The Namesake

The film I have chosen is “The Namesake” by Jhumpra Lahiri. A traditional Bengali Indian family, the Ganguli’s, are moving to New England and are trying to stay engulfed in their unique cultural identity. Ashoke Ganguli brings his new wife, Ashima, to a strange new world, leaving her lonely and confused of a culture outside of her own. Ashima needs to learn to love a man she does not know, to customize herself to a country she is unfamiliar with, and to hold true to her values in a culture foreign to her traditional beliefs. In this paper I will inform the reader of the Family structure, social class on gender as well as material culture and nonmaterial culture pertaining to the Ganguli’s and how they made a place in American society. I will also show you two different sides to view this movie from, Symbolic interactionist and how it relates to this movies identity as well as the Functionalist perspective and its objectivity (Cherlin 03) on material impacting this story.
Family Structure Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli, have an arranged marriage. An arranged marriage is one set up by either parents or grandparents, to benefit the families. Arranged marriages are to be performed usually out of necessity and not out of love, “in many societies throughout the world today, people marry out of obligation to parents, and family” (Murstein 1974, pg. 47). This can be seen as an Institutional marriage. Romantic love based on emotions was seen as risky and not practical (notes M/F), Ashima comes from an upper class Bengali family. We can assume this because of her knowledge in singing, music, and poetry. Ashima recites poetry by Robert Frost for Ashoke and his family. Ashima’s family believes that Ashoke is a suitable husband for their daughter and by marrying him she will have access to whole new world. Ashoke’s family is an upper middle class family. We can assume this by their wealth of knowledge as well as that their son is training in New York City for his PhD. Gogol