Identity And Post-Colonial Lens: A Literary Analysis

Improved Essays
The identity/post-colonial lens is an additional lens in which a reader can read through. In this lens, the reader looks for examples of how a person’s self-image is affected by how others nearby see him or her, along with also looking at how one culture naturally has power over another in the vicinity. The reader will look for characters who are affected by the world and different cultures around him or her, analyzing the effects these have on the characters. People who are only post-colonial critics, they usually “[look] at issues of power, economics, politics, religion, and culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony (western colonizers controlling the colonized)” (Brizee “Post-Colonial”). This is because those …show more content…
Reading through this lens does benefit the reader, though, by helping him or her to see these cultural differences and how they affect the individuals throughout the story. Without reading through this lens, these important details may be missed. However, this lens does have some drawbacks as well. Since it is technically two lenses in one, it can sometimes be difficult to catch both at the same time. Also, these two give the reader even more to look for while reading, which can also hinder the reading. Nevertheless, a reader who applies this lens to a novel can help him or her to read differently, noticing the differences between cultures, along with how the character’s identities are formed. The post-colonial/identity lens could easily be applied to The Namesake through which the reader would easily notice many aspects from this paired lens. Reading The Namesake through this lens can provide an interesting point of view, and the reader also gains a better understanding of the linked elements throughout the book. This novel, written by Jhumpa Lahiri, is about a boy, Gogol, who is born in America to Indian parents. Throughout the book, his parents, Ashima and Ashoke, slowly begin to intertwine with the

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    My cultural identity developed through solid principles established on a foundation of positive values, and morals. I have fond remembrances for the traditions of worship, celebration, and clean living. This is what connected me to my family is how our family connected. What I gained from family gatherings was the importance of family unity and strength for family. My parents were very Afrocentric, my father would go to “Sankofa” meetings which I never understood the significance at that time, but now aware of that Sankofa symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge.…

    • 1607 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The contemporary postcolonial literature by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Hanif Kureishi, M. Nourbese Philip and Zadie Smith combines the concepts of language and gender to show differences in cultural identity and, especially expose the difficulties these differences bring in the assimilation of the native culture and the colonialist culture. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kureishi, Philip and Smith all have different approaches and experiences when it comes to the intersections of these concepts and cultures, and their writing shows how language and gender creates a division between the colonists’ culture and the native cultures of the authors. Ngũgĩ’s essay “The Language of the African Literature”, shows how the introduction of the English language into his…

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine you are at an art museum and you find yourself in the abstract art section, the cubism, surrealism, fauvism. You gaze at the paintings with confusion, questions, and wonder trying to figure out what they mean. You look around and catch a glimpse of others around you with similar expressions. These sights of confusion, questions, and wonder are constants in my life. Similar to an abstract painting, people are confused by my appearance, and yet I have no discombobulated body like a Picasso or Dalí paintings.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Mark Edmundson's Analysis

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages

    People are taught how to read at a young age. They progress through school learning various techniques to help read the material more efficiently. One way is learning to how critique their assigned readings, and helps the young adults develop a better understanding of the text. A student assists their reading skills this way, because they are now able to apply different applications to the text. This opens their minds to understand different ways to interpret the reading rather than just form an opinion, which is important because not every child is taught how to read in the same school or under the same level of criticism.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 Society What would you do if you couldn't find your identity because of media or try to hang out with someone but you couldn't because there's too much violence and not be happy because you want express your self ? The book Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury ,he explains how the society in the book is so dumb for the fact that they believe everything they see .And how they don't care for one another .And they ride off books so they won't have any feelings or emotions and have a supposedly a better society .…

