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.

TO BUILD A FIRE by Jack London (1908)

Jack London gifts us with this tragic story of a man foolish enough to travel without any other human companion through a sub-zero blizzard. The protagonist has only his Husky dog to keep him company; without much use for the man as we learn at the end of the story. It is early morning when the story begins and there is no visibility of the sun that makes the day seem very gloomy. The man is traveling along a creek which has been completely frozen and covered with ice and snow. All the man can see is white snow all around him covering up every tree and bush along the creek. Although we learn from the narration that it is 9 in the morning at the beginning of the story, 12:30 when the man makes his first stop for lunch, and early afternoon when the tragic event that sentenced him to death occurs; time seems to be paused as there doesn't appear to be a change in the sky since it always looked gloomy, sunless and gray.

This image almost exactly resembles the image painted in my head of the environment around the man. "...But he knew also that there were springs that bubbled out from the hillsides and ran along under the snow and on top the ice of the creek" (109).

This image is even better than the preceding one since almost every branch of tree is covered in white snow as the story suggests. This image paints a freezing environment where one has to be careful if traveling through it.

The small snow deposits that have formed on the small creek here suggest a freezing temperature. "They hid pools of water under the snow that might be three inches deep, or three feet" (109). To me, the uncertainty of ice and snow forming on the creek is best reflected with this snowy image.

Although there is no creek visible here, this image reminds me of the story because there is a thick blanket of snow all around and makes visibility a little harder. At plain sight, I wouldn't be sure if at the end was a cabin or just more and more snow.

This image is perfect because it reminds me of the passage where the man has his first emergency fire put out by the balls of snow built up on the branches of the tree he was under of. "Now the tree under which he had done this carried a weight of snow on its boughs. No wind had blown for weeks, and each bough was fully freighted" (113).

THE LAWSUIT by Naguib Mahfouz

Who is the main character or protagonist of the story?
The protagonist of this story is the man being sued by his father's widow. The widow is demanding maintenance from the son because she has apparently become economically challenged since seemingly robbing the son and the rest of his family from their father's inheritance.

Make a quick list of the character's physical, mental, moral, or behavioral traits.Which seem especially significant to the action of the story?
To surmise the protagonist with a few quick adjectives: inquisitive, independent, neutral, reserved, observant, decent, curious, mindful. The traits that are important to the development of the story might be his curiosity, his reserved nature, his being not dependent on his father's inheritance by the quote, "I was the one least affected by the disaster, partly because of my youth and partly because I was the only one in the family who wanted to study..." (77). He maintained a level head and in the end didn't mind helping out the poor widow. He has those traits of a man who has a clear conscience and can think things out in his mind thoroughly.

Does the main character have an antagonist in the story? How do they differ? 
The antagonist of this story is the widow begging for maintenance. She differs tremendously from the protagonist because she is like a parasite; depending on others to sustain herself. The son on the other hand, is a self-focused man who achieved some success through his studies. Seemingly her bad fortune in the end seems to make both the protagonist and her similar by the lawyer saying: "... but she's as much a victim as you are. Even the fortune she made off with brought her to disaster" (79).

Does the way the protagonist speaks reveal anything about his or her personality?
Yes it does. When the son tells his lawyer, "It's as though you know something about her" (79), he is displaying his personality traits of curiosity and inquisitiveness. Throughout the story he plays personal discussions inside his mind that show that he is constantly trying to understand many issues.

If the story is told in the first person, what is revealed about how the protagonist views his or her surroundings?
This story is in fact told in first person. A lot is revealed on how the protagonist views his environment by the narration. Throughout the story the prevailing notion I get is that the protagonist is level-headed and does not readily show his emotions or true feelings about his family's misfortune due to being of a reserved nature. We can infer this conclusion from this quote: "I shared his fears but affected outwardly what I did not feel inwardly" (77).

What is the character's primary motivation? Does this motivation seem reasonable to you?
The son's primary motivation at first is to defy the widow and not help her out in her time of need due to her causing a lot of distress to his family before. He does not want to be taken by a fool. "This woman robbed us and deprived us of our legal rights" (76), he claims. This type of motivation is reasonable to me for the son to be curious to see how the widow has changed and confront her.

