Keep On Dreaming

Throughout this semester we read books that all have a recurring theme of dreams. In some books the dreams were achieved and fulfilled to an unbelievable extent, and others were crushed and broken. Some of the dreams of the characters would have been better off left alone, while others would have learned nothing if their dreams were not sought after. Other dreams were given up on too quickly. Throughout life everyone experiences different goals and dreams that they wish would come true or that they could make happen, but some don’t have the strength to push on, or they give up too quickly, they’re chasing the wrong dream in the wrong way, or they just don’t dream enough. The books that we’ve read this semester all give prime examples of the importance of dreaming and setting goals for your life, and knowing which ones to chase and which ones to let go.

In War Trash, Yuan had the goal of getting back to his mother and fiancé. He was willing to do whatever it took in order to make it back to them alive. His dedication to those people that he loved was inspiring and showed how much his dreams meant to him. Without believing that his family would be there when he got back he would have been so lost throughout the war and would have had little to no hope and no reason to go back to China. Yuan knew that going back to China could mean his death or a low social standing for the rest of his life: “You all know the Communists’ discipline and understand what will happen to you as a returned POW. If you still mean to repatriate, you must prepare to go through denunciations, corporal punishment, prison terms, and executions once you’re back in our homeland. Even if the Communists let you remain alive, I can assure you that you will be the dregs of their society for the rest of your lives” (pg 103). Even with this knowledge of the Communists, he still dreamt of getting home to his family. Yuan’s story exemplifies someone who is willing to go to the greatest extent in order to see his dreams come true. His life inspires that even if people are telling you it’s the wrong decision, sometimes it’s the best decision for you and that you should still chase after your dreams.

Bread Givers gave the perspective of a poor immigrant family to the United States who had dreams to life out the American dream. The four daughters each had dreams of escaping their father someday, getting married and living lives of their own. But when the three older sisters had their chances at true love and a happy future, they all gave up their dreams to succumb to their overbearing father’s wishes. They gave up their futures in order to make their father happy. Sara, the youngest child, was the only one who was strong enough to follow her dreams to “become a person among people” and get out from under her father’s strong fist. She had the dream of becoming a school teacher and making a living and making a home in a clean room as opposed to the dirty place she grew up in. After she got out of her father’s house and earned enough money to go to college she exclaimed: “Like a dream was the whole nights’ journey. And like a dream mounting on a dream was this college town, this New America of culture and education” (pg. 210). The only America she had seen before that was the dirty streets and poor people striving to make a living. But in that college town she saw just what she was pining after for so long, she saw it and she grabbed it all. She took every dream she ever had and made it into reality.

In Mario Puzo’s The Fortunate Pilgrim, there are more unfulfilled dreams than dreams that were achieved. Lucia Santa dreamt of a good, fulfilling life, when she made the journey from Italy to America. She dreamt of enough food to sustain a family with and a loving husband to support her and her children. Unfortunately those dreams were crushed as soon as she met her husband. Her first husband was abusive towards her. However, he did make enough to support her and her three young children. Then after her first husband died and she remarried, but her second husband had a habit of running out on the family and leaving them to fend for themselves. After that her only dreams were of survival and supporting her family. Along with her own dreams being shelved, her children’s dreams also didn’t get much opportunity to be brought to life. Octavia desired to get an education and go to college, but she was made to stay home and support her family. Larry desired to support his family and be the man that people looked up to, instead he had to marry a girl he didn’t love and people looked down upon him. And Vinnie died before any of his dreams could be achieved. Gino seemed to be the only one to achieve what he desired, and that was to get out of his house, and he did that by going off to war. At the end of the book, when Lucia Santa is looking back at all the dreams her family had and lost, she claims that America is a blasphemous dream, only giving so much but not everything. “The dream was to stay alive. No one dreamed further. But in America wilder dreams were possible, and she had never known of their existence. Bread and shelter were not enough” (pg. 281). She blamed America for her grief and strife, never knowing that the dreams in America extended further than the need to survive. She had only realized, too late, that there was more to life than surviving. And because of her dreams being unfulfilled she knew that her children’s dreams were also crushed in the meantime. Because Lucia Santa didn’t dream hard enough or work hard enough to fulfill her own dreams, she knew her children’s dreams weren’t going to be fulfilled either.

