Fences and Namesake Critique - Essay Example

Fences by August Wilson and Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri are important texts that concern themselves with conflicts of cultures. However, it is the critical role played by women namely Rose and Ashima that help in understanding both the drama and novel. Rose, for instance, provides emotional support to her husband, Troy as he undergoes inner turmoil. Therefore, Troy’s wife demonstrates the strengths of perseverance and resilience, a trait that was common among women of color. Wilson attempts to demonstrate that while power consistently eludes men such as Troy and Gabriel, women will always offer support. Rose is an equally resourceful person in regards to attaining one’s dreams amongst African-American females whose history made it impossible for them to act. Emphasis on living a satisfactory life as opposed to financial gain is a critical strength of Rose that the playwright explores (Hayes 278). The exploration compares a new world where materialism constantly competes with personal growth and development. In Fences, while Troy is obsessed with achieving economic success, he forgets to live life normally hence dies a frustrated person. Contextualizing African Americans from the perspective of Rose is also apparent in Ashima’s life in Lahiri’s novel.

Ashima Ganguli, who is married to Ashoke suffers great cultural shock after immigrating to the US from Calcutta, India. Her perseverance mirrors that of Rose Maxon in terms of surviving on her own without her husband. While Rose waits for Troy when he is doing a prison term, Ashima goes to the US before her husband arrives. It means her strengths lays in a few issues worthy of note. First, by insisting on maintaining cultural relations with her network of family and friends left in Bengali, she embodies cultural pride missing amongst most Indians in the US. Second, during the naming ceremony of their child, Ashima agrees with Ashoke to obey the Indian traditions of allowing a grandmother to engage in the occasion. Lahiri writes: ‘Pet names are a persistent remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always serious, so formal, so complicated. They are a reminder, too, that one is not all things to all people (Lahiri 134).’

The strict obedience to Bengali culture for both official and pet name for a child insinuates the respect that Ashima has for her husband. The scene is equally evident in Fences whereby Rose attempts to accommodate Troy to accept an African American worldview of social inequality. Rose says in the play: ‘Okay Troy…you’re right. I’ll take care of your baby for you…cause…like you say…she’s innocent (Wilson 45).’ Third, Ashima instils family pride when odds are almost impossible to overcome. She does this by raising her child Gogol even with numerous challenges manifested in form of identity crisis and cultural acceptance in America.

Unfortunately, weaknesses also exist in the lives of both Rose and Ashima in Fences and Namesake. For instance, Rose is wholly dependent on husband making Troy’s life increasingly difficult. Consequently, he extends his psychological and economic stress to his sons Cory and Bono. The phenomenon is apparent when the former jailbird prevents his son from playing American football because of racial discrimination. Therefore, as a woman of color, she is helpless in determining the fate of her family when things become hard. Similarly, her inability to counsel her son on how to relate with Troy described as hard-headed and little of affection notably escalates problems in the family. Failure to initiate any meaningful reform as a female character is another critical weakness that leads Troy to die miserably. Alternatively, Rose struggles with social acceptance especially when in the fight for equal rights affecting members of her race (Zhou & Najmi 172). She plays a peripheral role while her husband and his brother persevere to overcome various racial challenges. Overall, Ashima faces the same obstacles that result to numerous weaknesses in Lahiri’s text worth explaining.

Ashima’s obsession with Bengali culture becomes a hindrance for her son to fully integrate in the American life. She compels her husband, Ashoke to cling to traditions that lack any meaningful significance to Gogol who struggles to gain acceptance in the American social life and its education system. Ashima’s poor approach in using multiple dislocations such as familial, historic, and cultural attachment to enrich her family is another fundamental weakness. The inability to embrace diverse heritage reveals the misuse of parental treasure when the past holds a household back. Contrastingly, while family structure ensures that Gogol achieves his dream of becoming an architect, her mother provides little assistance (Miguez 169). Instead, she is a deterrent because she insists on overdependence on archaic Indian traditions irrelevant to modern existence in Boston. Sacrifices hence become meaningless especially when they lead to the miserable death of Ashoke and Troy in Fences. Incapability of the female characters to merge past, present, and future events eventually contributes to the identity crisis, domestic conflicts, and deaths afflicting the males in the families. Therefore, it leads to some of the motivations that guide Rose and Ashima in the execution of their actions through the periods and places they inhabit.

The motivations begin with the roles played by the female characters in regards to advancing the plot and characterization of both Fences and Namesake. First, since Lahiri’s novel is set in the 21st century, it always attempt to tackle the clash of cultural values and the effect of globalization in different societies. Ashima’s motivations thus is pegged on satisfying goals and objectives of her family in accordance to global demands such as excellent education and happiness both for her son and husband. However, this differs Rose’s fate. Wilson wrote the play against the backdrop of intense of racial discrimination of African Americans particularly in sports (Hayes 287). Therefore, Troy’s wife is motivated by the need to overcome racial inequality at all costs including not contradicting her husband. Subservience as a means of survival is thus evident in Rose unlike in Ashima. It points to the contradictions that constantly their motivations to live life fully. Similarly, struggle for power in the 1980s was an instrumental theme that is missing Lahiri’s period. On that note, women characters such as Rose always seek to empower their husbands even it means allowing the existence of patriarchy. The ideology of patriarchy is what leads to the voiceless aspect missing in Rose in the entire play. Contrastingly, in Namesake, Lahiri brings a sharp clash between patriarchy and matriarchy in the 21st century when women have an equal voice as men.

