An Unexpected End and Unexpected Friend

The death of Ashoke was very surprising to me, but even more surprising was the way that Gogol responded to it. Ashoke's death begins with stomach pains that seem like they would call for a visit to the local walk in rather than the hospital. I believe that Lahiri made the illness a sudden heart attack purposely so that Gogol could not go see him in time. Even if he could go back, I do not know if Gogol would have. He loved his father,...

Big changes for Nikhil

The Namesake has changed greatly from chapter one to where I am now, at the end of chapter six. Nikhil has changed greatly as a character as well. In his time at Yale and Columbia, he began to move even further from his parents. He decided to mostly avoid The Bengali culture that he grew up with. He hated the large dinner parties with huge families and annoying kids. Most of all, he hated how his mom made obscene amounts of food for the whole party...

Ashima's Homesickness

Throughout the first chapters of The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Ashima is consistently homesick. She does not just long for her home itself, but also the culture and traditions of the Bengali people that she lived with. She often feels alone and deprived of all of the great things that she had at home. She often looks past the great parts about America and if it is more advanced, she claimed that she likes the old way. Obviously there is a lot of...

Consciousness vs. Rationality

Notes From Underground has led me to contemplate the difference between the importance of consciousness and rationality. The underground man thinks that consciousness is more important than rationality because, "Once you have two times two makes four, here is nothing left to do or understand" (Dostoevsky 32). He believes that once you have realized something through rational thought, a man would be restricted to contemplating the fact. Rational...

Telling Their Own Story - TFA Essay

Chimamanda Adichie, Nigerian author and speaker, describes how a stereotype can, “make one story become the only story” (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story). Kay Olan, a Native American oral storyteller, and Chinua Adichie, author of Things Fall Apart, strive to shed light on all angles of Native American and African culture. Olan tells stories about her culture through the symbols provided by nature such as trees and animals. Olan and Achebe use the art of storytelling to provide a more equitable portrait of their people....

Things Are about to Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart has helped me learn some interesting characteristics of Ibo society, such as how their economy works, what kinds of human characteristics are valuable to them, and the kinds of food that they eat. Things Fall Apart show many interactions between families and friends. Often in these meetings, there are negotiations and ritual greetings. When someone walks into your house, that person often comes with, "a kola nut, some alligator...

We live on a knife's edge

Gian Giudice, a theoretical physicist, delivered a very interesting talk about the seemingly precarious situation that our entire universe is in. I first heard about the Higgs boson particle, I knew that it was a huge leap in theoretical physics, but I had no idea what kind of effect it would have on the way that we look at the universe. The Higgs boson particle was observed in the particle accelerator when scientists collided protons. This particle seems to prove that the Higgs field, a big cloud of undetectable, omnipresent energy that gives...