As someone who has never been to India or experienced Indian culture, I found this film to be an interesting interpretation of an immigrant coming to the U.S. One moment in particular that struck me was when Ashima goes to eat her first meal at her new home. She has no idea what a proper breakfast is, so she combines cereal, peanuts and chili powder. I find this to be a great representation of how lost and confused she really is in regards to American culture. She has no idea what the customs are and what typical foods are customary to eat.
Cereal is shown again later in the film, when Gogol tells his parents that he would like to change his name. The family is sitting in the kitchen eating Rice Krispies. While this may seem insignificant, it shows how different the children are from their mother. They are Americanized and know the culture and customs.
Overall, I enjoyed the film more than The Joy Luck Club because it was not fragmented. The format of the narrative allowed for a continuous, albeit long, story. It allowed for the characters to develop more and the story to have more depth.
Being a first generation Indian American I found the film did a rather good job portraying assimilation and the culture gap in immigrant families. Gogol is raised in America and doesn't resonate with all the Bengali traditions and values. It is interesting that Gogol sheds the stereotypical "model minority" image that his Asian parents portray. His father works at a university and is educated and although Gogol continues the stereotype that Indians are smart by going to Yale, there is a scene where he doing drugs and behaving as a typical American teenager. The fact that he was under the influence of marijuana while meeting his parents guests really shows the difference between the two generations and cultures. The daughter of the guests served as Gogol's polar opposite because she appeared more stuck up, educated, and conservative. This could also serve to show the difference between first generation children that grow up in London retain more of their culture than those that grow up in America. Another instance in which I felt there was a disconnection between Gogol and his parents is when his father gave him the book as a graduation gift and tried communicating why Gogol was named after his favorite author. Gogol seemed uninterested and did not pick up on how important this conversation was to his father. That scene reminded me of the Joy Luck Club and how difficult communication was. Overall I enjoyed the film and its portrayal of South Asian immigrants.
I found myself loving this film after watching it; I really enjoyed watching how the family adjusted to living in another country and the faith Ashima and her husband had in their culture. The film showcases the difficulties Ashima went through while trying to adapt to the American culture, while still trying to preserve her own culture through her American born children. Director Mira Nair also does a good job in following the actuality of Indo-American immigration and what comes with moving to the U.S., such as the geographic region in which South Asians resided in or how most Indian names are converted to short American names to accommodate the culture in the U.S. I especially liked how Nair showed the gap between immigrant parents and their Indo American children who were born and raised in the U.S. I feel like I could relate to the movie a lot because I am too a second generation Asian American and growing up it was difficult to figure out where I really fit in. Up to this day it is hard but I am proud to say I embrace both cultures in my everyday life. I also noticed that as the film went on the family moved to several houses and neighborhoods all much more luxurious then the previous. I believe all these scenes were trying to show how Ashokda really embraced the idea about America and a better future based on what his train passenger friend said “travel the world, you will never regret it”.
The film had a lot of similarities with The Joy luck Club. There were conflicts between foreign born parents and american born children and many conflicts between two cultures just like in the joy luck club. However, one of the criticisms of The Joy Luck Club was suddenly finding the identity that is not really know. I feel like the same kind of situation happened When Gogol's father passed away. Gogol was all of sudden able to understand everything and find his "true" identity. I think it was more of on entertainment purpose that created more dramatic effects. In my honest opinion, it is pretty unrealistic in real life. Other than that I think the film portrays Gogol's struggles very well and I liked that how he said "he finally feels free" after everything that has happened.
Comments on the film, The Namesake: I thought that the film itself was pretty great. I think that Gogol's character embodies this notion of not understanding one's parents and wanting to create an identity for himself. Its interesting because "Gogol" isn't an Indian name, and this being a film about the immigrant-American experience, I was assuming that it would follow an archetypal set-up of Gogol having an Indian name, rather than a Russian name. So, I was kind of confused about how his name came into play with the narrative of the film and the themes of this class. But then I realized, the name "Gogol" is symbolic and representative of Ashoke's journey to America and his willingness to "See the world."
