The Namesake Questions for Discussion, pages 1-71

Ashoke: What impact does the train wreck have on him? Why does he marry? Why does he not want to return to India? What does he enjoy about his life? What motivates him?

Ashoke is an admirably dedicated scholar with a profound fondness of Russian literature. All his life he has found joy in the stories brought to life while reading the books his grandfather gave to him. He loved those books so much that "Nothing roused him. Nothing distracted him. Nothing caused him to stumble" (12). On that day of his unfortunate train wreck, Ashoke talks to a fellow passenger named Ghosh who gives Ashoke some advice. "You are still young. Free. Do yourself a favor. Before it's too late, without thinking too much about it at 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" he tells Ashoke, but he in turn replies to Ghosh: "My grandfather always says that's what books are for; to travel without moving an inch" (16). The deep traumatizing experience of the train wreck has left Ashoke with a sense of just how fragile human life is. At any moment he can fall dead from unfortunate sequence of events. From that moment on Ashoke feels the inspiration and motivation to live life and take in all that it has to offer. Ashoke thus falls victim of that common cliché that preaches: "You only live once. Fulfill your dreams," etc. Marriage is something many people want to achieve in life and Ashoke feels accordingly so he deems that as one of many goals he wants to accomplish before the end of his life.

After moving to the United States, Ashoke feels as if he has also accomplished another goal of his life; to experience the other parts of the world that are described so vividly in the books he reads. As we see in page 20, Ashoke refused at one point to read the Russian novels that belonged to his grandfather because "those books, set in countries he had never seen, reminded him only of his confinement". Ashoke wanted more than to spend his life in India. Since after the train wreck and until he finally departed his country, "he imagined not only walking, but walking away, as far as he could from the place in which he was born and in which he had nearly died" (20).

What Ashoke enjoys most about his life is the fact that he teaches at a University. "The job is everything Ashoke has ever dreamed of. He has always hoped to teach in a university rather than work for a corporation. What a thrill, he thinks, to stand lecturing before a roomful of American students" (49). Ashoke has achieved a better way of life than he deemed possible in India.

WE'RE COMING BACK by Cock Sparrer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdxUsoJ3Xfk

We're coming back, we're coming back
We're coming back to you
We're never gonna go away again
Hold on a little longer, try a little harder
'Til we're arm in arm together to the end

[Chorus]
So remember, out there somewhere
You've got a friend, and you'll never walk alone again

Don't get worried, don't get scared
We're fighting to get there
Never doubt we're gonna get through
We're gonna run, we're gonna crawl, kick down every wall
It won't be long we're coming back to you

[Chorus]

We're coming back, we're coming back
We're coming back to you
We're never gonna go away again
Hold on a little longer, try a little harder
'Til we're arm in arm together to the end

[Chorus]


This song is very important for me because early on as a young kid I started getting into punk rock and this band was one of the very first acts I listened to. WE'RE COMING BACK is a song about solidarity and friendship. To understand it a little more, you have to recognize that Cock Sparrer is a band made up of working class musicians whom grew up together in tough economic times in England. The kids going to their shows were united by a sense of familiarity and an opposition to the mainstream values that differed from their working class back grounds.

The sound is slowed down from other songs and this gives you a moment to expect a sing-along song. The lyrics are simple and each verse follows a specific structure. The first line of each verse follows iambic meters it seems to me. So stressed syllables followed unstressed ones. The final word of each line is unstressed. So this gives you a sense of "everything is gonna be alright" as the message of the song wants to send.

EMBRACE by Billy Collins (1988)

This is a short poem consisting of 2 stanzas, 6 lines each. I really like this poem for its examination of a an old trick many of us have known about since we were kids.

"You know the parlor trick
Wrap your arms around your body
and from the back it looks like
someone is embracing you...."

These lines take you back and stimulate your memory because at some point or another popular culture has introduced many of us to this little trick. By introducing this visual memory the reader of this poem must seem drawn to it because it is something you can relate to with the masses.

"Her hands grasping your shirt,
her fingernails teasing your neck."

Those imaginary hands "grasping" and those imaginary fingernails "teasing" are vivid visual images painted in your head. This is the view from the back of a person where it is implied that there is another person on the other side expressing their passion and feelings to the person being embraced.

The second stanza changes courses.

"From the front it is another story.
You never looked so alone,"

The reader (at least in my case) is taken back because this sudden shift points out a completely different point of view. There is not another loving person hugging the one and the person wrapping his-her own arms around their body looks like they desperately want to hold on to another person.

"You could be waiting for a tailor
to fit you for a straitjacket,
one that would hold you really tight."

Collins has shown us both sides of the coin. If you look from the back, you might see a positive, loving image. From the front, you might see a crazy, delusional person waiting to be restrained to prevent to him/her to cause harm to themselves or others. If we look at the title of this poem Embrace we see two sides to it too. A loving embrace from another person (or yourself) or the restricting, uncomfortable embrace from a straitjacket.

I First Laid Eyes on You (Sonnet)

I first laid eyes on you and my mind a'froze
It was a rush of pleasant emotion
Then I knew you need more than simple prose
Because I know you held the same notion.
Self-imposed, en ego said "Learn no more."
Arrogance blinds, but fades with our laughter
Your smile shines the light, I am such a bore
It's not everything... but you I'm after
Light was shown as we entered the dark
Left without guide, I followed your hips
Tell me that in your heart I left my mark
It's not a day if I don't kiss your lips.
My conflict is settled, you are in mood
The sun arises and all will be good.


