I Have Faith

           I hope Gogol finds a woman, but I feel like with everyone he has tried to have a relationship with so far, he gets bored eventually and gives up. Either that, or he gives his attention to another problem. Examples are with Ruth, they were happy together, but when she left for her semester abroad, he started getting frustrated. When she wanted to go back, that was the last straw. He gave up on her and they started fighting, which caused them to break up. With Maxine, he was happy yet again. everything was smooth sailing and everything happened naturally, like they had with Ruth. At this point in to story, Gogol is at his most rebellious against his parents and doesn't talk to them or spend time with them unless he absolutely has to. When his father dies, all of that changes. He starts caring about his family again. He starts to spend time with them again. With this change he starts caring less about Maxine. He starts spending less time with her. Those relationships were made in the wake of Gogol's rebellion against his parents. This new relationship with Moushumi is different. It was made in a time when Gogol is not rebelling. This is why I think it may go differently. Gogol is no longer caring about avoiding his family and his heritage, so he has more room to care for Moushumi. As a result things may actually work out.

Rebellion

            Gogol is an extremely independent person. The idea of not having his own identity but rather an identity predetermined rules his decisions. It also consumes his life in a way where the need to find his own identity haunts him at every point, almost like a never-ending high school atmosphere. Because he is obsessed with his image throughout high school, it drives him to rebel against his parents. He starts to smoke weed, goes to college frat parties, has his first kiss, goes to the movies when he tells his parents otherwise, etc. These little rebellions have a snowball effect, and although they don't have an effect on his success (getting accepted to Yale is success in my book), it does have an effect on his family life. He begins to try avoiding his parents once on his own in college. He starts to ignore his Indian heritage, something that was always forced on him by his mother.

           Bit by bit, he starts to break off from the influences his parents have had on him. changing his name, picking architecture as his major, rather than engineering or getting a medical degree. He dates women seriously and even moves in with his second serious girlfriend, whom he loves because she is nothing like his family. All of these are examples of how he strives to make his own identity, rathere than letting his parents choose one for him. 

Homesick

                  The majority of what Ashima thinks has to do with her roots in India. the entire first two chapters of The Namesake consists of her opinions on the differences between America and India. Instead of trying to make the best of the situation, she desperately tries to hold on the values and traditions of her Indian culture. Granted, she has only been in the states for a year and a half, and i would imagine it does take some time to adjust from living in India to living in Boston, but even still she has to let go of some of what she is holding on to or else she may be in trouble. She is outstandingly homesick, despite having a new husband and now a baby to come home to every day. This homesickness may cause problems in Ashima and Ashoke's relationship, because Ashoke seems perfectly happy living in the US. Along with these problems, it may set them apart from other Americans, like when they waited days to receive a letter from Ashima's grandmother which contained their baby's name; in which time the nurses at the hospital observed that her diet consisted only of jello and ice cream, earning her the nickname jello-and-ice-cream-lady. Little things like this would continue to build up in a snowball effect the more she clung to her roots. She won't like the little things either, which will make her dislike living in America even more. The simple solution would to just let go.

           I think the different opinions on living in America will ultimately affect the newborn's upbringing, as Ashima is disappointed that Gogol is not surrounded by family, and Ashoke is content with the opportunities that living in America will give the child. Being pulled in two different directions would be bad for Gogol, causing him to be confused. As a result, not only will Ashima's homesickness be affecting her own life but also her child's.

He's the Most Frustrating Man In the World...

         The Underground Man in Notes From Underground by Fyodore Dostoevsky is the most interesting, complicated, and most importantly, frustrating character I have ever read about. Not only are his values completely backwards, but he can't seem to figure himself out and contradicts what he believes in at every turn. It honestly makes me want to slap him in the face, but then again, he'd find enjoyment out of it.
         Part of the reason he is so frustrating and complicated is because half the time, the underground man is rambling on about some topic that he has already exhausted two pages ago. Almost any point he tries to make leads him to rant about nonsense, causing him to not only not make any sense whatsoever, but to bore me, as the reader. I often find myself trying to figure out if he is still even talking about the same thing or if he has moved on to his next rant. This can be disorienting and frustrating. 
         The most frustrating thing about the Underground Man is that he can never make a complete point. When I say this, I mean that he can always talk about something for ages but he can never get around to what he is trying to say, because he doesn't know what exactly he is trying to say. He is writing to find answers to his own problems, so making sure his reader is understanding isn't his top priority. He is just trying to talk around the problem trying to get to the root. When he finally rules out an idea, that is when he contradicts himself. He has already presented it as his belief though, so he just turns his argument the other way, saying that he was joking or lying. That is the most frustrating thing about him.