House of Sand and Fog is a great book to look at for the dreams of people. Kathy dreamt of getting her house back, and Behrani dreamt of making his family proud of him, earning a living in a more respectable way than working on the highway. Unfortunately when their dreams collided tragedy struck the two. Behrani was forced to leave his home in Iran, he was forced to give up his respectable title and work a grueling job in America. His dream was to escape the poverty and deception and regain a respectable title and make a home for his family. Behrani found the old house for sale and spent the last of his money on it. Unfortunately that house had been taken from the owner, Kathy Nicolo, unjustly and she would do anything to get it returned to her. With the help of Lester Burdon, Kathy feels she had the ability to take her house back no matter the cost. Her murderous dream spread to Burdon and that led to Behrani’s son being murdered. Behrani then killed himself and his wife, and Kathy and Lester got sent to jail. Their dreams, both understandable, both deserving of them, were sadly not achieved and only led to greater tragedy than losing a house or respectable title. These dreams were better off left alone, because they only brought pain and loss to the parties involved.

In the Namesake, Gogol’s dreams were to escape his parents and their desires for him. He hated the name that they gave him, it wasn’t Bengali and it didn’t really mean anything. He hated that they made him go to a country where he didn’t feel like he fit in. He hated that they wanted him to attend the university that his father taught at. He hated that they wanted him to marry a Bengali woman and settle down with her. Gogol desired to be the American that he was without feeling pressured into anything by his parents. He longed for the day where he could outgrow his name, and eventually he changed it to Nikhil. He dated American women and he went to a school far away.  He renounced the things that his parents were so set on him achieving. And in the end he felt unhappier than he was before. His dreams left him feeling empty, especially after his father died. Gogol finally realized how much he needed to be connected to his family, but he realized only after his father died. His dreams were good and productive, and he experienced a lot of things, but all of those things left him wanting something deeper, something with more meaning. For Gogol, to realize the dreams that would fulfill him, he needed to become more Bengali, for we can’t truly realize who we are until we know who we were meant to be from the start. Gogol’s dreams at the end of the novel were beginning to shift from Americanized dreams, to finding the roots of who he was.

A Gesture Life, written by Chang-rae Lee, was about a man named Doc Hata. Throughout the novel Hata is remembering and re-evaluating his life, most importantly his relationships with the people he loved the most. He had a dream when he was young, of starting a family and being a father to a lovely little girl who would learn to play the piano and they would have a strong bond, even if she was adopted. His dream was that he and the girl would “have a ready, natural affinity, and that my colleagues and associates and neighbors, though knowing her to be adopted, would have little trouble quickly accepting our being of a single kind and blood.” He was so excited to have this little girl and call her his own, but as soon as he saw her “I realized there could be no such conceit for us, no easy persuasion. Her hair, her skin, were there to see, self-evident, and it was obvious how some other color (or colors) ran deep within her. And perhaps it was right from that moment, the very start, that the young girl sensed my hesitance, the blighted hope in my eyes.” He let the obvious color of her skin decided that his dream was not going to be fulfilled. And right from the start, her hopes and dreams of having a father were dashed. She was cared for, beyond belief, but she didn’t feel loved by him. And both of their dreams were given up on too quickly, without even trying to make them work.

Angela’s Ashes was one of the most uplifting books that we read this semester. It was a great story about a young man growing up in the most horrific of situations and yet he has the desire to overcome his circumstances and he makes it happen. He had the strength to pick himself up from the dirt he was thrown in and make something happen in his life that was good. He dreamt of getting to America and he worked hard enough to make it happen. Though he grew up in the slums of Ireland, with a house that overflowed and his younger siblings dying too young, he survived typhoid fever and a drunken father that never sent his family wages. Frank was thrown so much crap in his life but he never gave up on his dream. And eventually he brought it to fruition. His story is inspiring, if he can make it out of all those circumstances and all of that adversity alive, then we can make it out of our hardest times as well. He also inspires to chase after your dreams, because they can come true if you have the strength to keep going.