So I kept in mind that sonnets were mostly used as love poems and tried a jab at writing one following the Shakespearean form and rhyme scheme. Sonnets are tricky to compose.

TESTY PONY by Zachary Schomburg

http://www.poets.org//viewmedia.php/prmMID/21895

Testy Pony is a nice, short poem that tells a sort of sad little story concerning the relationship between a man and his pony. I decided to send this to my girlfriend, Suzy because I know she likes reading poetry and she also loves animals such as ponies. I didn't know really why I wanted her to read it except for the fact that it mentioned ponies.

She said it was nice and that the narrative poem  is revealing of human nature. A lot of people don't trust one another and even when someone does something nice or helpful to another person, some individuals still don't realize that they might have been viewing the other person in an unfairly negative light. The narrator in Testy Pony feels bad after the pony has proven him wrong and leaps over the river. If the narrator in this poem feels remorse, then is it possible to apply that when concerning our fellow humans when they perform a deed of good will?

These conclusions that my girlfriend got from the poem strike me because the first readings didn't generate those ideas in my head about human nature and such. In the textbook, Backpack Literature, they suggest listening to other people read poems so you can maybe get different meanings or point-of-views that you might have not perceived. Since I shared this poem with Suzy, I learned how important it is to paraphrase a poem as they suggest in the book because the perceived meaning of a poem might vary with different persons.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE by Tennessee Williams

When reflecting on this play I can sympathize with all the characters for they all have issues and struggles that prevent them from being truly happy but I tend to sympathize with Laura Wingfield the most. She represents that forgotten individual for which the world has neglected to admire; for she has a beautiful soul in every way. She is sad when others suffer around her as we can see in the fourth scene, "Amanda: You know how Laura is. So quiet but- still water runs deep! She notices things and I think she- broods about them.  A few days ago I came in and she was crying. Tom: What about? Amanda: You. Tom: What gave her that idea? Amanda: What gives her any idea?" (Pg. 1012). Since Laura is introverted she tends to be very observant and is sad to see her brother not being content with the life he has. This is an act of selflessness that makes Laura seem like the most mature character of the play. She has both physical and social handicaps that have internally tortured her for years but she also portrays a sense of understanding of other people's nature which is more thoroughly explained in the later parts of the play (1037).

The reason I believe Laura has a beautiful soul is for her capacity to see the best in others (while, unfortunately, neglecting to see the best in her). In Scene VII, Laura and Jim O'Connor, the gentleman caller, are having a personal conversation after dinner is finished. Laura is showing Jim her collection of glass ornaments. "Jim: I'd better not take it. I'm pretty clumsy with things. Laura: Go on, I trust you with him! (Places it in his palm.) There now you're holding him gently! Hold him over the light, he loves the light! You see how the light shines through him?" (1040). This is a peculiar little moment where the tables are slightly turned and it is Laura who is abandoning her shy nature and encouraging Jim to overcome his self-imposed fear of clumsiness. Knowing the lesson Jim is trying to pass on to Laura over her "inferiority complex" (1039), I think that Laura also has some stuff to teach to Jim. Jim should stop every now and then and appreciate the little, beautiful things in life that most of the world overlooks. In the course of chasing those big goals and hopes one might have in life, we can miss those rare little gems of this world such as a glass menagerie or a Blue Rose.

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED (1990)

What is the story saying about the theme of war? 

I didn't realize until I was about halfway done with the story that I had read The Things they Carried before. At once I remembered how it ended and how it filled me with slight melancholy, but at the same time a sense of joy was present because of Lieutenant Cross' own personal achievement.

Lieutenant Cross is a fine example of a round character. We come to explore this character's true feelings and intentions in greater depth than the others while a fundamental attitude change also occurs by the end of the story. We see here, "... yet he could not bring himself to worry about matters of security. He was beyond that. He was just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-four years old. He couldn't help it" (347). The first thing we need to understand about Lt. Cross is that he is still but a young man in a foreign land blinded and handicapped by his naive love for a girl named Martha back in New Jersey. "He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead..." (350) Lieutenant Cross realizes that his incapacity at focusing on his responsibility as platoon leader is putting his soldiers' lives at risk. Cross had not made the ultimate commitment to his men and it all stemmed from his futile love and longing for Martha. 

To me, the transformation into maturity occurs when Lt. Cross burns Martha's letters and decides to be a better leader. "He understood. It was very sad, he thought. The things carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do" (354). Lt. Cross comes to grow and become a man, in a sense. This is the strongest theme I gathered from this story. Lt. Cross was carrying unnecessary baggage in the form of an emotional handicap. In order to continue the war and lead his troops, he had to lighten his load of the things he was carrying by tossing those emotions he had towards Martha on the road and leave it behind. In a war, mostly all of the soldiers arrive young and foolish (foolish to fall in love) and in the course of the war suffer the loss of innocence. A realization that they have to leave all their small insignificant issues back home; forget about all their childish desires and let go of those troublesome burdens that are weighing them down  because they are in unfamiliar territory where not only their lives are at risk, but also the lives of their comrades.