Examination of domestic values in the two periods of 20th and 21st centuries is another vital element that explicates the motivations of Rose and Ashima. For example, while in Wilson’s time it was upon the men to provide – as seen with Troy and Gabriel despite their inadequacies, in Lahiri’s time is not true (Miguez 165). The reality is a shared domestic roles in raising children. Namesake thus suppresses Ashoke’s voice to ensure that he does not dominate major decisions as noted with Troy in Fences. Ashima’s motivation depends on American values of cultural amalgamation as is desired by Gogol when he interacts with other characters of different cultures. Alternatively, for Rose, her motivation is to allow her husband overcome the indignity of social inequality that has made a driver of garbage trucks.

The issue of nuclear family as opposed to extended family equally plays a crucial role in Namesake and Fences respectively. Lahiri’s women characters such as Ashima are sensitive to small knit families that allows easier making of decisions such as schooling and socialization of their child (Zhou & Najmi 158). On the other hand, Rose in Wilson’s drama has to contend with supporting Troy’s brother Gabriel and Cory – got from a previous marriage. Therefore, motivations are bound to different since both Rose and Ashima inhabit family worlds that are apart in their framework and attachments. Nuclear families have deeper attachments as seen with the devoted love Ashoke and his wife have for their son Gogol. Unfortunately, this is missing in Fences. Rose is witness to Troy’s rejection of a request from his son of a different marriage. The rejection is a deeper analysis of the contradictions that often motivate Troy’s wife when attempting to rehabilitate the father of her son in attaining his goals and ambitions in life.

I believe Rose and Ashima are partly tragic figures particularly in the way they deal with flawed husbands and sons. For instance, Rose struggles to Troy from succumbing to his fears of racial discrimination that prevented him from joining Major League Baseball. Rose’s hopes are eventually thwarted when her husband spreads his fears and doubts on his sons Cory and Bono (Hayes 260). Conversely, Ashima faces a similar fate when Gogol rejects Bengali culture despite all the family effort. She finds herself unable to intervene in terms of infusing cultural pride in her wayward son who is determined to embrace all American values and customs especially in his socialization and schooling. Again, these two characters are tragic because they confront diverse challenges ranging from serious racial discrimination to cultural shock and finally, the negative impact of modernization when it affects male folk as noted with Troy, Ashoke, and Gogol.

Unfortunately, weaknesses also exist in the lives of both Rose and Ashima in Fences and Namesake. For instance, Rose is wholly dependent on husband making Troy’s life increasingly difficult. Consequently, he extends his psychological and economic stress to his sons Cory and Bono. The phenomenon is apparent when the former jailbird prevents his son from playing American football because of racial discrimination. Therefore, as a woman of color, she is helpless in determining the fate of her family when things become hard. Similarly, her inability to counsel her son on how to relate with Troy described as hard-headed and little of affection notably escalates problems in the family. Failure to initiate any meaningful reform as a female character is another critical weakness that leads Troy to die miserably. Alternatively, Rose struggles with social acceptance especially when in the fight for equal rights affecting members of her race (Zhou & Najmi 172). She plays a peripheral role while her husband and his brother persevere to overcome various racial challenges. Overall, Ashima faces the same obstacles that result to numerous weaknesses in Lahiri’s text worth explaining.

Ashima’s obsession with Bengali culture becomes a hindrance for her son to fully integrate in the American life. She compels her husband, Ashoke to cling to traditions that lack any meaningful significance to Gogol who struggles to gain acceptance in the American social life and its education system. Ashima’s poor approach in using multiple dislocations such as familial, historic, and cultural attachment to enrich her family is another fundamental weakness. The inability to embrace diverse heritage reveals the misuse of parental treasure when the past holds a household back. Contrastingly, while family structure ensures that Gogol achieves his dream of becoming an architect, her mother provides little assistance (Miguez 169). Instead, she is a deterrent because she insists on overdependence on archaic Indian traditions irrelevant to modern existence in Boston. Sacrifices hence become meaningless especially when they lead to the miserable death of Ashoke and Troy in Fences. Incapability of the female characters to merge past, present, and future events eventually contributes to the identity crisis, domestic conflicts, and deaths afflicting the males in the families. Therefore, it leads to some of the motivations that guide Rose and Ashima in the execution of their actions through the periods and places they inhabit.

The motivations begin with the roles played by the female characters in regards to advancing the plot and characterization of both Fences and Namesake. First, since Lahiri’s novel is set in the 21st century, it always attempt to tackle the clash of cultural values and the effect of globalization in different societies. Ashima’s motivations thus is pegged on satisfying goals and objectives of her family in accordance to global demands such as excellent education and happiness both for her son and husband. However, this differs Rose’s fate. Wilson wrote the play against the backdrop of intense of racial discrimination of African Americans particularly in sports (Hayes 287). Therefore, Troy’s wife is motivated by the need to overcome racial inequality at all costs including not contradicting her husband. Subservience as a means of survival is thus evident in Rose unlike in Ashima. It points to the contradictions that constantly their motivations to live life fully. Similarly, struggle for power in the 1980s was an instrumental theme that is missing Lahiri’s period. On that note, women characters such as Rose always seek to empower their husbands even it means allowing the existence of patriarchy. The ideology of patriarchy is what leads to the voiceless aspect missing in Rose in the entire play. Contrastingly, in Namesake, Lahiri brings a sharp clash between patriarchy and matriarchy in the 21st century when women have an equal voice as men. Read More