Gogol "How could you guys name me after someone so strange" (100).
Gogol goes away to college and legally changes his name (104). Does he really hate his name or the fact that it sets him apart?
More musical references: Charlie Parker, Elvis Costello. Note how listening to old songs can bring back vivid memories.
"But Now that he's Nikhail it's easier to ignore his parents, to tune [italics inserted] out their concerns and pleas" (105).
Nikhail dates American women. Refuses to identify with Indian culture by joining college organization.
Adapts Maxine's music: Simon and Garfunkle, Neil Young and to the upper class values she shares comfortably with her parents. Stretching, like a rubber band ever further form his own past.
". . . here at Maxine's side, in this cloistered wilderness, he is free" (158). How is Nikhail's relationship with Maxine like an overcoat?
Play video of chap 8 from Bend it: Cultural differences especially apparent in gender expectations of Indian culture. Women not "liberated." Girls should learn how to be good cooks and housewives--not to play soccer. "Look how dark you've become, running around in the sun." Father "You must start behaving like a proper woman, OK?" Later conversation: "What your parents don't know won't hurt them." Compare and contrast to Gogol's beliefs and behavior towards his and Maxine's parents and Jess' in Beckham.
Day 12: chaps 7, 8 & 9 video parts 6 & 7, how is Gogol "straddling two worlds?" The role the "ghost" of India plays in the novel and in life. Parents, how our feelings about them can evolve as we grow older. We take turns in class reading the conversation between Gogol and his father (122-123) in which he finally learns the "secret" about his namesake. Class imagines the setting, scripting (what needs to be said and what can be shown by the camera). Groups of two assigned to "play the scene." Gogol's father dies. List the things Gogol finds in his apartment (173). What do they say about the father and about the son?
"Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go" (187). Is this the "ghost"?
Discuss the breakup of Nikhail and Maxine. Why would Maxine have been excluded from the trip to Calcutta? (188). Has Gogol changed somehow?
Gogol meets Moushimi. Compare her to Maxine. How do they feel about dating an Indian? He's ". . . exactly the sort of person she had sought to avoid" (213). How was becoming French for Moushimi like Gogol's changing his name? Was Moushimi's fiancee like Maxine? (217). Within a short time Gogol is bored by Moushimi's friends, why? Is she too American or too French?
Day 13: chaps 10, 11 & 12, video part 8, the role of audience in writing and what writing can teach us about ourselves. Things slide downhill fast for Moushimi and Gogol. What unforgivable transgression does she make at a party? At their anniversary dinner Moushimi is very dissatisfied with the restaurant. Is it really the restaurant or her faltering relationship she finds unsatisfying? Notice how important food is to Gogol's mother and how food works here to show a lack of nurturing. As the novel ends Nikhail still faces a journey. Can you think of another ending or add another chapter to the story? What challenges will Nikhail's children face, should he remarry and have children? What about Sonia? What overall shape does the novel take? Is it linear, or circular? How does that support the theme? "For now, he starts to read" (291). What does this last and important line suggest about reading?
I like this unit because it is flexible and can proceed in many directions depending on student responses. If the poetic activity goes well, we may do more activities of that nature. The Beckham video clips can be supplemented if they are helping the students respond to the novel and making connections of a feminist nature. The Lahiri and Beckham video clips also offer insights into how the students might stage their own scenes from the novel. The PBS plan offers a community based activity. Although I didn't have time to add it, the Lahiri video clips can be a basis for written responses, like those on the NYS Regents exam. Students will have choices for a final project. They may work in groups to script and perform an interpretive scene from the novel or do the community project. The Rubric Bank offers good ways to access a performance.