what they say, but how they say it. The way that we say things can truly affect how our words are taken in. Even when I was a little my parents would tell me to apologize to my brother for being mean and I would stand there, with my hand on my hip, rolling my eyes saying sorry in the most sassy way possible. My parents would tell me that the way I was saying sorry was not acceptable and I had to come back when i had a real apology. Now obviously I technically was saying sorry but my words didn't mean anything because they had not sincerity in them at all. Just like Sally Kohn, what my parents is saying is that our words are meaningless and can be portrayed in the wrong way if we do not use them in the correct way. Emotional correctness is is being respectful of every ones views even if you don't believe in what they are saying. If people were to start talking through there disagreements then maybe they can find common ground and this is the first step to change.