1. Group E - creynolds25

In the Book The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a book about a family that moves to Massachusetts from India. The mother Ashima is pregnant and tries to leave the hospital without naming him because of culture. The doctor says that can’t be done and they give him the name Gogol which is a pet name.  Ashima gets pregnant again and Gogol goes to school. Gogol then receives his “good name” Nikhil which is his more official name. Kids start making fun of Gogol’s name. Students wonder about his name as it's Russian but he is Indian. Eleventh grade he is a smoker and drinks which his parents do not know. He goes to a party at the college his dad works at and he meets a girl named Kim who he kisses and tells her his name is Nikhil. In the book when Gogol was younger he did not want to change his name to Nikhil. His parents tried to tell him to change it because it was in their culture. When Gogol got to the school to be registered he got help from the principle to keep his name Gogol. “Gogol? Do you want to be called by another name?... he shakes his head no.” (59 Lahiri) This shows that the principle helped with their misunderstanding, because the parents could understand that Gogol did not want his named changed. That he wanted be Gogol not some new name.

In the book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz it talks about Oscar de León is the main character in my book and he is a Dominican American who is a nerdy man, haunted by a family curse. The book goes on to talk about his life and the events he had to go through to get where he is now. Oscar is a Dominican American living in New Jersey and how he has faced struggles trying to find his place in the community, identity and mostly love. Currently the book talks about Oscar in highschool and how he is hopeless in love because he has been rejected by the girl in his SAT class for her older more abusive boyfriend. He is depressed and his feeling extremely isolated, puberty is taking over his self confidence and making his desire for love even stronger. Based on my book a quote that relates is “If you didn’t grow up like I did then you don’t know, and if you don’t know it’s probably better you don’t judge.” (5) Oscar deals with being judged and misunderstood, people will judge him without knowing his story.

What if Oscar never had the struggle of a love life? would that change his personality and how would it change how he goes about life? 

In the book "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros the Main character Esperanza struggles with fitting in with others in her age group. Esperanza is a 12 year old girl who is Mexican-American growing up in the state of Chicago. She is self conscious of her appearance, weight and even her name. All throughout this book she has talked about. Esperanza deals with toxicity in her life not only formed by her but also others who do damage towards her and her esteem. "If you give me five dollars I will be your friend forever. That's what the little one tells me. Five dollars is cheap since I don't have any friends except Cathy who is only my friend till Tuesday. Five dollars, five dollars" (Cisneros 14). This proves that Esperanza is an option to people who she literally pays to be her friend because she is treated as an option to a majority of the people in her life. In conclusion, yes the main character in my book faces problems with being misunderstood.