Dreams are important to have; goals and desires are what help move the world forward. If no one ever dreamed about improving their life and moving forward, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Some people’s dreams shouldn’t be sought after because they do more harm than good, but who is to say that if those dreams were chased in a different way or looked at in a different light, they couldn’t have been beneficial too? Take Kathy and Behrani’s situation in the House of Sand and Fog. If they would have sought after their dreams by talking it through with each other, both explaining to the other why the house was so important, things could have ended a lot better. Other dreams are just given up on too quickly. Doc Hata and his daughter Sunny are the perfect example for that. They both gave up the moment they saw each other. What good is it to have a dream, follow it through to the last moment, then give up? It’s so important to have dreams and goals in life, and when you have them, know which ones to chase, which ones to let go, and when not to give up: because without dreams, no one would get anywhere.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Young Frankie McCourt, born and raised in the United States, tells his tale of emigrating back to his parents homeland of Ireland when he was five. The details recounted, told from his perspective as a child, are saddening and as readers we feel sympathy towards him and his family. In America his family was poor, but in Ireland they were even less than that and Frank was made to grow up too soon in order to try and provide for his younger siblings and mother.

One thing that I noticed while reading the book was the difference between the neighbors that the

McCourts had in America compared to those in Ireland. In America the McCourt's neighbors, though they too were experiencing the effects of the depression, would help the poor family out as much as possible. They could see that the children were starving and running around with little to no clothes, that the father was a drunk and didn't bring home his wages, and that the mother, Angela, wasn't reacting well to the way her life was. The neighbors were friendly, giving the children food when they had enough and cleaning up Angela after her daughter had died. Their neighbors cared about the family and whether or not they were taken care of. But when the McCourts returned to Ireland nobody seemed to care whether or not they survived a single night. Even Angela's mother hesitated helping them when they really needed it. In Limerick the McCourts went without food for days sometimes and when the neighbors heard they didn't seem to care, they had their own families to provide for and take care of. But even when the men had started to go to England to get jobs during the war and were sending money home the McCourt's neighbors still didn't take the time to see if they could do anything to help out. Everyone in Limerick knew that Malachy McCourt was a drunk and didn't send his family any money when he got paid, but they all just went on with their lives even though their husbands and fathers were sending money home and they had enough to help.

I think that's what surprised me the most about the book,  that although their neighbors had enough they still didn't want to help. Whereas even when their neighbors in America had nothing, they still went out of their way to help the McCourts. Another thing that surprised me was how young Frank was when he had to steal and lie in order to provide for his family. He was only four years old when he first stole for his brothers. The twins were crying because they were so hungry and he stole bananas from a shop. But the more surprising thing was that he didn't turn to stealing for everything he needed, for instance he still wanted a job to support himself and his family in a respectable way so he could be considered a man. He could have resorted to stealing food and money for his family and his trip to America the entire time, he didn't have to go out and get a job but he did. 

I really enjoyed this book because it was a young boy who was determined to overcome adversity and situations that he had no control over. He dreamt of getting back to America so he could make a living and he made it happen. He didn't sit back and complain that what he was given in life was too hard to overcome, he made something happen with his life. He got out of the places that were harming and he made it to America. And I think that something that can be taken from this book is that if Frank McCourt could overcome the trials in his life, if he can make it out, then surely I can make it out too. Surely we can overcome adversity and make it out of the hard times in life. 

A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee

This novel was one that I enjoyed. Doc Hata is a character that could very well be the old man living next door. The struggles and events that he went through seemed to be ones that could happen to anyone, they were realistic. Hata is recounting his life through the novel, his relations with a woman named Mary Burns, his daughter Sunny, and his time while being in Korea for the war. And while he seemed like a good-hearted, genuine man, I couldn't help but dislike him from the core of my being for more than one reason.

