I’ve just studied stories with my A-level students dealing with hybridity and hybrids, a term used for people of foreign, read Asian and African, origin living in the Western society and the clash of cultures in which this can result, so when I came across Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake whose main protagonist is such a hybrid, I was intrigued.
Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, two Bengalis from Calcutta have an arranged marriage in India, then Ashima follows her husband to Cambridge, New England, where he’s got a job as a professor at university. A son is born (later a daughter follows), and as it is the custom with Bengalis, he gets a pet-name, a name used around the house but not in public. Ashoke calls him Gogol, because he loves Russian literature and especially the writer Nicolai Gogol.
The boy’s great-grandmother is to find the ‘good’ name for him, but her letter never arrives and then she dies, so the boy lives on with his pet-name. When he has to go to elementary school, his parents want him to be called Nikhil but he refuses to listen to this name and then, when he needs a passport for a journey to India, ‘Gogol’ is written down and becomes his official name.
The novel follows Gogol’s life in America until he’s forty years old, as it is with stories describing a character’s life, there is no real plot, events, happenings, incidents follow each other, the author could have added more or left out some, it wouldn’t matter to the reader. The second important protagonist is Gogol’s mother, Ashima, who adapts to the American way of life but always remains a Bengali woman, she‘s not unhappy in America but never really happy, either. All the Ganguli’s friends are other Bengalis, they form a closely knit community and are ersatz families for each other.
Gogol and his sister become all-American kids which becomes obvious when they go to Calcutta for eight months for a visit and only live with relatives in their already overcrowded flats, they yearn for their American home where they each have a room only for themselves. They are the odd ones out in India whereas their parents perk up, the problems between first and second generation immigrants are shown convincingly.
Gogol who so desperately wanted to keep his name as a child learns to hate it when he becomes older and has it changed officially into Nikhil, the ‘good’ name his parents wanted him to have as a boy. With this he does a very American thing, he re-invents himself. I was reminded of Gloria Gaynor‘s song “I am what I am, I am my own creation” or of the singer Madonna who every other year sports a new personality. The American author Paul Auster has written extensively on this topic in his novel Moon Palace (see my review). But things are not so easy for Gogol, the Bengali-American hybrid, he has to realise that he can’t peel off his family’s identity like a snake its skin.
What is he? Who is he? A fellow Bengali tells him that he’s an ABCD, an ’American Born Confused Deshi’- ‘desh‘ being the term Indians use when talking about India. Confused? He grows into a dashing young man who‘s often taken for an Italian; three love affairs are described, two with white American women, one with the daughter of an immigrant Bengali family like his own, do they help him to understand himself better and find his place? These are the questions the author raises and the way she does it makes the reader want to learn the answer.
There isn‘t much dialogue in the novel, the narrator mainly tells us the story; there‘s a lot of description creating atmosphere but not too much, the author leaves room for imagination. She refrains from sprinkling the text with Bengali words and expressions to make it exotic, something unfortunately many authors of Asian origin love to do (the worst being Salman Rushdie), which I appreciate. The language is simple, and the novel reads well, the characters are round and believable. I can only praise the author in this respect, if only she had refrained from using the Present Tense, I don‘t like it and never will! Its immediateness may be appropriate for a breathless chick lit story covering one summer but not for the description of half a life.
For me the novel is interesting but it doesn‘t touch me personally, I look at the problem from outside and learn to understand a life-form which is becoming more and more widespread. I can imagine, though, that readers who are in Gogol‘s situation, no matter where in the world they‘re from and where in the world they‘re living, can identify with the protagonist‘s destiny. Jhumpa Lahiri could draw from her own experience, she was born in London in 1967 of Bengali parents, and grew up in Rhode Islands, USA.
I‘ve got another niggle besides the (for me) wrong grammatical tense and that is the title. Why does the boy have to get the name Gogol? I consider this a gag to make him outstanding and to be able to introduce the topic of self-creation. OK, but why Gogol and not any other strange name? When the boy is in high school, a teacher makes the class study the life of the Russian writer, with the title The Namesake I expect the boy to act at least a bit like the real Nikolai Gogol or to share his problems, but nothing is made of the Russian author, at no stage of the boy‘s, and later man‘s, life. I just don‘t understand the choice of the title. I‘m not willing to overlook this because I studied Gogol at uni and feel sentimentally attached to him as I wrote my all-time best paper on one of his stories.
