Migration Is A Common Occurrences

The film, The Namesake, directed by Mira Nair, suggests that everyone has a cultural identity, whether they ignore or embrace it. Gogol Ganguli initially wants to abandon his family’s traditions and adopt American customs since he was born in America. Soon he learns that his name has a very emotional meaning to his father. Because of his new knowledge of the significance of his name, he begins to enter a transformation where he accepts and loves his culture. Throughout the film, Gogol has an internal conflict with himself when, on one side, he has his Indian culture, and on the other, he has the American culture he has always wanted to belong to. Although some people think that cultural identity is destined and final, I claim that cultural identity can change because of how willing people are to welcome it.

Immigration can be justified by many reasons. Some say immigration can be a positive change in someone’s life or a negative change in one’s life. Many people leave for similar reasons. They are fleeing a negative phenomenon in their current home or they are seeking another opportunity in another place. While progressing through these 3 stories, I was able to feel and understand what was happening during these times, not only regarding the move from one place to another, but the effect immigration had on these people, whether it was an immense impact or a minor impact.

The film The Namesake started out while Ashoke Ganguli was traveling on a train to visit his grandfather. On the train Ashoke meets fellow traveler, Ghosh, who impresses upon him to start traveling. The train crashes and Ashoke almost dies but is found and survives. After the crash, Ashoke relocates to America for school. In 1977, Ashoke returns home to India to be arranged to marry Ashima. When Ashima accepts Ashoke’s marriage proposal, she has to move to New York with him where their residence becomes permanent. Ashima has to adapt and adjust to American culture, which is very hard for her because she has never been out of India and she misses her family. Shortly after, they become parents of a boy, who they name Nikhil, with the

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

United States is a country with a big cultural diversity. Persons from all the countries, especially from the least developed ones, start a new life in this country with the only purpose of reach the American Dream. A better economic position, life style and educational opportunities for their family, are some of the facts that immigrates are looking for in America. All these privileges are not enough for them to forget their background. The reading Two Kinds by Amy Tan, and the movie The Namesake by Dir. Mira Nair, show two different stories about how the new family in America struggle with the parent’s culture and what American culture is. Immigrants, such as me, have to face many life changes when arriving for first time to America, such as different beliefs and ideologies, different language and new economic opportunities

In the analysis of the departure phase, the author further divides this phase into two sub-phases: call to adventure and crossing the threshold. In “call to adventure”, the author first explores the causes for the protagonists to go to the US, and then step forward to evaluate the political, economic, and cultural factors that drive immigration, each with corresponding examples in both films. For “crossing the threshold”, the author relates scenes from both films with scenes

The essay “What's in a Name?” written by Lini Kadaba was published on December 7th, 1997 in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Kadaba's essay is rooted in exemplification. She utilizes the framework of names, specifically surnames that were changed during the immigration process, to showcase examples of Americans that had previously immigrated to the United States and successfully assimilated. Kadaba then chronicles those Americas quest over time to regain and reconnect with some of their own culture and learn more about their ethnic roots. In many cases Lini Kadaba found that those Americans were changing their surnames back to versions more closely resembling their heritage. She asserts that pressures to assimilate have lessened over time and that

Many second generation minorities from immigrant parents are driven subconsciously to conform to new culture and social norms. For foreign born parents and native born children integrating the two cultures they inhabit brings about different obstacles and experiences. In Jhumpa’s “The Namesake” the protagonist Gogol is a native born American with foreign born parents. The difference with birth location plays an important role in assimilating to a new society in a new geography. The difficulty for parents is the fact that they’ve spent a decent amount of time accustomed to a new geography, language, culture and society which makes it difficult to feel comfortable when all of that changes. For Gogol the difficulty only lies with the cultural norms imposed by his parent’s and the culture and social norms that are constantly presented in the new society.

In the south many factors influencing lead around 6 million people to migrate out of southern states in search for industrialized work in northern and western states of the United States. After emancipation, most blacks had been forced to become sharecroppers and tenant farmers, dependent on white land lords and enslaved by debts they complained (Ron Takaki Chapter 13). Although African Americans had their freedom the oppression, discrimination, and racism never ended within the south.

There are many difficulties which immigrants and immigrant's descendants encounter such as: language difficulties, identity crisis, economic, educational gaps and cultural differences. This film shows some difficulties and challenges which immigrants and immigrant's descendants experience from Carlos and his son, Luis point of view.

In Mira Nair’s film, The Namesake, the disparate cultures of India and America affirms to the binary paradigm of “the one” and “the other”, manifesting the dominance of one from the other and its impact to influence and cause cultural and identity issues. The collision of the two cultures forms a process of trying to construct an identity and a destruction of an ethnic identity, with different factors to consider such as space and other sociocultural codes. This film about the Indian American also shows the concept of model-minority image, standards and expectations imposed to Asian Americans. The Namesake embodies the cultural and identity issues of an Asian American, particularly the Indian Americans, exemplifying the experiences of the

For thousands of years, waves of immigrants continue joining the developed countries in the world, bringing with them the unique cultures, languages, and ideas. Over time, those unique values might be faded away with each generation because of the new culture exposition. The second-generation immigrants experience a cultural conflict between that of their parents and that of host society. Most of them are unable to preserve and empower their origin cultures. Many differences between the first-generation and the second-generation immigrants arise. Through the analysis of the mother in “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” and the Das family in “Interpreter of Maladies”, I would like to demonstrate the differences between the first-generation immigrants, who travel from other countries, and the second-generation immigrants, who were born and raised on the immigrated land. These differences include the purpose of being in the foreign land, the connections to their homelands, society’s view, and the culture differences.

The novel The Namesake written by Jhumpa Lahiri writes about the struggle and hardships of a Bengali couple who immigrate to the US from India to create a lifestyle outside of everything they have known all their lives. The story begins as Ashoke marries Ashima and brings her to the Massachusetts. Their first child’s name is Gogol, which they didn’t intend on naming initially but because of different mistakes, Gogol has officially become his name. This book/film gave a pleasant insight into identity

Describe the primary Family dynamics: Although father himself is an immigrant but he adopted the local culture very well and there appears to be no cultural issue in the family till grandpa arrived. Father is also a very

Many people migrate from one country to another or within a country. There are different reasons why people migrate and there are also things that can stop humans from moving, humans signify it as barriers. Many people have complex issues mentally and physically when they migrate, there are also factors that attract or drive out people from a place.