 The first reason that I disliked him was because though Doc Hata was nice to people it seemed he thought he was better than his acquaintances. Doc Hata was a well-mannered man who was courteous to everyone when talking to them, even while thinking of them he thought good natured things. However, it was in the way he thought about them that made me dislike him. Doc Hata, to me, seemed like he was always looking down on those around him. I especially noticed this perspective when he was reminiscing about his days in the war. "When I was a young man, I didn't seek out the pleasure of women. At least not like my comrades in arms, who in their every spare moment seemed ravenous for any part of a woman, in any form, whether in photograph or songs or recounted stories, and of course, whenever possible, in the flesh" (pg. 153). The way with which he describes his comrades lusting after women shows an air of pretentiousness coming from Hata. He is the one who did not seek that out, whereas those ravenous men sought after it every moment they were awake. Although Hata later confesses that he too had visited a prostitute, so in reality he was no better than them, he just didn't make his lust apparent to those around him.

This pompous nature isn't only evidenced towards his comrades but it's also apparent in his relationship with his daughter. At first, Hata is very glad to have a daughter, he fights for her when he gives extra money to the adoption agency. But when he finally has her in his home the relationship he has with her never quite reaches his expectations and this leads him to be distant from her, but I'll talk about that a little later. Because he was distant, Sunny lashed out and behaved in a way that he most certainly did not approve of. It seemed that he was only ever present in her life when she had made a mistake and he wanted to clean it up to make sure that the appearance they had, of having a nice little family, didn't dissipate because of her actions. Doc Hata was someone everyone looked at as a picture perfect man with the perfect house and he couldn't have a less than perfect daughter to ruin that image. I noticed this especially when he was talking about taking Sunny for the abortion: "When she came out of the train the first thought that came to me was that it was a Sunday and quiet, when there was hardly anyone about, and that I ought to spirit her to the private clinic and to Dr. Anastasia as quickly as possible" (pg. 339). Why was he so glad that no one was around? So that no one could see how much of a screw-up his daughter was. He was willing to do anything to have that abortion happen even though Sunny was so far into term. "I am willing to do everything I can to have you help my daughter. This is not to insult your professionalism but only to make clear how resolved I am. And I am resolved. We are desperate, sir, and I will do all I can to get her out of this trouble" (pg. 343). The only reason he seemed to have been desperate was because his reputation was in danger. He didn't seem to truly care about what his daughter wanted or even the life of the child growing within her.

Another reason that I disliked him was because of the way he treated his daughter. True, he said he only wanted the best for her, but in desiring that he pushed her away from him. He never allowed her to be the daughter he longed for. On page 28 Hata is recalling a conversation he had with Sunny one day when she was little where she was practicing the piano but he had not heard because he was vacuuming: '"Would you play some of them again?" "Okay. But can I help you now?" "No dear," I said to her, trying to stay the throbbing in my hand, my arm. "Why don't you play some more? Your teacher wishes that you practice more than you do. You must push yourself. It may be difficult for you to see, but even great talent is easily wasted." "Yes." "Sunny?" "Yes," she said, folding the lacy hem of her green dress for sunday school, where I would take her in the afternoon. "Please leave the living room doors open, so the music can travel. And, Sunny?" "Yes." "You should do what we talked about last week. About you addressing me." "Yes, Poppa."' He had wanted a special relationship with his daughter, he expected her to call him Poppa, and to converse with him, but yet when she tried to spend time and build that connection with him, he pushed her away. This scene, to me, was her reaching out saying "I want to spend time with you. Even if it is cleaning, I want to get to know you." And yet all he did was push her away.

Assuming that Doc Hata was genuinely interested in having a child, his measures to adopt one were understandable. He states later though that as soon as he saw Sunny for the first time he knew that his high hopes for a good family were dashed. "I had assumed the child and I would have a ready, natural affinity, and that my colleagues and associates and neighbors, though knowing her to be adopted, would have little trouble quickly accepting our being of a single kind and blood. But when I saw her for the first time I realized there could be no such conceit for us, no easy persuasion... And perhaps it was right from that moment, the very start, that the young girl sensed my hesitance, the blighted hope in my eyes" (pg. 204). He never even gave Sunny a chance to have a relationship with him. From the moment he met her he had his mind made up that they would not have a good relationship. And she could sense that in him.

