Sunday, November 14, 2010
How Accountable Should Grown-Up Children be for their Parents?
Following Ashoke's death, I think the support that Sonia and Gogol gave to their Mother, Ashima was very appropriate. However, the fact that nearly thirty-year-old Sonia "settled back into the room she had occupied as a girl", seems too extreme for me (189). She had settled in San Francisco, thriving on her own and had a presumed successful job. I know that Ashima was very lonely and needed her children to stay with her for a while, but how long does she really need them there? Ashima is a grown woman, with a job at the library and has some friends to keep her company. I think Ashima needs to begin to be more independent, and not rely so much on her children; she has been in the United States long enough, and needs to honestly try to adapt herself to the American ways of living, such as driving a car. Her actions deem her as selfish, because she has caused Sonia to pity her and uproot her life in California and move back home, more than 3,000 miles away.
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Meghan, I like how you took a different viewpoint on Ashima. Yet in the instance with her husband's death, I felt a great deal of sympathy for her. She seemed to be the only person holding their family together. I think it is the children's responsibility to help their mother through this difficult time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the support Sonia and Gogol provided to their mother after their fathers death was more then they necessarily needed to provide. In class some people were criticizing Gogol for returning to New York as soon as he did but I feel his actions were entirely appropriate. Yes they did need to return home to support their mother, but at some point Ashima must step up and take care of her self and not become entirely dependent on her children
ReplyDeleteI do think that it is the children's responsibility to help Ashima get through this difficult time but I also agree that it was not entirely Sonia's duty to move back into the house. I partly blame Gogol for not sharing this responsibility with Sonia. Maybe if he showed more support toward his mother, Sonia would not have felt obligated to move back in to Ashima's house.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Meghan on the extreme Ashima enforces on her children. However, since reading the end of the novel, I understand Ashima's need to have her children by her side. Without a husband, Ashima must live and act alone regularly. I feel that she has adapted to American life, but still treasures her relationships with her family. I feel Sonia had similar attachments to her family and did not feel obligated, rather, wanted to support her lonley mother. Therefore, I sympathize, instead of criticize, with the pain Ashima faces daily and respect the daughters commitment to her mother.
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