Cultural Collision In The Namesake

Obviously Ashima and Ashoke also faced lots of problems when they first lived in a new country; they were forced to leave their “comfort zone”. They spoke a different language, grew up with Indian tradition, and even had to raise a child. They did not have any friends, not to say the economic base to provide the best resources for the whole family. Their foremost goal was to adapt to the new environment and become a real part of their community. But being out of their comfort zone is the crucial step that they must not skip. They have to be confident to make new friends, speak the language that they have not even get used to yet, and “abandon” the tradition in their hometown. Life is like a cliff, and only those who have guts and faith can climb up to the peak of the mountain to see the twilight. They had to try to understand, communicate and even to compromise with each other, and after Gogol's birth, they soon were inundated with daily work. It also has some similarity with my Gateway scholar life at Brandeis.

Her voice is described as “brittle with sorrows, as tart as curds, and shrill enough to grate meat from a coconut”, and with her raspy voice, she would describe “...the details of her plight and losses suffered since her deportation to Calcutta after Partition” (70). Fortunately, Boori Ma chronicles the easier times in her life, by describing her past life experiences to the members of the building. As her neighbors gather around her, Boori Ma narrates some of the highs of her life, such as the marriage of her third daughter or her account on how she crossed the East Bengal border. Many of the neighbors have doubts to Boori Ma’s litanies, as most of it seems exaggerated but Boori Ma simply says after each story, “Believe me, don’t believe me, such comforts you cannot even dream them” (71). Despite whether there is any truth to her stories, readers may have an allure to Boori Ma as a character because she chooses to find happiness and counteract her hardships through storytelling. Not only that, she chooses to change some of the elements of her tales, which make it seem as though Boori Ma chooses to alter the stories to feel better about her own

Well culture is very powerful,it affects our living standards and how we view the world . Our surroundings that we grew up with such as family, is the source on why we adapt beliefs ,languages ,food,aesthetics and ethnicity.In the novel,”Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, shows the conflict between a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother forces her daughter into activities so she can have an American dream.In the short story,”By Any Other Name”by Santha Ramu Rau refutes that two girls name shouldn’t matter and ethnicity shouldn’t be the reason why people should mistreat them. Bharati Mukherjee’s personal essay,”Two ways to belong in America “ is about two sisters

She explains her thesis by stating “Others who write stories of migration often talk of arrival at a new place as a loss of communal memory and the erosion of an original culture. I want to talk of arrival as a gain,” (360). The key points of the text include Mukherjee describing her transition between Calcutta and the United States, and what it means to be and American and how culture influences that aspect. The information in the text is significant; the people of America are a part of a melting pot, sometimes it is hard for them to find the distinction between American culture and their own. The information in Mukherjee’s story is clear and specific, unbiased, and is relevant to the purpose of the story. I believe Mukherjee has achieved her purpose of informing her audience about cultural differences; she presents certain strengths and weaknesses within the text.

Forming a new identity in a foreign country is not an easy task. Immigrants usually face challenges to identify themselves. Identity formation is the development of one’s distinctive personality due to particular reasons such as new environment, new culture and conflicts. During the process, some characters from Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake either create or deny the bond with their own culture; some undergo conflicts among generations. Those processes reflect significantly in Ashima and Gogol throughout the book. The degree of assimilations determines to what extent the characters have formed the new identity in the new culture.

As Ashoke settled in the United States with his new wife, Ashima, as first-generation immigrants and started their own family, Ashoke insisted to her wife the life that America can offer to their children, from sufficient education and multiple possibility of a better future than a life in India. Ashoke’s principle towards life proves the conceptualized idea of America’s supremacy in different sociocultural aspects that again places the Asian Americans in the margin of the culture paradigm. Racism is another portion of the marginalization that is displayed in Nair’s film. A scene from the movie exhibits the perception of some Americans

People have different views on different things. For example, culture; people think many things about different cultures like “What culture are they from?”, or “Where did they come from?” Culture is expressed in ways such as, clothing, language, religion, family values/beliefs, holidays and much more. One’s culture greatly influences the way people see them and the world. In “By Any Other Name”, the school headmistress already makes the girls; Premilla and Santha feel different by giving them different names… “Oh, my dears, those are much too hard for me. Suppose we give you pretty English names (Rau 44)”. Just because those names were too hard to pronounce, the headmistress changed the girls name to somethings else which affected the girls greatly. Culture consistently influences the way one views another and the world as conveyed in these stories, “An Indian father’s plea”, “Multiculturalism Explained in One Word: HAPA”, and “By any other name”.

Culture collision is not something that you hear about everyday. Culture collision is the clash of cultures or values. This can be triggered by many things and the way we react to it is due to our personality. When this does occur it can impact our lives in such a great way. It can have an affect on who we are and what we stand for. In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe we take a look at the character Okonkwo and see how he is affect by his Culture collision and see that his personality is the the factor in the way he reacts to it.

In the story By any other name by Santha Rama Rau, Santha and her sister, Premila, move to a different school that changes them in ways that affect their culture. In the beginning, the headmistress says, “Suppose we give you pretty English names (35).” This creates the beginning of how the American culture is affecting Santha and Premila by changing their Indian names because it is too hard for everyone else to pronounce. The sisters are also starting to question their lunch: “Premila and I were the only ones who had Indian food (37).” This explains how their culture is conflicting with everyone else’s and how they are viewing themselves as different. Throughout these two quotes, it shows how both cultures, people from the school and Santha and Premila’s, are conflicting and changing one another while they are viewing each other differently.

they don't get along, and they work together.They would take advantage of each to get what they want.Also when cultures collide people sometimes wouldn't get along with each other.

The main character is a girl named Usha, who was young when she moved to the United States. She grew up abiding to Bengali culture and lifestyle in Massachusetts. As she gradually matures to an adult and her own person, it's shown that Usha struggles to find a balance between the American culture that she's surrounded by and the Bengali culture that fits the mold of her family.

There is a Mexican man that enters with the rest of his family. They eat beans, rice, flour tortillas and etc. The family does there every day routine, the dad wakes up at six- thirty to go to work in his truck. The children go to school and the mother stays at home. The things a person does in their all has a reason which goes all back to culture. Culture is what makes up everyone different from one another. Texts such as “What is Cultural Identity?”, “Where Worlds Collide” and “Two ways to Belong” supports that depending on one’s culture it effects one perspective on the world and others.

At the start of the film, Ashoke and Ashima leave India for America and their life together begins. The move from the big city of Calcutta to the big city of New York is much lonelier because they have no family nearby and the land is unfamiliar. The climate is also different, it is winter time and the weather is cold. Ashima is learning very quickly that the living conditions are different. Ashoke explains to her that they have gas twenty-four hours a day, and the difference between hot and cold water symbols. Also there was no need for her to boil the water for drinking; she could just drink straight from the tap. Life in America is different and at times lonely, however Ashoke believes it’s the land of opportunity.

Culture builds up and shapes how people view the world and the people in it. It determines how we judge and view the way others act, look, and even how they think. In the texts “Where worlds collide”, “An Indian Father’s Plea”, and “Two Kinds”, it is shown that a person’s views of others and the world are solely determined by their culture.

This book depicts the national and cultural status of the immigrant mother, who is able to preserve the traditions of her Indian heritage that connect her to her homeland. Ensuring a successful future for her American-born children is coordinated with the privilege of being an American citizen. Ashima yearns for her homeland and her family that she left behind when