There were some redeeming qualities in him, though, that were more apparent towards the end of the novel when he began respecting Sunny and not condemning her. He had always treated Sunny as a young woman and that lead to a lot of problems between them as she was growing up, but towards the end of the novel she was finally the age that he had been treating her and now they could get along. Hata knew that he had messed up when she was little and because of that he was willing to respect her decisions more to try and repent for his mistakes. Seeing that he was genuine in repenting, Sunny began to let him into her life and her son's life more and more. And they way that he loved that little boy, Thomas, made me think that maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.

Definitions Can Hurt

How people view me as a person has a lot of effect on how I define myself. If someone sees me as a kind-hearted person, I feel better and define myself as a good person. But if someone were to say that I am selfish and unbearable, I define myself a whole lot differently. In the books that we've read in the second part of the semester the characters define themselves based on other people's perspectives. Sometimes, though, that perspective and definition can destroy a person or build them up.

Looking at the first book that we read in this section, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Gogol defines himself by how his classmates in middle and high school see him. The name that his parents gave him, the name that was meant to be his pet name, haunted him throughout his adolescent years.  Not only was Gogol not a Bengali name, but Nikhil, his parents choice for a good name, was not Bengali either. And Gogol couldn't figure out why his parents would name him these things. He already felt disconnected with his Bengali roots, and that just added more distance. He couldn't define himself by Bengali customs, and he couldn't define himself by a Bengali name. So he chose to define himself by what his American classmates thought about him.

Although Lahiri never mentions a specific time that Gogol was ridiculed for his name, we get the picture that he was just waiting for the day that it happened. This is especially noted when his English teacher decided to read a short story by Nikolai Gogol, Gogol's namesake. Gogol kept waiting for someone in his class to make the connection and make fun of Gogol for something he didn't have much of a choice over. He assumes that people think his name is ridiculous, and he defines himself off of that assumption. He lets that define him so much so that he decides to change his name legally upon turning 18. Prior to that change, he never understood why his parents named him Gogol, he didn't have their perspective to base his definition of himself on. And in the end, once his father died, Gogol regretted his name change because the name Gogol was one of the only things left that connected him with his father. Gogol struggled throughout his life with how to define himself and he only figured it out after his father died. He finally figured out that he didn't have to take other people's perspectives into how he defined himself.

In Amy Tan's novel turned film, The Joy Luck Club, the relationships between four mothers and daughters are observed. June Woo was the newest member of the Joy Luck Club, taking her mothers place once she died. June grew up being compared to Waverly Jong who was a child prodigy and good at everything she did. June's definition of herself therefore came from the comparisons her mother always made. Suyuan, June's mother, always seemed to think that June was not good at anything and was always disappointed because of that. June let that thought define her for most of her life and she resented her mother everyday because of it. But before Suyuan died they had a heart to heart, and Suyuan was not disappointed with June but was instead very proud of her and who she had become. After that June finally let herself believe that how she had defined herself was not who she was.

The other women and mothers had similar stories: Waverly thought her mother Lindo was overbearing and controlling and because of that she would not like her new boyfriend. But upon inspection and a heart to heart, Waverly realized that she was the one projecting these feelings upon herself. She had taken her mother's controlling spirit upon herself and defined herself according to not being good enough for her mother. Rose Hsu had inherited a passive spirit from her mother. While she was growing up she was never able to stand up for herself and her mother always pushed her because of that. Rose defined herself as the compliant person because that's how she was always perceived while growing up. It took her mother's pushing and intervention as Rose got older to tell her that making decisions and being able to stand up for yourself is a good thing. Lena St. Clair also inherited a passive spirit from her mother, Ying-ying. Ying-ying allowed people to tell her what to do. Lena grew up seeing that and thinking that was how she was supposed to behave, she defined herself according to what she witnessed while growing up. As a woman she found herself unhappily married to a man who controlled everything about their marriage and had them take inventory and split everything exactly down the middle. When her mother realized what had happened she had to intervene and tell Lena that it was okay to speak her mind and become strong in what she believed. So all of the women had to go through a period where they had to redefine themselves from their mothers, or according to a way that their mother never was.