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Figuring out the identity of oneself can be a struggle because with it comes the disclosure of dark secrets that oneself has to accept in order to truly recognize who he or she is. “A Line In The Sand” is a Canadian play that was recently presented at the Factory Theatre in Toronto. The play was authored by two renowned playwrights Guillemore Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef. The play was established in the era of the Gulf war and deals with a number of complex posts and pre-war issues. One of the issues in the play that was addressed is identity crisis that Mercer a 20-year-old man and Sadiq a 17-year-old boy face.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book The Art of Professing in Bourbon Mexico, specifically chapter 6 titled: Colonial Identity Rhetorics, author James M. Córdova explains the impact that visual art had on the people of a blended society in which combined Euro- Christians and the indigenous mesoamericans of Mexico. During the eighteenth century, Mexico was under Spanish ruling and was called New Spain. Spanish monarch forced the indigenous people of mesoamerica to worship their God and follow their religion of christianity. As both cultures fused together, there was a hierarchy of importance based on race. Those on top were referred to as Peninsulares who were Spaniards born in Spain; after that were Creoles, those who were born in New Spain of Spanish parents.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. She searches for Ashoke's face, but he has stepped behind the curtain the doctor has drawn. "I'll be back," Ashoke says to her in Bengali, and then a nurse adds: "Don't you worry, Mr. Ganguli. She's got a long ways to go. We can take over from here.…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    ADW 111 PROF. HALEY Critical Essay Original Title Toni Spencer tspence9@scmail.spelman.edu November 7, 2017 The African diaspora is made up of individuals that share the common ancestry of African descent. According to Professor Tiffany Ruby Patterson and Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley, the african diaspora is the “experiences of african peoples dispersed by the slave trade and [it is] also an analytic term that enabled scholars to talk about black communities across national boundaries. Much of this scholarship examined the dispersal of people of African descent, their role in transformation and creation of new cultures, institutions and ideas outside of Africa” (par. 5).…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Settler Colonialism Essay

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The United States has an entire day dedicated to the “discovery” of North America, despite the fact that it was already settled, just not by white people; this entails the ongoing concept of settler colonialism. Settler colonialism is the process in which a group of people, known as colonizers, moves to a new area with the goal of living on and conquering the land. It differs from classical colonialism, or financial imperialism, in that settler colonialism aims to conquer an area permanently, as opposed to temporarily using land to extract resources. Typically, settler colonialism involves one group, the colonists, which perceives the culture they are conquering as uncivilized, and attempts to “modernize” and “civilize” their culture, religion,…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Colonization of Indigenous people resulted in the appropriation of lands and resources for the benefit of early European settlers. Through colonization, there has been an imposition of Western ideology which enforces a patriarchal view that had negative effects for Indigenous women. In this patriarchal system, Indigenous men internalize views of superiority resulting in violent acts on women. These views are illustrated by Sherene Razak, in “Gendered Racial Violence and Spatialized Justice”, by Kim Anderson, in “The Construction of a Negative Identity”, and by Lee Maracle, in her book Ravensong. Therefore, this essay will argue how through spatial segregation, Indigenous women lose entitlement of personhood through state laws and that violence…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This essay argues that North American governments passed laws in an attempt to strip Indigenous peoples of their culture in what can be considered Cultural Genocide by forced relocation, the outlawing of traditional ceremonies and the use of re-education in the form of residential schools. Genocide is defined as the deliberate and systematic act of destruction to whole or part of a racial, religious or ethical group1. In 1933 Raphael Lemkin spoke at an International conference for Unification of Criminal law in Madrid where he proposed that genocide consisted of the destruction of a cultural group in two ways the first being the annihilation of members of the group and the second being the undermining of their way of life what is now considered cultural genocide2. The Canadian and United States of America have both enforced laws that can be considered acts of Cultural genocide to the indigenous peoples of North America. The United States government forced the Native Americans to relocate west of the Mississippi in what is now Oklahoma, know now as the Trail of Tears resulted in thousands of death, they set up residential schools in an attempt to destroy Native American culture and they also were at war with different tribes from about 1644 till Wounded Knee in 1890.…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Assimilating oneself into a whole new culture, while still connecting to one’s rooted culture is not an easy task. Just like in the case of Gogol’s, cultures tend to clash creating it much harder for one to identify themselves. This causes feelings of isolation and loss of self-identity. Gogol’s quest in searching for his true individuality plays a vital role in his life. He is challenged in where he considers himself fitting in.…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Namesake Theme

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the novel, The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri shows how Ashoke’s death changes how Gogol views his traditional culture and the attitude toward his family. After his father passed away, Gogol finally realized that how much his parents care about him, pay attention…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stuart Hall in “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” says that Identity is not as clear or transparent as it appears to be, rather it is problematic (222). In postcolonial context identities can be seen as ever changing phenomenon and they are constantly shifting (10). According to him identities are not transparent and create problems for post-colonial subjects. Instead of thinking about identity as an accomplished fact, one must see identity as a product, which is never accomplished or which is never complete. In fact identity can be seen as a product, which is always in process (Hall, 222).…

    • 1711 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays