The Namesake By Mira Nair Sparknotes

Being the generation after the first immigrant is quite interesting. You are always in limbo between cultures and are always trying to understand why your parents have done and do what they do while trying to be true to who you are and also trying to be accepted in the country that you immigrated into. The Namesake by Mira Nair is about a Bengali family living in the United States. It all starts with the father being involved in a train accident, marrying the mom, and then relocating her to America. Soon, they have children who are not very connected with their lineage. Soon after the father dies, the children become more connected to their lineage. Mira Nair does an incredible job describing how difficult being a child of an immigrant can
In this shot, we can clearly see everybody's expression, especially Gogol’s expressions. And his expressions are those of curiosity, wonder, and amusement, and very few times he has an expression of stress. At this exact moment, he seems to be a lot more in touch with his Bengali heritage than his American side. These nuances with what to be more connected with are described very well in the reading of Borderlands by Anzaldua. In this reading, Anzaldua goes into the fact that sometimes you can feel as if you belong to either side of yourself fully. “We call ourselves Mexican-American to signify we are neither Mexican nor American.” In this section of the chosen time span, Gogol leads everyone through the crowd with such ease that it is as if he has always done this and has always been in India. However, he still gets stressed as if he doesn’t know how to deal with it, because he in fact does not, because he grew up in the United States. He is neither fully American nor Indian in this section of the scene. The final part of the chosen time span is Ganguli’s first look at the Taj Mahal. They are all looking at the wonder in