In the last book that we read, House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubois III the characters definitions of each other are what drive them all to do the things they did. Kathy allowed her mother to define her as trash and a screw-up. She adopted that definition and never felt like she could change that because it was what her mother thought of her. When her husband left and she lost the house, she refused to talk with anyone about it because she feared that the way they saw her would be proven right once again. Lester defined himself as a bad person for a few reasons. The first reason being because he left his family and that was something he swore he'd never do. The second reason was because he couldn't really help Kathy out of her situation. And finally because he had kidnapped the Behrani family and was the cause of Esmail's death. These definitions weren't specifically derived from how he thought people perceived him except for leaving his family. He knew that his children would hate him and that his ex-wife would be angry with him forever. Mr. Behrani defined himself so much by what other people thought of him that when he was working for the road crew he had to park in the garage of a fancy hotel, wear a suit there in the morning, and clean up and put the suit back on after work just to make sure it seemed like he was still worthy of respect. If someone were to think of him as less than worthy he would have been destroyed because that's how he defined himself. But eventually, because of all of these things, everyone ended up in bad places: the Behrani's died and Kathy and Lester wound up in prison.

Why do we let the perspectives and perceptions of other people be the things that define us in the end? In each of these novels the definitions the characters gave themselves just led them into trouble or into an unhappy life. In the case of Gogol he let his assumptions of people's perspectives of him define who he was. His classmates hadn't even expressed any distaste of his name and yet Gogol assumed that the did so he was ashamed. I don't understand why we let how other people view us define who we are. Mr. Behrani allowed himself to be defined according to class and because he was no longer in that class he felt robbed of his honor and he let that define him. But that only got him and his family into trouble. His struggle to once again become honorable and rich led him and his family to their deaths. The way that we let people perceive us, and the way that we define ourselves is often what brings us down and destroys us. The only person worthy of defining you is yourself.

House of Sand and Fog

I'm not quite sure how to start off a response to this book... The whole thing was heart-wrenchingly terrible. I think what made it so terrible for me was the fact that the problems that were faced were caused by a lack of communication, and that is all too real. Kathy first got her house taken away from her because she refused to communicate with the county. The Colonel never communicated with anyone any of his plans, not even his own wife. And when she did find them out, he abused her because he was so stubborn and wanted his own way. This book is scary because the possibility of something like this happening is very likely. Our culture has a terribly hard time communicating with one another and because of this miscommunication tragedies, like the one in the book, could occur.
One of the problems that's very noticeably caused by miscommunication was Lester and Kathy's assumption that the Behrani family was rich and was just trying to make even more money off of selling a "stolen" house. This assumption fueled Lester's hate for Colonel Behrani because he was viewed as a dirty thief; "this man who was looking down at his hand resting on his leg, at a gold ring there with a red stone in the center. A ruby? Lester could feel the muscles tightening around his eyes and mouth... Lester took a breath. 'Do you really need this tiny place?' 'This is none of your business, sir'" (Pg. 271). "this rich prick was not taking him seriously and that would have to change starting now" (Pg. 278). Mr. Behrani was only trying to take care of his family, Lester didn't know that they only had a few thousand dollars left and that was why he was trying to sell the house for a profit. Communication between the two parties was absolutely necessary because assuming things gets you no where, and obviously ended up hurting everyone.
But Lester and Mr. Behrani weren't the only ones who refused to communicate: Kathy refused to relate anything going on back to her mother, or even talk to Mr. Behrani herself to try and iron things out. Without anyone in her life supporting her besides Lester, Kathy felt alone. But it was her own doing that caused it. With a family behind her, and people with stable heads on their shoulders, everything could have ended out much better. Or, even if she decided to talk to Mr. Behrani before threatening him or shouting at him as she drove away their problem may have been able to be ironed out much quicker and without the fatalities that occurred. But they were both stubborn, and both refused to talk to the other. I also want to mention the fact that Mr. Behrani acted very self-righteous around his family, as if he had done nothing wrong. It wasn't his fault that Kathy was going off the deep end because her fathers house had been stolen from her, it was because "Americans: they are not disciplined and have not the courage to take responsibility for their actions. If these people paid to us the fair price we are asking, we could leave and she could return. It is that simple. But they are like little children, son. They only want things only their way" (pg. 172). But it wasn't just Kathy that wanted her own way, he was doing the same thing. He, too, was like a little child struggling to have his way.
By the end of the book, after everyone was dead and she and Lester were both in jail, it still seemed like she didn't really learn anything. She lied to the other women in her jail, making them believe she was a mute just because she didn't want to talk. She lied, again, to her mother about what happened to her and why she couldn't talk. She also realized something about herself towards the end of the book: "it was me letting Lester finish what we'd both started, letting all this happen so I could put off facing my mother and brother with the news that somehow Dad's house had slipped through my fingers: I'd been willing for Lester to do anything so I could put off that moment of judgement" (pg. 356). Her refusal to communicate with anyone in her life resulted in her losing everything she had and a family losing their lives just so she didn't have to tell her mother she lost the house and her husband left her. And even after all of that, she still refused to tell her mom the truth.