Does the protagonist fully understand his or her motivations?
Yes he does. It seems to me, at least. The protagonist is portrayed as a mentally developed character who knows fully well that the widow has cheated his family before. He is appalled at the fact that the widow is throwing a lawsuit at him and is determined not to give her a single cent.

In what ways is the protagonist changed or tested by the events of the story?
The protagonist (the son) has a change of heart at the end of the story. "I forgot what I wanted to say. In fact words failed me, and I felt an inner peace" (80). He was determined not to help out the widow because of the wound she left him and his family. But he was still remembering the young, beautiful image he had of the widow. He thought to himself maybe that with her beauty and persuasion she can get along fine without him. Once he saw the fat, old lady that once was his father's bride he saw all the classic traits of a fragile woman that has suffered terribly at the hands of time. She couldn't rely on her looks anymore and she never knew how to work for her living, so she could only fall back upon the son who sees this and doesn't mind helping her out.   

A ROSE FOR EMILY by William Faulkner

William Faulkner implements an objective point of view for this sad story of a lonely woman. The information given by the narrator throughout the story is straightforward and with very limited interpretation of the characters' feelings. After reading the story a few times I believe Faulkner is basing the narrator on a member of the town; a neighbor of Emily Grierson. This can be inferred from these passages: "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral..." (33) and "At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said..." (37). I believe it's some non-participant, observant neighbor that is just in the know about the affairs in this small town.

I believe Faulkner chose to base the point of view on some neighbor in the background to try and invoke a sense of sympathy from the reader just as a person from Emily's neighborhood would. "When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray" (39). Even though Miss Emily chose to isolate herself from the town, the people were still somewhat preoccupied about what would be happening to her.It seems to me that Faulkner had limited choice when selecting the point of view since in this story Miss Emily was a very lonely woman for the latter part of her life. Who else but an observant, non-participant neighbor?

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND by Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor produces a superb story about a Southern family and it left me in a small state of shock when I find the Misfit kills the Grandmother. What strikes me the most is O'Connor's remarkable use of foreshadowing throughout the story. Throughout the story O'Connor builds up the Grandmother's character in a negative light as if to convince the reader not to like her too much... as if she talked a little more than she has to.

The plot does surprise me a little bit just by the way the story comes to a close. Like I mentioned, the foreshadowing is O'Connor's strongest technique in the story. Right from the start the exposition sets up the Grandmother's selfish nature. "The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida." (356) The Grandmother's character is that of a self-absorbed woman that needs to be recognized by others as a classy lady as if she herself doesn't believe to be. The decision to take the cat with the family, her mistake at thinking the old house was in Georgia instead of Tennessee, her recognizing the Misfit; they all were her actions that one by one led to the whole family being murdered.

As the sequence of events unfold, I found myself thinking that of course the family would eventually meet the Misfit and have a little trouble with him but I never thought that he would kill the whole family. At first the family seemed it would get robbed on the highway since they were going on a trip to Florida. When the family passes the six graves in thew cotton field is when I first entertained the notion of the whole family being murdered but I didn't believe that would happen; I was expecting a twist. However, O'Connor lets you know what is going to happen but the dramatic build-up to the end makes what you already know all that more surprising.

I have seen the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men and I have to say I see the influence of O'Connor in the film. A game of cat and mouse is played throughout the film with a man hunting down another all over the South. The values of the movie and this short story are similar. What can we expect from person's values in these times? Both the film and O'Connor's story reflect on the changing times and how the traditional profile of a good man is slowly being lost.

Introduction to Bryan Najera

Oi there. I'm Bryan Najera and I am a full-time PCC student. I am studying for my English and Film majors. I enjoy playing and watching real football (soccer), playing guitar & bass, and eating. I REALLY enjoy eating.

I am about to be 21 years old and I have lived in Los Angeles my whole life. I don't like to be involved with politics but if you were to describe me; I am very liberal.

One of the things I MUST do before the end of my life is to take a road trip through all of the Americas from North to South, back and forth.

My ultimate goal in life is to be involved in the wonderful art of filmmaking particularly as a screenwriter. I have collaborated with some close friends in small, scattered projects but nothing too serious. Hopefully soon we will have our own little production company going up and running.

I hope this English 1B course will introduce me to a lot of undiscovered literature and will help me on my quest to become a skilled writer.

Now for lunch.