Some things that I thought were interesting in the movie: -the presence of linguistic "code-switching:" the interchanging of English and Hindi(sorry if I'm incorrect on the language). This alluded to the global hegemonic power of English, and how important of a role it played in choosing a wife(for Ashoke's parents). Also, once they were in America, there were specific times/scenes when Ashoke and Ashima would use English/Hindi over the other. I thought it was interesting and symbolic that Gogol spoke more Hindi after his father's death. -Going off of that last point, I think that it was also interesting that Gogol shaved his head after his father's death. The film made it seem as if it was an Indian mourning ritual, though, I'm just making assumptions since that was going on while Ashima took off her bracelets and removed her body paint(again, sorry if I sound ignorant about this stuff, I don't know Indian culture very well).
Comments on the Brennan Article: Honestly, I thought that some of Brennan's proposals about the Namesake seemed hard to believe. Brennan made it sound as though the author of the novel, Jhumpa Lahiri, wrote it with the intentions of discretely indexing events from 9-11. For instance, the scene of the train-wreck, and the coincidence of Gogol's birth year being at the height of civil rights activism and productivity.. Of course, this is only my opinion, but I felt as though Brennan was constructing an argument that may not have been there. It would be very interesting to me, to hear Lahiri accept these claims.
Perhaps, I took Brennan as too literal.. If that is the case, then yes, I can see how the "racialized" themes of the novel can have parallels to the misconstrued racialization of South-Asians and Middle Easterners. The movie, certainly had some discreet themes of race. I thought that Gogol's friends, as well as his wife's friends had some "pretentiousness" to them. I was wondering if the director intended for that to be equated with their American identity, thus essentially saying that America=privelege and snootiness??
Overall, I enjoyed the movie very much. However, I did not agree with Brennan's arguments, and it was hard for me to understand the underlying thesis/argument.
5 comments:
As someone who has never been to India or experienced Indian culture, I found this film to be an interesting interpretation of an immigrant coming to the U.S. One moment in particular that struck me was when Ashima goes to eat her first meal at her new home. She has no idea what a proper breakfast is, so she combines cereal, peanuts and chili powder. I find this to be a great representation of how lost and confused she really is in regards to American culture. She has no idea what the customs are and what typical foods are customary to eat.
Cereal is shown again later in the film, when Gogol tells his parents that he would like to change his name. The family is sitting in the kitchen eating Rice Krispies. While this may seem insignificant, it shows how different the children are from their mother. They are Americanized and know the culture and customs.
Overall, I enjoyed the film more than The Joy Luck Club because it was not fragmented. The format of the narrative allowed for a continuous, albeit long, story. It allowed for the characters to develop more and the story to have more depth.
Being a first generation Indian American I found the film did a rather good job portraying assimilation and the culture gap in immigrant families. Gogol is raised in America and doesn't resonate with all the Bengali traditions and values. It is interesting that Gogol sheds the stereotypical "model minority" image that his Asian parents portray. His father works at a university and is educated and although Gogol continues the stereotype that Indians are smart by going to Yale, there is a scene where he doing drugs and behaving as a typical American teenager. The fact that he was under the influence of marijuana while meeting his parents guests really shows the difference between the two generations and cultures. The daughter of the guests served as Gogol's polar opposite because she appeared more stuck up, educated, and conservative. This could also serve to show the difference between first generation children that grow up in London retain more of their culture than those that grow up in America. Another instance in which I felt there was a disconnection between Gogol and his parents is when his father gave him the book as a graduation gift and tried communicating why Gogol was named after his favorite author. Gogol seemed uninterested and did not pick up on how important this conversation was to his father. That scene reminded me of the Joy Luck Club and how difficult communication was. Overall I enjoyed the film and its portrayal of South Asian immigrants.