The Namesake

Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, follows the Ganguli family through their transition into the American life. Ashoke Ganguli, after suffering in a train accident that should have ended his life, married Ashima and moved to the United States. After living in Boston for nine months Ashima finds out she is pregnant. Another nine months later and her first child, a son, is born. The Gangulis were waiting for a letter from Ashima’s grandmother in order to name the baby, but they could not be released from the hospital without a name on the birth certificate so they give him the name Gogol, a pet name until they can think of a good name for him. This name becomes all that he hates about himself and eventually decides to change it, though he doesn’t know the true reason he was given the name; a book by Nikolai Gogol had saved Ashoke’s life after the train accident.

Throughout the book Gogol struggles with self-identity; he loves his parents and their background, but he’s an American and he doesn’t understand why they make him suffer through their old traditions. He doesn’t feel connected to the traditions that his parents continue to perform, he didn’t grow up near his real extended family and only adopted the friends his parents had made as his honorary aunts and uncles. So everything he experienced was second hand and he disliked when his parents made him accountable to their traditions.

He felt like his life was surrounded by accidents, mishaps, which should never have happened; all starting with the day that his father survived the train accident in India. That led to his limp and his desire to move as far as possible from where his family’s life was, and that led to his life in America. The letter with his real name was lost in the mail, an accident that led his parents to name him Gogol, the name that he despised. “He had tried to correct that randomness, that error. And yet it had not been possible to reinvent himself fully, to break from that mismatched name” (pg. 287). He then had different relations with women to try and become a different person, to break away from who his parents wanted him to become. Then his father died, “that had been the worst accident of all.” And yet, all of these accidents and events formed Gogol, “shaped him, and determined who he is” (pg. 287).

We all endure things in life that we may want to go back and change, to see how our life would be different after a certain accident was fixed. Sometimes things happen that we can’t even comprehend, and those things we wish to forget; to erase from our memories altogether. Gogol surely experienced the desire to change things when his father died. He regretted changing his name from Gogol, even though the name caused him pain when he was younger, it was the only thing left connecting him to his father, and he didn’t have it anymore. These things in life that maybe should never have happened, they “seemed out of place and wrong, these were what prevailed, what endured, in the end” (pg. 287). Those little things in life that seem wrong and difficult to understand are often the things, or accidents that define who we are. 

Following the New World

“America, America, blasphemous dream. Giving so much, why could it not give everything?” Lucia Santa pondered in Mario Puzo’s novel The Fortunate Pilgrim. Lucia Santa Angeluzzi-Corbo was an immigrant to the United States from Italy. She escaped her village and married an Italian man living in America. She ran from Italy in order to live a better life, one that could not have possibly been offered a poor woman in Italy. But she, like many other immigrants that we have and will read about, wished to achieve the dream while still living like she was in Italy. America offered so much, and by sticking with the old ways Lucia Santa was unable to grasp those American dreams. She asks: “Why could it [America] not give everything?”  But the answer lies simply in the fact that she refused to change as her life and circumstances changed around her. This attitude is not limited just to the Fortunate Pilgrim, but it can also be seen in both of the other books we have read this semester; Bread Givers and War Trash.

