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A Clash of Cultures: How The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrates isolation as a devastating force caused by cultures merging

Iggy Cossman

Iggy Cossman

Miss Wilson

AP Composition & Literature

2 October 2013

I have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.

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Iggy Cossman

Miss Wilson

AP English

27 September 2013

Part I: The Prose Passage Growing up is a difficult thing to do, especially when the culture youre growing up in at home is completely different from the culture everywhere else. What typically happens is a merging of old and new culture, and this is exactly what happens to the protagonist early on in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. In her novel, an Indian couple moves to America where they discover the traditions there are much different from the ones in India, and although they celebrate some American traditions such as Thanksgiving and Xmas, they still decide to keep certain Indian traditions alive. It is through the descriptions of these events that Lahiri gives life to her unique protagonist, Gogol. Paying close attention to two separate cultures, and switching between different points of view, Lahiri shows in one early passage, how isolation is often an unexpected second result of merging cultures.

Of all the traditions that take place throughout the novel, from worldly celebrations such as celebrations, to specifically American holidays such as Thanksgiving, there is one that stands out among all the others; Gogols rice ceremony, known as annaprasan. This is the very first India n tradition that is described in detail in the novel, and foreshadows Gogols character for the rest of the novel. While detailing this event, Lahiri makes careful note of what makes this rice ceremony

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different from a typical one, They ask Dilip Nandi to play the part of Ashima s brother, (Lahiri 39), whereas in a traditional Bengali annaprasan, it is a very formal ceremony where only family members attend, in the US, Ashima and her husband Ashoke invite the closest family they have, the other Indian couples who live nearby and their apartments one story above them. Yet, it is important to note how serious Ashima takes this formal Indian event turned into a casual American party, even, [regretting] that the plate on which the rice is heaped is melamine, not silver or brass or at the very least stainless-steel, (Lahiri 39), if this event were truly a casual American party, the type of plates would not matter, but given the culture she was raised in, Ashima pays careful attention to each detail and aspect of the rice ceremony, combining Indian food and American camaraderie into a big group communion, which although brings her and Ashoke closer together to their new friends, it intimidates the young Gogol, who knows few of the faces present and is forced at six months to confront his destiny, (Lahiri 40), and fails to choose any of his options available. This single decision that Lahiri includes in the text shows how Gogol is unable to connect to both his American life and his Indian tradition, and this inability sets the tone for the rest of the novel, where with each step in his life s journey, Gogol embraces the American portion too headstrongly, and ignores completely the Indian heritage he is expected to respect and abide by.

It is known that Gogol embraces his American side and ignores his heritage and that Ashima embraces both because both their perspectives are presented throughout the novel, even at the rice ceremony, where Gogol is only six months old. While not given in the first personperspective, the mood of each perspective sets the characters tone for the passage, which as a result, shows both Ashimas ecstatic and sad reaction to the rice ceremony and Gogols apprehensiveness to it. Ashima is described to be wearing a, silvery sari, a wedding gift worn

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for the first time, (Lahiri 39), and is later shown to have, [her] eyes fill with tears as Gogols mouth eagerly invites the spoon. She cant help wishing her own brother were here to feed him, (Lahiri 40), so while Ashima is wearing a momentous and no doubt expensive gift to such an important occasion, she regrets that it is her new American friends who are here and not her family. Proud to be embracing the American culture stride but longing her old life, Ashima understands that the life she gave up in exchange for her new one is best for her son, who unfortunately, is far too young to understand this, and instead, begins to cry (Lahiri 40), into his honorary uncles shoulder. Although young, the actions of Gogol show how alone in his personal world. He is forced to accept a new life in America, bringing with him his parents old life. Shown later in the novel, Gogol hates almost everything about his parents Indian life, and in turn, his, and wishes to only cooperate with his American one, because after all, he was born and raised in America, not Calcutta, not India, and sees no point in having to accept something that he was never a part of it. The rice ceremony is where this is first shown, having Gogol eagerly take part in the consumption of food, like a true American, and then when it comes to having to make an actual decision, Gogol hesitates and does not make a decision, an action that foreshadows all of Gogols actions throughout the novel, hesitating and ultimately taking either the easy way out, or making the choice that will most upset his parents, only coming to terms with reality after his father passes way far into the story. A man who feels isolated and separated between two worlds, Gogol is a symbol of confusion and separation, showing that being forced into a clash of two cultures can have devastating effects on a person.