I found myself loving this film after watching it; I really enjoyed watching how the family adjusted to living in another country and the faith Ashima and her husband had in their culture. The film showcases the difficulties Ashima went through while trying to adapt to the American culture, while still trying to preserve her own culture through her American born children. Director Mira Nair also does a good job in following the actuality of Indo-American immigration and what comes with moving to the U.S., such as the geographic region in which South Asians resided in or how most Indian names are converted to short American names to accommodate the culture in the U.S. I especially liked how Nair showed the gap between immigrant parents and their Indo American children who were born and raised in the U.S. I feel like I could relate to the movie a lot because I am too a second generation Asian American and growing up it was difficult to figure out where I really fit in. Up to this day it is hard but I am proud to say I embrace both cultures in my everyday life. I also noticed that as the film went on the family moved to several houses and neighborhoods all much more luxurious then the previous. I believe all these scenes were trying to show how Ashokda really embraced the idea about America and a better future based on what his train passenger friend said “travel the world, you will never regret it”.
The film had a lot of similarities with The Joy luck Club. There were conflicts between foreign born parents and american born children and many conflicts between two cultures just like in the joy luck club. However, one of the criticisms of The Joy Luck Club was suddenly finding the identity that is not really know. I feel like the same kind of situation happened When Gogol's father passed away. Gogol was all of sudden able to understand everything and find his "true" identity. I think it was more of on entertainment purpose that created more dramatic effects. In my honest opinion, it is pretty unrealistic in real life. Other than that I think the film portrays Gogol's struggles very well and I liked that how he said "he finally feels free" after everything that has happened.
Comments on the film, The Namesake:
I thought that the film itself was pretty great. I think that Gogol's character embodies this notion of not understanding one's parents and wanting to create an identity for himself. Its interesting because "Gogol" isn't an Indian name, and this being a film about the immigrant-American experience, I was assuming that it would follow an archetypal set-up of Gogol having an Indian name, rather than a Russian name. So, I was kind of confused about how his name came into play with the narrative of the film and the themes of this class. But then I realized, the name "Gogol" is symbolic and representative of Ashoke's journey to America and his willingness to "See the world."
Some things that I thought were interesting in the movie:
-the presence of linguistic "code-switching:" the interchanging of English and Hindi(sorry if I'm incorrect on the language). This alluded to the global hegemonic power of English, and how important of a role it played in choosing a wife(for Ashoke's parents). Also, once they were in America, there were specific times/scenes when Ashoke and Ashima would use English/Hindi over the other. I thought it was interesting and symbolic that Gogol spoke more Hindi after his father's death.
-Going off of that last point, I think that it was also interesting that Gogol shaved his head after his father's death. The film made it seem as if it was an Indian mourning ritual, though, I'm just making assumptions since that was going on while Ashima took off her bracelets and removed her body paint(again, sorry if I sound ignorant about this stuff, I don't know Indian culture very well).
Comments on the Brennan Article:
Honestly, I thought that some of Brennan's proposals about the Namesake seemed hard to believe. Brennan made it sound as though the author of the novel, Jhumpa Lahiri, wrote it with the intentions of discretely indexing events from 9-11. For instance, the scene of the train-wreck, and the coincidence of Gogol's birth year being at the height of civil rights activism and productivity.. Of course, this is only my opinion, but I felt as though Brennan was constructing an argument that may not have been there. It would be very interesting to me, to hear Lahiri accept these claims.
Perhaps, I took Brennan as too literal.. If that is the case, then yes, I can see how the "racialized" themes of the novel can have parallels to the misconstrued racialization of South-Asians and Middle Easterners. The movie, certainly had some discreet themes of race. I thought that Gogol's friends, as well as his wife's friends had some "pretentiousness" to them. I was wondering if the director intended for that to be equated with their American identity, thus essentially saying that America=privelege and snootiness??
Overall, I enjoyed the movie very much. However, I did not agree with Brennan's arguments, and it was hard for me to understand the underlying thesis/argument.
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