In Bread Givers, by Anzia Yezierska, the story is centered on the Smolinksy family who emigrated from Russia to New York. The father, Reb Smolinsky, was a student of the Torah in Russia and for that he was well respected. His family was able to get good jobs to help support him in his studies so he never had to work. Then they moved to America because Reb had lost all their belongings as a salesman and decided to move where he thought things cost nothing at all (Pg. 34). But all that awaited him in America was more poverty. He moved with the belief that he could continue in his studies while his family worked to support him, just as he had done in Russia. And although his daughters may not agree with his way of doing things, they know nothing else and must respect him.

Bessie, the eldest daughter, is the “burden bearer” of the family and she always does what is expected of her; including giving all her earned wages to her father so he can continue to sit and do nothing. Fania and Mashah also must live according to what their father bids them to do. When they all eventually start having love interests the father drives out every single one who loves them, only to replace those good men with men who are crooks and liars all because of his pride and desire to stick with the old world way of doing things. The three elder daughters are unhappy in the lives their father picked for them but they can say nothing. Sara, the youngest daughter, observes all that happens in her home and decides that she does not want to suffer at the hands of her father the way her sisters did. So she sets out to make herself “a person among people” and she changes to the American lifestyle and crawls her way out of the dirt she grew up in, to become a teacher. She was the only one in her family to rise above the poverty because she realized that in order to fulfill the dream, one must work to fulfill it.

In War Trash, by Ha Jin, the main character, Yu Yuan, is a POW in South Korean prison camps. Although his story is not one of an immigrant to the United States, he also goes through certain trials in which he must decide whether or not he wishes to stay in the old world, or change to fit in with the new. The old world in this story would be the Nationalists, and the new world would be the Communists. Yu Yuan did not necessarily like the Communists way of doing things but he thought it was China’s best chance at survival. In each camp there were two separate groups of Chinese men, the Nationalists and the Commies (Communists). Yu Yuan was constantly being bombarded by both sides, he must join the Commies but he also must be a Pro-Nationalist. He knew that the Commies were ruthless, but the Pro-Nationalists could be ruthless as well. So which side did he want to choose? He wanted, above everything else, to get back to his mother and fiancée. So no matter what the cost, he would choose to side with the Communists, even if he hated them for not caring about individual lives, and instead thought of them all as indispensable: “To be honest, I didn’t fear this crowd [the Pro-Nationalists] all that much, because these were simpler, weaker men than the Communists. They cared more about personal relationships, especially brotherhood and group loyalty.” Even though he knew the Pro-Nationalists would treat him right, he chose to go with the Communists back to China. He chose the new world over the old in order to try and make it somewhere in life because he didn’t know what would become of him in Free China (Taiwan). Once back in China, though, he was stripped of all honor and sent to work in a school, which was better than most returning soldiers had gotten, because he was not an official Party member. As a result he did get somewhere in life by choosing to side with the new world, even if it wasn't exactly what he had expected.

One of my most prevalent thoughts while reading these novels was: “if you risk so much for your dream of becoming a better person and get out of poverty, enough to travel across the globe to the new world, then isn’t it work it to continue to work for and follow that dream once you’re in the new world?” In The Fortunate Pilgrim, the only person who wanted to change to follow the new world’s way of doing things was Octavia, especially after she returned from the hospital. In Bread Givers, Sara Smolinsky was the only person to desire to get out of the dirt of poverty and she achieved it by following the ways of the new world. In War Trash, Yu Yuan followed the new world and he did not find himself in poverty once returning from the war. The American dream, or the dream of having enough, is not a “blasphemous dream” as Lucia Santa thought, it’s just one that must be followed all the way through and not just followed to America and then quitting. And only a few people realize this and can actually fulfill that dream.