Namesake

Namesake was an interesting film, and a good conclusion to the class. I liked how it had a somewhat positive ending. I found it interesting to look into Indian culture and the struggles of assimilation into America.

I thought that the struggle of Gogol to find his identity in his name was interesting. The emphasis on naming seemed more significant than in our culture today. His parents mentioned relatives who had not been named for several years. The CRT concept of identity was clearly expressed with Gogol's struggle to search for meaning in both his culture and his name. I also saw double consciousness in the film, in Gogol's Indian and American cultures. Eventually, he learns to embrace his Indian family when he accepts the book his father gave him by Gogol. However, America is his home, and he lives and grows there.

Namesake

The film Namesake showed us what it was like for some of the South Asian Immigrants in America. One of the main themes of the movie and SAA literature is identity. “Asian-Indian Americans have been trying to define who they are in their adopted society” (Takaki 446). Throughout the movie we see Gogol struggling with his Identity. Growing up in America, Gogol and his sister face racism and are exposed to American culture. I think assimilation to American culture plays a huge factor in the Identity crisis Gogol faces. Gogol is ashamed of his name. He changes his name and doesn’t enjoy bringing it up. When Gogol’s wife tells her friends about his name change, he becomes very defensive about it. This shows that Gogol may not be so comfortable with his Indian American heritage.

This Identity crisis can also be seen by Ashima as she struggles with the idea of her kids growing up American. She says, “I want to go home. I don’t want to raise Gogol in this lonely country” (Namesake). She struggles must get used to being on her own. In India, it is very common for many people to be around at all times. In the literature Mrs. Sen’s it talks about Mrs. Sen could scream in India and have everyone in earshot coming down to help her. She feels that America is a very lonely place. This can be compared to Ashima’s experience in the movie.

Overall, the movie Namesake portrayed common themes we learned in this class. It showed how immigrants and their children take to America. It shows how immigrants and their children can have such a huge generational gap. It shows how culture can be lost through generations.

Namesake -Jacob Butler

The Namesake illustrates the concept that Takaki addresses on page 314 of Americanization.  The children spoke “Hindustani” at home, like Gogol, but then learned in American schools, and Gogol was doing attending Yale, an American school. (Takaki 314).  In the scene where Gogol is dancing to his American rock music, his dad comes in to talk to him.  The difference between the generations becomes very clear.  Gogol seems to not listen to his father just saying ”he was your favorite author” so Ashoke would leave.  While Ashoke is trying to have a personal moment with him, he doesn’t seem to care about the value of his name like his father does.  

The Critical Race Theory tenant we see is the dominant society will always establish a establish a system of segregation or oppression.  In the classroom, the teacher mentions “Nikolai Gogol”, and the class starts to make fun of Gogol.  They call him “Goggles” and start pushing jokes at him.  This is similar to some of the harassment that many Chinese Americans had received during the communist takeover of China.  They were looked as “one of the enemy” when they had done nothing wrong (Takaki 415).  Neither Gogol nor the Chinese Americans had done anything wrong, but they are still harassed due to nothing but their culture.

Similar to the film Eat a Bowl of Tea, marriage is a very important focus.  Gogol’s mom tries to set him up with women like Moushumi to make him get married.  She even says “when I was your age I was already married”.  In Eat a Bowl of Tea, marriage is so important to Ben’s family that he goes to China to get married.  

The story “The Land of the Free” follows the life of a Chinese family that has their child taken away.  They eventually find him but he wants them to “go’way” because he doesn’t recognize his mother (Far 146). This rejection of family is seen in The Namesake.  Gogol leaves his family and joins Maxine's family.  Much like how the child had assimilated to white culture, Gogol had joined a white family.  

Blog 7

Over the course of this class I definitely broadened my knowledge of Asian American history.  Learning about the immigration and experiences these Asian Americans faced really opened my eyes. I had no idea how much influence Asian Americans actually had in America. One piece of literature I will remember was not an assigned piece but it was actually the film The Color of Fear. It was really cool to watch an open, unfiltered discussion on the topic of racism. It allowed me to see the consequences of racism and discrimination on past and present society. Typically, racism is a topic people tend to steer clear of. One quote from the film about racism goes, “talking about it helps, it loses its mystery, its power” (The Color of Fear).

While each group has their own experiences and unique journey, much of the hardships they faced in America can be comparable. They faced trouble with jobs, land, people, laws, and receiving credit for their accomplishments. “Many existing history books give Asian Americans only passing notice or overlook them altogether… ‘One is often led to believe that all our forbearers came from Europe’” (Takaki 6). Much of our ideas are shaped by what we learn in school. If the history books leave out that part of our history, we are taught to think it was not as important as what is written down in the book.

Taking this class definitely changes the way I think about American History. It has given me a greater respect for these Asian immigrants as well as an interest in my ancestral History.  

The Namesake

As we watched The Namesake in class today, it struck me how different the first-generation and second-generation groups of Asian Indian Americans were. After Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli immigrate to America and start a family, their son Gogol grows up trapped between two worlds: the culture of his parents and his family, and the culture of modern-day America. One thing that Gogol really struggled with in particular was his own name. Until his father revealed to him the true reason for why he was named the way he was, Gogol was relatively nihilistic toward his family, and wanted to get away from Indian culture. The culmination of his attempts to break free from his family was when he started dating Maxine, a Caucasian woman. During their relationship, Gogol would frequently find excuses to not be around his own family for extended periods of time; he basically assimilated into his girlfriend’s family. After the sudden death of his father, though, Gogol came to realize the importance of reconnecting with his family. He eventually broke up with Maxine, and then rekindled a relationship with a daughter of some family friends. They started dating, and even got married, but later divorced.

Gogol’s story is one of assimilation. Initially, when he was a small child, when he was asked what name he preferred – Nikhil or Gogol – he said he preferred Gogol. As he got older, though, he came to like “Nikhil” better, and even shortened it to the Americanized “Nick.” As soon as he came more in touch with his family, however, after the death of his father, he started to prefer “Gogol” again, showing his shift in preference of sticking to his family’s traditional Indian culture rather than conforming to the American way of life.

Namesake

This film showed great examples of assimilation in an Indian family. The parents were very traditional and wanted their son who changed his name to "nick" to marry another indian to withhold their family traditions. Nick was americanized though, he fell for a blonde girl and did not care what his parents though as he was happy. One thing that I noticed that was a big difference in generations was the fact that his parents never showed any affection at least not in public, no kissing, hugging or holding hands. This was made a point when he took his girlfriend to meet his family and he had to remind her not to do any of these things. I believe that Nick was so americanized that he didn't even understand why, his reasoning to her was just that he never seen his parents do it.

Blog 7

Throughout this class I have learned a lot about the immigration of not only the Asian American's but the Caucasian or "white folk" as well and how much more they were accepted in the process of trying to make America a "white" country. I had no idea of this before or the struggles that the Asian American's went through. Every piece of literature we went through gave us different angles and insights on the struggles and reasons for the Asian and the sub asian cultures coming to America. Every group had their own story for coming here and faced different treatment as they arrived. Some came chasing hopes and dreams while others came fleeing from a corrupt home.