Essay topics Joyful Strains and The Namesake

1. The process of assimilation is a matter of gains and losses. Compare the way the two texts
explore this idea.

2. Overwhelmingly, my desire was to melt in; not to disappear but just to feel less obvious.
(Joyful Strains)
to a casual observer, the Gangulis, apart from the name on their mailbox appear no
different from their neighbors. (The Namesake)
Compare what the two texts say about adapting to a new culture.

3. Whether children like it or not, their parents decisions and experiences affect them too.
Discuss the ways this is portrayed in The Namesake and Joyful Strains: Making Australia
Home.

4. To be true to yourself in a world that is trying to define you is the greatest achievement.
How do the two texts show this?

5. To come to terms with questions of identity is difficult for migrants and their children, but
ultimately necessary. Compare how this is shown in the novel and the anthology.

6. In the struggle between place and family, neither will win. Discuss with reference to the
two selected texts.

7. Despite the fact that food signifies ethnic and cultural differences, it is also food that can
unify people in a multicultural society. Compare how these two texts show what food
means in peoples lives.

8. We are who others say we are. Discuss with reference to the selected texts.

9. Everyone in these two texts is struggling with their identity, the only difference is the extent
to which they are coping with it. To what extent do you agree?

10. It is our relationship with others that enables us to define and understand our own
individual self. Discuss with reference to The Namesake and Joyful Strains.

11. Compare how The Namesake and Joyful Strains use structure and language devices to
portray the idea that identity is a complicated and fluid aspect of a persons life.

12. How do writers explore the importance of names in Joyful Strains and The Namesake?

13. The challenges facing second-generation migrants are very different from those faced by
their parents. To what extent is this idea shown by Joyful Strains and The Namesake?

14. Our parents values strongly influence our own. To what extent is this ideas supported by
Joyful Strains and The Namesake?

15. Compare Joyful Strains and The Namesake using the following quotations as the basis for
your response:
 Flynn 2.0 managed to tear himself free from the skin of the old Flynn and become the
person I had always quietly yearned to be, even if it meant undergoing a much stranger rite
of passage than expected. (Joyful Strains)
He [Ashoke] imagined not only walking, but walking away, as far as he could from the place
in which he was born and in which he had nearly died. (The Namesake)

16. Compare the ways in which Joyful Strains and The Namesake explore the importance of food
to culture and identity.

17. How do the writers explore the difficulties of assimilating into a new country in Joyful Strains
and The Namesake?

18. Compare Joyful Strains and The Namesake using the following quotations as the basis for
your response:
I suppose the trouble for all migrants who come here and go back there is that when you
get therethere isnt any there there. (Joyful Strains)
True to the meaning of her name, she [Ashima] will be without borders, without a home of
her own, a resident everywhere and nowhere. (The Namesake)

19. Compare the ways in which being an outsider is explored in Joyful Strains and The
Namesake.

20. The migrants experience is essentially one of being caught in between two cultures, and
belonging to neither. How is this idea explored in Joyful Strains and The Namesake?

21. How do the writers explore the importance of ones homeland in Joyful Strains and The
Namesake?

22. The characters dont find themselves through place, but through ideas. Discuss.

23. The intergenerational conflict is less about what they are than understanding who they are.
Discuss.

24. Otherness can only be cured by connecting with others. Discuss.

25. While those that choose to migrate have more control over their lives than those who dont,
those who dont have more breadth of choice. Discuss.

26. Home is a stronger pull than family. Discuss.

27. The more identities people have, the harder it is to know who they are. Discuss.

28. Im always leaving my home. Is this the case for these characters?