Lions Essay

    No matter what, there are always people who promote rumors. There are always people who promote stereotypes. These stereotypes become what groups are known for, and without the proper representation, the group will fall into a black hole that swallows up any sign that they are more than simple, gender dominated underdogs, whose work is a variation of simple tasks. Which are stereotypes of both men in the theater and the Ibo people of Africa. These kinds of negative stereotypes are just fuel to the fire for people like Chinua Achebe, who wrote Things Fall Apart, and Ryan Murphy, who co-created Glee. Their work strives to add to the stereotypes of the people they represent so that the single story becomes a complete story. Murphy and Achebe use their works to properly represent their groups so that they are seen through a more accurate scope.

    Nobody wants to be called stupid. Even if it isn’t directed specifically at them, but at a group they belong to. Murphy and Achebe wanted to make sure their people aren’t seen as simple, so their works reflected the fact that their people may have some who aren’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but there are also people who show promise. In Things Fall Apart, the Ibo people are portrayed as intelligent, while the white missionaries ignorantly assumed that they had nothing important to say. When Ajofia expresses his opinions about the white missionaries, he shows the Ibo’s intelligence and their opinion on how the white men treat them. “We cannot leave this matter in his hands because he does not understand our customs, as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, but perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his.” Similarly, in Glee, nobody has faith in the Glee club because it is made up of outcasts who are stupid and worthless in their eyes. Achebe and Murphy include these details and work them into their pieces because they show how people make assumptions about them based on the stereotypes that have been put on the characters. However when attention is paid to these groups, it is evident that there are methods to the madness. Such as when Achebe writes about the marital process in chapter 8. The same point is proved when Finn, the Glee clubs football player/ singer takes charge of the Glee club in Mr. Schu’s absence, giving everyone a job that fits them. As a result, Murphy and Achebe mold their reader’s or viewer’s opinion of Africans and theater people.

    Another main topic that Murphy and Achebe chip away at is the fact that Africans and thespians are underdogs. The concept of being an underdog brings in worlds more assumptions racing through other people’s heads, such as feeling bad for said underdogs, thinking they need help, and thinking they want to be helped, along with wondering why they need help and answering that question on one’s own. Things Fall Apart and Glee show that they don’t need to be helped. Achebe goes out to show that the Ibo people are happy with what they have. They dont want to be helped, as Ajofia proves when he says, “We liked his brother who was with us before. He was foolish, but we liked him, and for his sake we will not harm his brother.” He speaks about how he liked Mr. Brown, the first missionary that came to Umuofia. He likes Mr. Brown because although he did make changes to the community, he didn’t frce it down their throats like Mr. Smith. Murphy, on the other hand, shows another side. When Artie, the Glee member who is in a wheelchair, is locked in the porta potty and the football players want to tip it, Finn says that although they are “losers”, he has come to terms with it and is happy with himself because of it, so they don’t want to be helped or changed either.

    One of the biggest issues that Things Fall Apart, and Glee take on is that both realms are gender dominated. The Ibo people are massively masculine, and are seen as such,  having routine wrestling matches, focusing on big achievements like killing five men in the last battle, and relying on their title and farm to show their status. Achebe uses Okonkwo’s values  to deliver the message that even with Okonkwo being an extreme, the Ibo are more masculine than most civilizations. This is shown when Achebe writes about how Okonkwo “...brought honor to his village by throwing… the great wrestler who for seven years, was unbeaten from Umuofia to Mbaino.” This shows the extent that masculinity controls the Ibo’s lives, because they gain honor simply in a competition of brute strength However, theater guys are a different story. There is a sense of pride in what they do, they are vastly competitive, and they are always working on bettering themselves and their craft. However despite this, they are seen as feminine. Glee highlights these traits in the show and therefore promotes a more accurate view of their masculinity.

