The Namesake- Week 1 Post A

I would first like to say that these cultural blogs won't be to difficult because the culture in this novel is really apparent, and quite different than our culture here in America.  "The Namesake" is about a Indian woman living in America who recently gave birth to her first son. Within the first few sentences you can already tell that this woman, Ashima Ganguli, is not from here. She is combining a bowl of Rice Krispies, Planters Peanuts, onion, salt, lemon juice, green chili pepper, and wishing for mustard oil to add to the concoction. A common snack found on the streets of Calcutta, where she was born and raised. Her desire to eat this is mostly due to her pregnancy, which is due any day. It is this pregnancy that continues to tell more about her culture. Her husband, Ashoke Ganguli, does not appear to be readily at her side to bring her to the delivery room, but tends to keep his distance most of the time, and is even a little awkward between the two. This awkwardness most likely comes form the fact that they are an arranged marriage, as most are from where they come from. Ashoke and Ashima got married just within two weeks of meeting each other. I think that they both care for each other, and love each other, but Ashoke seems to have school at the top of his priorities. Ashima doesn't bother with that, because it is courtesy of the wife to not disturb the husband. She mostly stays at home all day waiting for him to come home for the dinner she prepares him. It is a very stereotypical "man goes to work all day while the woman cleans the house" type of relationship plus a different culture marriage. The difference between the stereotype of men in women in a marriage is that Ashoke doesn't seem to much of anything for his wife. He wasn't even sure if he should get his wife flowers after she gave birth, and it never even crossed his mind. Also, when the wife was in the hospital for a few days in labor Ashoke went home and stayed there until the hospital informed him of when the baby was being born. A lot of times you'll see the husband stay with his wife, and even go into the delivery room.  These are only a few observances found so far throughout.