Identity

In Jumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, she writes of a Bengali-American boy, Gogol, and his journey of navigating the many challenges to retain his identity. As a human being, everybody tries to do things in an attempt to make themselves stand out, or identifiable, but Gogol does not like the way he is being identified. As Mr. Lawson talks about the history of Nikolai Gogol in Gogol's English class, Lahiri writes, "'He then pronounced a death sentence on himself, and proceeded to commit slow suicide by starvation.' 'Gross,' someone says from the back of the classroom"(91). Because of this "smart" person in the back of the room saying gross, Gogol feels a major insecurity from sharing the same name as this "gross" person. He feels that because the person who he is named after is seen as gross, he too will be seen as gross. In turn, he no longer wants to be called Gogol. This challenge that Gogol faces is extremely important to note while reading Lahiri's novel because later on in the novel we see that in these circumstances, he simply over-analyzes what other people might be thinking about him, when in reality people aren't thinking about him at all. This gives the reader another point to look at. It may be that the only person challenging Gogol's identity is himself. It is simply his own insecurity and his own hyper-consciousness that leads him to change his name. In the end, it is important for everyone to try and hold on to their identities and not let their own insecurities stop them.

TFA 1-7

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinuah Achebe, Achebe tells the "One Story" of Nigeria in a casual tone assuming that the reader already knows all the background information and is already used to the norm, and also makes sure that the reader knows important themes. After Okonkwo finds the banana tree that he thinks is dead, Achebe writes, "Okonkwo's second wife had merely cut a few leaves off it to wrap some food and she said so. Without further argument Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping,"(38). Achebe writes this as if the reader already knows it is the norm for a man to beat her wife for doing something he doesn't approve of. This adds a sort of casual sense that the story is told by, it also doesn't leave time for someone to dwell on that incident. After the beating is finished, Achebe adds, "Neither of the other wives dared to interfere beyond an occasional and tentative, 'It is enough Okonkwo', pleaded from a reasonable distance,"(38). It is simply not enough for Achebe to leave the story when Okonkwo is finished beating his wife, it is also important to note that the other wives also fear him. This is an important theme in the story and Achebe makes sure to let the reader know this. Achebe successfully tells the story in a way that the reader is sure to remember using these strategies.

"Final" Paragraph

Stoppard's quotation involving the meaning of tragedy is also supported by the short story "Once Upon a Time" in which Nadine Gordimer creates an innocent character who ends up unlucky. A young boy is created in this short story as too adolescent to understand the whole of reality. Gordimer shows the young boy's innocence when she writes, “He pretended to be the Prince who braves the terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the Sleeping Beauty back to life.”(235). The fact that this boy is pretending makes the outcome so much more tragic and himself much more innocent because he only wants to play a game and is not out to hurt anyone. He also wants to kiss the Sleeping Beauty making him a hero showing that he is only trying to follow his dream of becoming a hero. As the young boy continues on his adventure, it is cut short when Gordimer writes, “With the first fixing of its razor teeth in his knees and hands and head he screamed”(235). It truly is unlucky for him to have died this way because he is so unaware of the reality that he was just thrust into shown by his screaming. Because of this unlucky end for an innocent boy who was trying to do good, Stoppard’s essence of tragedy is reinforced yet again. Not only does the little boy reflect Stoppard essence of tragedy, but another pair of characters from the same short story show the other end of the spectrum.