Looking for background information on the net, I‘ve learned that the novel has become a bestseller which is being discussed in lots of book clubs and that in 2007 a film was made with the same title. Someone must understand the deeper meaning I can‘t grasp! I can recommend the novel, someone read it, please, and then help me understand why it is called The Namesake!
Written by MALU
I’m a German teacher of English and Italian and live in Germany.
I’ve just studied stories with my A-level students dealing with hybridity and hybrids, a term used for people of foreign, read Asian and African, origin living in the Western society and the clash of cultures in which this can result, so when I came across Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake whose main protagonist is such a hybrid, I was intrigued.
Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, two Bengalis from Calcutta have an arranged marriage in India, then Ashima follows her husband to Cambridge, New England, where he’s got a job as a professor at university. A son is born (later a daughter follows), and as it is the custom with Bengalis, he gets a pet-name, a name used around the house but not in public. Ashoke calls him Gogol, because he loves Russian literature and especially the writer Nicolai Gogol.
The boy’s great-grandmother is to find the ‘good’ name for him, but her letter never arrives and then she dies, so the boy lives on with his pet-name. When he has to go to elementary school, his parents want him to be called Nikhil but he refuses to listen to this name and then, when he needs a passport for a journey to India, ‘Gogol’ is written down and becomes his official name.
The novel follows Gogol’s life in America until he’s forty years old, as it is with stories describing a character’s life, there is no real plot, events, happenings, incidents follow each other, the author could have added more or left out some, it wouldn’t matter to the reader. The second important protagonist is Gogol’s mother, Ashima, who adapts to the American way of life but always remains a Bengali woman, she‘s not unhappy in America but never really happy, either. All the Ganguli’s friends are other Bengalis, they form a closely knit community and are ersatz families for each other.
Gogol and his sister become all-American kids which becomes obvious when they go to Calcutta for eight months for a visit and only live with relatives in their already overcrowded flats, they yearn for their American home where they each have a room only for themselves. They are the odd ones out in India whereas their parents perk up, the problems between first and second generation immigrants are shown convincingly.
Gogol who so desperately wanted to keep his name as a child learns to hate it when he becomes older and has it changed officially into Nikhil, the ‘good’ name his parents wanted him to have as a boy. With this he does a very American thing, he re-invents himself. I was reminded of Gloria Gaynor‘s song “I am what I am, I am my own creation” or of the singer Madonna who every other year sports a new personality. The American author Paul Auster has written extensively on this topic in his novel Moon Palace (see my review). But things are not so easy for Gogol, the Bengali-American hybrid, he has to realise that he can’t peel off his family’s identity like a snake its skin.
What is he? Who is he? A fellow Bengali tells him that he’s an ABCD, an ’American Born Confused Deshi’- ‘desh‘ being the term Indians use when talking about India. Confused? He grows into a dashing young man who‘s often taken for an Italian; three love affairs are described, two with white American women, one with the daughter of an immigrant Bengali family like his own, do they help him to understand himself better and find his place? These are the questions the author raises and the way she does it makes the reader want to learn the answer.
There isn‘t much dialogue in the novel, the narrator mainly tells us the story; there‘s a lot of description creating atmosphere but not too much, the author leaves room for imagination. She refrains from sprinkling the text with Bengali words and expressions to make it exotic, something unfortunately many authors of Asian origin love to do (the worst being Salman Rushdie), which I appreciate. The language is simple, and the novel reads well, the characters are round and believable. I can only praise the author in this respect, if only she had refrained from using the Present Tense, I don‘t like it and never will! Its immediateness may be appropriate for a breathless chick lit story covering one summer but not for the description of half a life.
For me the novel is interesting but it doesn‘t touch me personally, I look at the problem from outside and learn to understand a life-form which is becoming more and more widespread. I can imagine, though, that readers who are in Gogol‘s situation, no matter where in the world they‘re from and where in the world they‘re living, can identify with the protagonist‘s destiny. Jhumpa Lahiri could draw from her own experience, she was born in London in 1967 of Bengali parents, and grew up in Rhode Islands, USA.
