In the Ted Talk “What’s missing from the American immigrant narrative” by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez, she talks about the difficulty of surviving and the struggles that an immigrant goes through. In her Ted Talk she tells her story of living alone at a young age and being separated from her family, “I mean, were my parents’ sacrifices not enough? Was the fact that my dad came home from the metal factory covered in corrosive dust, was that not super?”( Gutierrez 2).
In my book The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, it tells the story of Gogol Ganguli who is a first-generation Indian-American trying to grasp his identity. Gogol was born in Massachusetts to his Bengali immigrant parents, Ashoke and Ashima. As Gogol grows up he struggles with the uniqueness of his name, along with his dual heritage. He ends up changing his name to Nikhil when he gets to college. Throughout the book Gogol's relationships with his family and partners highlights his identity conflict. With his fathers sudden death, he soon comes to a realization. Gogol accepts his dual heritage and begins to embrace it. Gogol starts appreciating his cultural roots and the sacrifices that his parents went through,“They would have felt lonely in this setting, remarking that they were the only Indians.” (Lahiri 155).
The connection between the Ted Talk video and my book is that they both had struggles with themself and their family. In the book the Namesake Gogol dealt with his dual heritage and the death of his father. In the Ted Talk Elizabeth had to face the struggle of survival and immigration all at the same time. And she also was separated from her family and was living on her own from a very young age and had to provide for herself.
In what way did your character struggle with themselves throughout your book?
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