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Iggy Cossman

Miss Wilson

AP English Lit. Comp.

30 October 2013

Part II: Mise En Scene Growing up in a new place is always a hard thing to do, but it s a lot harder when youre the first child to do so. The first child is always the one who the parents make all the mistakes with, the one who gets to achieve all their milestones in life first, but only after going through excruciating trails to do so. Gogol, the protagonist in The Namesake film is well aware of this, and this can be observed in the scene involving his younger sisters rice ceremony, where the director effectively uses camera angles, diegetic sounds, and body movements to express Gogol s loneliness he feels in his home and the shadow he feels he is in of his sister. Having held a comparatively horrible rice ceremony for Gogol, his parents try to hold a perfect one for his sister Sonia, which makes Gogol feel all the more left behind. Opening up the frame with a close-up shot of Gogols face behind a glass door, the director sets the mood for the scene; Gogol may be the protagonist but he will not be taking the center spotlight in this scene. Next, the scene switches between medium-shots between Gogol and his parents/relatives, with each subsequent shot of Gogol moving slightly farther away from the camera, with it finally moving to him hiding away from the camera in one shot, only to be discovered by one of his familys friends, pretending to sleep under the bed. Now no one likes to

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be in someone elses shadow, and the director is able to successfully show how a typical small child would react to a situation like this. Feeling more and more and distant as the celebration comes to its climatic grand finale, the camera pans farther and farther away from Gogol to reflect this feeling of loneliness and zooms closer and closer on Sonias character once she comes into view, finally ending the scene with a high angle shot of both at the party, with Sonia being loud and rambunctious and Gogol with a shy smile Both of these actions help to foreshadow both Gogols and Sonias parallel characters throughout the entirety of the story, and this scene is able to portray both their separate attributes of the characters not only with the camera angles it uses but the sounds it encompasses into it. With Gogols distorted face hiding being the glass door, we hear his mother call out to him, Gogol! Gogol where are you?, Upon hearing this Gogol, runs towards his mothers voice, only to stop at a corner, and peer around into the room she s in. From here, the camera angles help show Gogol eavesdropping onto his mothers conversations with her friends, Poor child, hes probably feeling very left out because of his sister s naming ceremony, after hearing this, Gogol runs away to his room and hides under his bed, away from all the sounds of the ongoing ceremony, until someone comes in search of him and takes him down to the ceremony, where a faint, I dont like the baby, is heard coming from the young Gogol, followed by a successful conch blowing, which no one was able to do at his ceremony and a familiar voice shouting Grab the dollar! An American girl must be rich! All these noises are sounds that Gogol remember from his rice ceremony a few years before, and they all do anything but help him feel like he was not the infamous mistakes child of the family that every first child feels, and although the scene ends with Gogol smiling at his sister at the end of the ceremony, the lack of any music or other non-diegetic sounds makes the scene feel so empty in true happy feelings.

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Seen, in the familys body movement throughout the scene, the way they speak does not necessarily reflect the way they are acting. Gogol is quiet and reclusive with only one line in the scene, while his mother spends the entire scene talking with her friends, but stills maintains her distance away from all of them throughout it. Given the lack of music, the body language is where much of the characters emotions can be seen, and while Ashima may talk in a friendly manner to everyone, she appears to always maintain a foot of distance from everyone, not even going near any of her household members and watching Sonia s rice ceremony from a corner, much like Gogol did when he eavesdropped on his mothers conversations.

While they manage to hold a successful rice ceremony for their daughter Sonia, the director manages to help show that Gogol is not the only one who feels left out at the ceremony. Using parallels in the camera angles, sounds, and body language of the character, they still show that all the characters feel isolated. Gogol, suffering from being the older, mistake child, and his mother, staying distant from everyone else, never having fully integrated to the American culture without missing her family back home constantly. The only difference is Sonia, who grew up in a place that parents and brother had grown to be familiar with, and as a result, never felt out of place. Having a scene that is woven so flawlessly together helps portray the characters loneliness that can be seen in all stages of life, whether young or old.

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Iggy Cossman

Miss Wilson

AP English Lit. & Comp.

