Wednesday, February 8 The Namesake chapter 7 / quick write chapter 6

In class: collecting text-based responses from chapter 6
ALSO any writing responses from Chapter 5 (passed out on Monday; you had an extra day with no penality)

quick write on excerpt from chapter 6

class handout / copy below

Listening to chapter 7 
(disc 6)

Note that responses to chapter 6 questions are listed below. 

Read the following passage describing Nikhil’s experience the night after his 27th birthday party.  Imagine you are Nikhil’s friend.  Tell him why he is not “free” as long as he continues to divorce himself from his parents’ existence. Make sure to allude to specifics from your reading. (you do not need textual support)

“That night, lying in the cabin beside Maxine, he is woken by the sound of the phone ringing persistently in the main house.  He gets out of bed, convinced that it’s his parents calling to wish him a happy birthday, mortified that it will wake Gerald and Lydia from sleep.  He stumbles onto the lawn, but when his bare feet strike the cold grass there is silence, and he realizes the ringing he’d heard had been a dream.  He returns to bed, squeezing in beside Maxine’s warm, sleeping body, and drapes his arm around her narrow waist, fits his knees behind hers.  Through the window he sees that dawn is creeping into the sky, only a handful of stars still visible, the shapes of the surrounding pines and cabins growing distinct.  A bird begins to call.  And then he remembers that his parents can’t possibly reach him:  he has not given them the number, and the Ratliffs are unlisted.  That here at Maxine’s side, in this cloistered wilderness, he is free” (158).

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Chapter 6    content responses

1.  Where does Nikhil get a graduate degree in architecture? Why does he choose to study in New York rather than in Boston? He “did not want to move back to Massachusetts” [and] attend his father’s alma mata.

Nikhil receives his architecture degree from Columbia, after which he took a job working for a “firm in midtown” (125).

2.  How does he meet Maxine Ratliff, and how does his relationship with her transform his life?

Gogol meets Maxine at a party in Tribeca. For the first time, Gogol “feels effortlessly incorporated into [another] life (136). She shows him a different way of appreciating the world.

3.  What are Maxine's parents, Gerald and Lydia, like? How does Nikhil think they are different from his parents?

“Unlike his parents, they pressure [Maxine] to do nothing” (138) her parents demonstrate their affection for each other by buying “expensive pieces of jewelry” (138) or bringing home flowers “for no reason at all” (138).

4.  Why does Nikhil believe that his immersion into Maxine's family is like a "betrayal" (141) of his own?

Gogol is “conscious of the fact that his immersion in Maxine’s family is a betrayal of his own” (141), for he spends “much of his time” (141) and he has come to understand that they are “secure in a way his parents will never be” (141).

5.  How does the "truth" of his relationship with Maxine "seep out" (144) and why does Maxine eventually meet his parents?

The relationship ship seeps out, when Gogol admits he is going up to New Hampshire with Maxine’s family, rather than seeing his father off. Maxine is “curious…to meet his parents” (145) and so they stop on the way up to vacation.

6.  What warnings does Nikhil give Maxine before they go to his parents' house? How does Maxine's visit with Nikhil's parents turn out?

Gogol tells Maxine about the “restrictions”; that “they will not be able to touch or kiss each other in front of his parents” (145). The visit goes well and Maxine reassures Ashima about that she’d be nervous to be in a house alone. Gogol’s parents are awkward, but Maxine “eats generously” and “takes some extra cutlets and samosas for the road” (149).

7.  When spending time in "paradise" (152) with Maxine and her family, why doesn't Nikhil have "nostalgia" (155) for the vacations he has been on with his family?

“He feels no nostalgia for the vacations he spent with his family [as] he realizes they were never truly vacations at all” (155).  Their vacations were “overwhelming, disorienting expeditions” (155).

8.  How does Maxine hear Nikhil's pet name for the first time? How does she react when Nikhil explains the difference between his pet name and his good name?

When Gogol’s dad bids him goodbye, he tells him, “Drive safely, Gogol” (150), at which point Maxine learns of his pet name. When he explains his name to her, she replies, “That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard” (156).

9.  How does Nikhil celebrate his 27^th birthday?

“In the midst of the laughter…[Gogol] remembers that his father left for Cleveland a week ago…[and] that his mother is alone on Pemberton Road” (158).