#6 "Surroundidngs" Free Response Essay and Reflection

Ashima: a dependent, but strong woman. A deeply cultural, but open-minded individual. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel “The Namesake,” Ashima’s character proves Pauline Hopkins’ belief that the cultural, physical, and geographical surroundings shape a character’s psychological or moral traits.

The goodbye Ashima says to her motherland India is contrasted with the birth of her first child. When Ashima’s son Gogol is born, her surroundings are a bleak hospital room, a solitude that is only emphasized with the absence of her husband. Nurses come in and out to check on her, even calling her the “jello lady” because of Ashima’s bland diet. When one of the nurses asks whether Ashima would like a boy or girl, she responds that she would just be happy with a healthy baby, as long as it has “ten finger and ten toe.”

She realizes her grammatical mistake, however, which further emphasizes the different cultural surrounding she is now in. No matter how hard she tries to assimilate herself into the new culture, those specific details in the novel show that she will always face a cultural barrier, and that traits of her Indian culture and traits of her eventual American culture will never coexist in one surrounding – or at least she thinks so at first.  In the physical hospital room, she doesn’t feel the comfort and joy she thought she would have felt in India, among relatives and traditions and celebrations.

Another impactful characterization choice in “The Namesake” was the geographical location of Ashima. The millions of miles of her traveling is not only a reminder of how much she misses home, but also of her exposure of the world, as she has seen India, England, and America. This is a contradiction within her character because she is dependent upon missing her ‘home,’ yet as her journey progresses she comes to realize that her trips have made her strong and that her ‘home’ is wherever her husband is.

In fact, when Ashima’s husband Ashok went to Ohio, it was the first time she was alone. This geographical distance between them was a conscious choice Ashima took. She could have easily packed up their house and moved with him for the six months he planned to be there. She stayed, however, because of the geographical familiarity of the physical and cultural surroundings of her home, and perhaps an inner strength, that after all these years of being dependent on someone – her parents, her husband, and her kids – she could finally make it on her own. When Ashok died in Ohio, she told her friend at the library that she understood why he went there. “He was teaching me to live on my own,” Ashima said. Maybe without the distance, she wouldn’t have been able to get over his death.  That changing of setting, living without Ashok, instilled in her the confidence to live on her own.

Reflection:

As this was my first open-ended question, I think I did a good job of addressing all aspects of the prompt. I picked a novel and character where the quote was relatable and where I was able to consider cultural, physical, and geographical surroundings in the story. As this is a prompt where I had to pick my own piece of literature, it was difficult to find a balance in providing paraphrasing of the story and analysis. In this case, a bit of paraphrasing is important because it provides context to the main idea of my thesis; however, the analysis still must overpower the summary portions, and I believe this was an area of struggle for me.

Fortunately, in this case, the prompt was one I was able to relate to The Namesake, a text I read recently and am currently analyzing in class. I'm glad I knew the text well enough to analyze and even provide a direct quote from. These details are key as they strengthen the argument and show a strong understanding of the text. Choosing a piece of literature doesn't seem to be a huge problem for me at this point.

With regards to scoring, I would give this essay a 5 because I think it demonstrates an understanding of complexity (especially when I mention Ashima's 'home' and her husband's death in Ohio). The writing, however, could have been better organized and more sophisticated to meet the higher standards of the AP scale. I also used more 'summary' than I should have, so next time I'll be more focused on the actual analysis. Overall, I think I can improve on my weaknesses and improve my strengths even more by spending more time organizing my thoughts and planning out the writing process before I begin writing.