1 October 2013

Part III: Comparison/Contrast Essay America is not called a melting pot of cultures for no reason. It is home to the most diverse range of people from places like Los Angeles in the Southwest to New York City in the Northeast and everywhere in between. However, in both The Namesake book and film, a story is told about what happens when this unique, modern American culture clashes with an old, traditional Indian culture and the results of this clash. While both the book and film show how isolation can truly change and devastate a persons character, the two different mediums show the isolation from two different perspectives: the book showing a personal viewpoint looking internally at the issue, and the film looking at it externally. The scenes where these mediums portray this idea most strongly is during the rice ceremonies of both Gogol and his sister, Sonia. Through the use of different mediums, the book and the film show how isolation can both be devastating on an internal and external level but through the parallel structure of story they follow, it shows that both levels of isolation are equally painful to a character, and while mediums may be different in many aspects, they can all equally represent a message as powerfully as another one.

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The book is one of the oldest mediums of art in the world, only being surpassed by oral storytelling and drawing, and The Namesake is proof that it is still a medium being well-used to this day, having won a Pulitzer Prize for its masterfully written story by author Jhumpa Lahiri, and Gogols and Sonias rice ceremonies were two of the strongest scenes in the book, of which only Sonias ceremony was included in the film version of The Namesake, however, the two separate scenes still include a lot of similarities between them. Of the similarities, the sounds are the ones that make the most resonant ring on the audience. During Gogol s rice ceremony, the sounds are described in various details, with a conch shell being, repeatedly tapped and passed around, but no one in the room is able to get it to emit a sound, (Lahiri 40), and a man shouting, An American boy must be rich! (Lahiri 40), these are both sounds that although described to us in the book for Gogols rice ceremony, are heard in the movie at the scene for Sonia s rice ceremony. In comparison to the film though, Gogol acted much more mature at his sisters rice ceremony than she did. In the novel, Sonia, Refuses all food. She plays with the dirtand threatens to put the dollar bill in her mouth, (Lahiri 63), showing Gogol acting as a mature little boy and Sonia as a rowdy child, whereas in the movie, Gogol runs away and hides under his bed and Sonia is the life of her party. The reason for this being, the film attempted to emphasize Gogols isolation in the two hours it had to tell his story compared to the book s nearly three hundred pages. While the film plays more on the more important attributes of the character, the book attempts to give detail around the characters actions and show why they act the way do. Gogols actions in the beginning of the novel are all a precursor to his selfish choices later on in the plot, whereas the film is determined to show the more dramatic scenes for the audience that show off more character given its short time spans, so as the film switches the characteristics of Gogol and Sonia in one scene to enhance character, the novel has a different feel to it, since

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Gogol and Sonia both share an equally important role in the novel, where Sonias role is very minor in the film. In The Namesake film, the movies plot revolves a lot more around Gogols life than the book did, and while Gogol is the protagonist in both, his family and lovers become much more minor characters in the film to help support his character development. However, the movie delves much deeper into Sonias character as a foil to Gogol to help show off the isolation he faces. Both the movie and novel make notice of Sonias name, Making her a citizen of the world, (Lahiri 62), and her personality help demonstrates this, with her being louder and more social than her older brother is, which is shown in her having a much larger rice ceremony than her brother ever had, and being the only one of the two to actually have her ceremony shown in the film. Where we dont see too much of Sonia after this in film compared to the novel helping Gogol through his divorce at Christmas and understanding his American-Indian culture clash Her being a foil to him is what separates the film from the novel. In the book, most of the characters act as symbols to themes in the story, in comparison to the film, where most of the characters act as foils to Gogol to help build up his role in the story.

Ultimately, the big similarity between the book and the film is the message they share about isolation being destructive to a character. While their approach is different, with the book relying more on symbolism, imagery, and the authors real-life experience and the film relying more on sound, camera angles, and body language to tell their story, there is no denying that both successfully got their message across to their audience, isolation is a destructive force and something as simple as growing up in a different culture can bring forth its nature. The rice ceremony is the biggest example of these different cultures, with both the causality of American

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celebrations and the formal intimacy of Indian traditions merging together to form an ugly bond for the two Ganguli children, especially Gogol. Although different mediums can tell the same story a hundred different ways, the impact they leave on the audience is of the most importance, and The Namesake shows its audience that while cultures merging can advance civilization, they can also isolate individuals from any one true identity, leaving them stuck between two worlds.