Over His Head.

Gogol seems to of fallen into a tricky situation with his new girlfriend, Moushumi. When Gogol finds out that his new girlfriend was recently engaged with a man who turned out to be an inconsiderate jerk, Gogol starts to rethink what he is doing. Personally I think that Gogol is over is head. I think that if he really likes Moushumi he should stay with her and hope that her old fiancé doesn't come into play. Moushumi seems to be pretty committed to Gogol but how does Gogol know that she won't just accept an apology and get back together with her fiancé.  

If i was in Gogol's position i would stick it through and see how things turn out. It seems that Gogol is skeptical about this whole situation and doesn't really know where to go from here. Gogol has also recently ended things with Maxine. Maybe the fact that both Gogol and Moushumi have recently broken up with someone they might just be perfect for each other...

Gogol's Alter Ego

In "The Namesake" it seems that Gogol or Nikhil acts as two different people in two different scenario's. When he is around his college classmates and others who are around his age he goes by Nikhil but once he is with his family especially his parents he only goes by Gogol. Gogol and Nikhil seem to have completely different personalities and priorities. When Gogol goes by Nikhil, he is a partying college student who goes out and loses his virginity to a random chick in a bar, but when he goes by Gogol he is respecting and connected to his roots. It's like Gogol no longer wants to be how his parents raised him and doesn't want to be the same kid he was growing up, but instead he wants to fit in to the environment he has inhabited. 

Apparently the only way he can do this is without his parents knowing what's going on. Gogol never discusses with his parents why he changed his name to Nikhil and I don't think that he will anytime soon. I don't think he will tell them because Ashoke just told Gogol about his train accident and how Gogol's name originated in the end of chapter 5. 

In the Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, it is evident that Ashoke and Ashima aren't the smartest, most responsible people. They bring a baby into the world when Ashoke is still in school and can't even properly care for the child because of the overwhelming amount of work he has. It seems Ashima doesn't make the most motherly decisions either. She is thinking about visiting India because she misses her family which is nice and all but probably not the best decision for her baby child. Over all i think that they just conceived a baby way to early. They should of waited until they were some what settled and not in the midst of all this chaos. Ashoke could of finished school and earned a steady career which would support the family but instead they conceive early and the baby simply becomes a distraction to Ashoke's school work. 

Underground Man

The underground man from "Notes From Underground" by Fyodor Dostoevsky seems to be someone who is constantly contradicting himself and in result inflicting suffering on himself. The underground man seems to despise himself for so many reasons throughout each chapter but at the same time he believes that he is more intelligent than everyone around him. Because of him feeling more intelligent than everyone else he puts this kind of responsibility on himself that everything that he does is his own fault no matter what. 

The underground man keeps inflicting misery and suffering on himself because of his constant realization that everything that has happened and will happen to him is his and only his fault. It seems his extreme self consciousness is what makes him who he is. 

Falling Apart

Things Fall Apart has kind of opened up my eyes and made me realize how different and even how harsh conditions can be around the world. Reading about the Ibo people displays resemblances and differences societies have whether poor or wealthy. Mostly what i have taken so far from Things fall Apart is that societies have their ways of surviving just like how we do and those ways shouldn't be forcibly changed for the better of the society. From interpretation i know that the "white men" will come and try to transform the Ibo society but things will "far apart." Even though the Ibo people might not be as civilized or as reasonable as us doesn't mean that by trying to change their ways of life will help. It is also clear from the reading that many of the priorities of the men are some what different from ours. The men's priorities in the Ibo society basically are yams, yams and yams. The food and wealth comes first and then family. Although it may somewhat seem this way in our society most everyone who is working hard to gain wealth is strictly doing it for the better of their family. This just isn't the same in Ibo society or at least with Okonkwo. Okonkwo seems to be focused on growing yams not strictly for his family but mainly for his reputation of being a man and never showing weakness. I hope to see this change in Okonkwo later in the story but still highly doubt it.

Our Struggle for Immorality.

I watched the Ted Talk about the four stories we tell ourselves about death by Stephen Cave. Stephen talks about how death plays an extreme role in society throughout history and how we as humans come up with stories about immorality to escape the constant fear of death. The four stories he mentions are elixir, resurrection, soul, and legacy, which are all ideas humanity has relied on to believe that they will live forever in some way or another. Stephen states that when humanity realizes not to fear death but except it and not to rely on these four stories we can truly progress a create a "good story" without worrying about the "end of our book" or death. Stephen reasoning behind this is that humanity has constantly been repeating itself by creating new ways to keep the four stories about immorality alive which has stalled the actual progression of our race. The one thing that i don't agree with is that the human race will want to progress knowing they will eventually die. How do we know that because of this realization we won't just stop trying to progress thinking its not worth anything because we are going to die someday? Is it certain that everyone will want to make the best of there life span and create a "good life story" knowing that you might just be forgotten about in a couple years? I believe that we will never know until this realization occurs if it ever does.