    Yet another subject that is challenged by Murphy and Achebe is the fact that their works are about people who are assumed to not have to work in life. People think that their work is easy and anyone could do it. Both Achebe and Murphy prove that their characters have a hard life. Murphy tries to disprove the stereotype that actors don’t have to work a day in their life, and Achebe makes an effort to disprove the assumption that all African people do is sit around and look sad. Achebe tackles this issue by showing what the Ibo people have to do to thrive, and that farming yams is not only just a part of their life, but their entire life. A moment where this is shown is when he talks about the year when Okonkwo borrowed 800 seeds from Nwakibie. “ The year Okonkwo took 800 seed yams from Nwakibie was the worst year in living memory. Nothing happened at its proper time; it was either too early or too late. Murphy tries to show just how hard it is to be successful in theater by showing all the drama and work and sacrifices that went into winning competitions. Like when Mr. Schu, the Glee club’s teacher, took the club to another schools performance to see how good they were, and was blown away by the talent. They then knew just how hard they had to work in order to be successful.

    Finally, Glee and Things Fall Apart, try to show that theater people and the Ibo people aren’t just good in their element. Achebe includes multiple times where the Ibo people show that they can accel even at things that we would call impressive, like being a judge and deciding the punishment for crimes committed. Murphy uses characters to show that theater people are multitalented, like Finn, who is the starting varsity quarterback at his high school while still participating in Glee club.

The fact that Murphy and Achebe can effectively show that Africans and thespians are people like us makes it hard to pay much more attention to stereotypes that people have placed on them. However, all they really did to show that they weren’t all that different was add to the stereotypes already in place and correct inaccuracies. All it took was the right presentation of the people. By using this method, Murphy and Achebe successfully show the Ibo people and thespians through an accurate scope.

Hypocrite

 

          In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a hypocrite. He believes in independence and making your own choices, but he doesn't let anyone but himself make their choices. For example, when he broke the week of peace, he felt justified even though it was against his clan's rules. But when his son, Nwoye, converts to Catholicism he can't even think about him because it disappoints him so much. Okonkwo also claims to hate everything feminine and refuses to do anything that shows weakness, even when nobody is watching. But he contradicts himself yet again when he travels to and from the caves of the oracle four times just to make sure his daughter was alright because he was "gravely worried." This both shows that he cares and that he doesn't trust his clans beliefs completely. However he makes fun of other clans beliefs with his friends because other clans aren't efficient or sophisticated enough. It is examples like this that make me think Okonkwo isn't really like the big macho war savage he makes himself up to be. He is like a liar who just keeps telling his story too many times and starts to have inconsistencies with the first time he told the story. His manly act might just be a protective shell for all the embarrassment his father put him through. As a result his actions don't match with what he is said to believe in.

The Way Of Thinking

          When you are trying to be the type of person who changes things, you have to have a certain way of thinking. With this way of thinking, you have to think things through. You need to take a problem and look at it from every different angle. Think of why people haven't come up with a solution or why potential solutions haven't worked. You have to be practical. Think big, but only within the limits of what is possible. You can't decide that you are going to invent time travel in order to save the world from self destruction. You need to work around the problem at hand and take your search for answers outside the norm.

          Donald Sadoway is the kind of person who has that way of thinking that enables him to change things. He has the ability to take a problem and turn it upside down and shake if until the answers just fall out. He looked at the problem of renewable energy and how he could change the situation. The problem was that "...no battery today that can meet the high power, long lifetime and low cost demands of the power grid." and he set out to make the battery that could. He was successful. He, along with one of his students, built the first liquid battery. he found this answer by thinking outside the box, looking at how aluminum was smelted. It sparked the idea that a liquid battery could solve the problem. It was cheap, high power, and lasted long. He didn't have us "bomb our way out" or "conserve our way out" he invented the way out of the energy crisis by inventing "...to the pricepoint of the energy market." That is how he invented a solution that was successful.

http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy.html