I‘ve got another niggle besides the (for me) wrong grammatical tense and that is the title. Why does the boy have to get the name Gogol? I consider this a gag to make him outstanding and to be able to introduce the topic of self-creation. OK, but why Gogol and not any other strange name? When the boy is in high school, a teacher makes the class study the life of the Russian writer, with the title The Namesake I expect the boy to act at least a bit like the real Nikolai Gogol or to share his problems, but nothing is made of the Russian author, at no stage of the boy‘s, and later man‘s, life. I just don‘t understand the choice of the title. I‘m not willing to overlook this because I studied Gogol at uni and feel sentimentally attached to him as I wrote my all-time best paper on one of his stories.
Looking for background information on the net, I‘ve learned that the novel has become a bestseller which is being discussed in lots of book clubs and that in 2007 a film was made with the same title. Someone must understand the deeper meaning I can‘t grasp! I can recommend the novel, someone read it, please, and then help me understand why it is called The Namesake!
-Why Tail Docking is Done-
The reasons for docking a lambs tail are plentiful and those who do dock their lambs tails may do so for more than one reason.
Long tails can become covered in feces, this attracts flies. When flies become a problem they lay eggs on the sheep which hatch into maggots – and they even threaten to kill a sheep by eating it alive and causing infection. This is known as fly strike.
In ewes the fecal matter on their tail can be a slight problem for lambs who may try (briefly) to nurse on the tail or to nurse from behind the ewe herself. As well if she is having udder problems her woolly tail may make it harder to spot.
The main reason the tails are docked is because when sheep are shorn the feces on their fleece lower the quality. As well when sold to be butchered the tail needs to be removed which takes a slight bit more time.
-How Tail Docking is Done-
Tail docking can be done in several ways, none of which are without pain to the lamb, nor without risk.
Probably the easiest method is the use of a thick elastic band specially made for this purpose (and castration). The elastic band is applied to the tail with a tool known as an elastrator (it stretches the elastic band). This is done when the lamb is at least 1 day old, but no more than a week old, usually 3 days old is a safe age for this procedure. The lamb feels a pinch of pain before the tail goes numb, eventually dying and falling off after a week or two.
Electric Tail Docking systems are used to cauterize the stump of the tail at the same time as cutting it off. This method can be used on lambs up to 5 weeks of age as well as those at least 48 hours old.
Emasculator tools cut the tail and crush the blood vessels at the same time.
if you look close you can see the bands on the tails of these lambs
-Risks or Concerns-
Rectal prolapse is more common in sheep who have had their tails docked excessively short.
If not done properly infection can occur.
Tetanus (lockjaw) can be a risk for animals whose tails are docked with the elastic band system, as such vaccinations for this are very important.
Bleeding can be a problem with the Emasculator tool if not kept on long enough (less than 30 seconds).
-Why Not Dock-
Some breeds of sheep simply do not need their tails docked. The hair breeds do not have a problem with wool and some have shorter tails anyhow. Some other sheep breeds, such as the Icelandic, have a naturally short tail and docking is seldom done.
If kept in clean, and uncrowded, conditions problems such as fly strike are less of an concern.
When the diet is good the feces are not runny, it is runny feces that accumulate on the tail of sheep and become a problem. Internal can also give a sheep loose stools so proper health management will reduce this problem.
For the record while some of my pet sheep had their tails docked before I got them, I have never docked any other sheep’s tail, and never had any problems. We have begun keeping a hair sheep ram so the lambs are either full or part hair sheep, thus reducing any physical need for docking.
I keep free range hens and pet ducks, both of which tend to keep the fly population down and I have never had more than 16 ewes on my hobby farm of 10 acres, so crowding is not an issue.
-Other Links-
How to Trim the Feet on Sheep and Goats
How to Bottle Feed an Orphaned Lamb
Advantages of Hair Sheep
Exotic Sheep Breeds
Written by Brenda Nelson
Pet and Animal Expert
select: More Exotic Pets Articles
