Identity

[Zakia]

"Do yourself a favor. Before it's too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late."- Ghosh, page 16

A very powerful quote in my opinion where Ashoke meets Ghosh, a friendly Bengali businessman, on the train in 1961. They have a long conversation and Ghosh tells him this to encourage him to travel before settling down. He made the most of his advice seeing as later, the train crashes and Ghosh is killed, but Ashoke survives. He is moved by Ghosh's advice and decides to apply for a fellowship in the United States. Question: How does Ashoke's identity contribute to Ashima's identity?

[Sohana]

One of the beautiful lines that really capture and illuminate the theme of identity in this book was when Gogol finally decides to officially change his name and pretty soon his life style which consequently changes a part of his identity as well. “Since everything else is suddenly so new, going by a new name doesn’t feel so terribly strange to Gogol. He lives in a new state, has a new telephone number. He eats his meals off a tray in Commons, shares a bathroom with a floor full of people, showers each morning in a stall. He sleeps in a new bed, which his mother had insisted on making before she left.” (pg104) This shows the fact that simply changing the environment you’re in and the lifestyle can change the way you perceive life. Gogol had always wanted to strain away from his traditions and was more “American” than his parents are and intended to be. He senses a different type of identity for himself that her thinks suits him better.

[Sohana]

@Zakia
I find your question super interesting and I feel like I can totally connect it back to what we read in Greg's class; Jame's Baldwin's excerpt about identity. Considering this, I think that identity is only something separate that revolves around one’s self. This self collects all the material from different people, places and lessons and builds about this identity to make up who they are. Soon that identity learns to bond with others. Considering this book as well as Jame’s Baldwin’s identity excerpt, I feel that Ashok is limited to live to his life because of his bond with Ashima. Like Baldwin says in his excerpt, “In any case, the world changes then, and it changes forever. Because you love one human being, you see everyone else very differently than you saw them before- perhaps I only mean to say that you begin to see- and you are both stronger and more vulnerable, both free and bound. Free paradoxically, because, now, you have a home- your lover’s arms. And bound: to that mystery, precisely, a bondage which liberates you into something of the glory and suffering of the world.”