Watch the film entitled The Namesake (2006) The Namesake Answer the following questions: Ashoke and Ashima immigrate to the United States from East India and raise their two children, Gogol and Sonia in the United States. Throughout the movie we see the themes of identity transformation, evolution and struggle. 1. At what place in the cultural-ethnic identity typological model (textbook p. 82) do you believe Ashoke and Ashima fit when they first arrive in the U.S.? Do their identities change over time? If so, how? Make sure to use examples from the film and connect them to the typological model to defend your answer. (You can choose to talk about only Ashoke or only Ashima, if you think they fit into different parts of the model.) 2. How do we see Gogol’s personal and/or social identity evolve through the course of the film? Why do you think he goes through these changes? Make sure to use examples from the film to defend your answer, linking the examples to any topic that we have discussed so far in class (linking value patterns to identity is a great starting place). (Remember, identity is both personal (what makes us uniquely us) and social (who we are in relationship to others), and these identities evolve and change depending on our life experiences, who we are communicating with, and the context we are communicating in.)
