This Blessed House

At the end of our class discussion on the interview of Jhumpa Lahiri and the story as a whole, the question "is everything you do a performance?" came up.  My first instinct was to say no, but then I got to thinking and realized the answer is much more complicated than a yes-no answer.  In the story, Twinkle could be interpreted as putting on a performance when she wants to display the Mary statue in their lawn and Sanjeev could been seen as putting on a performance when he acts like he doesn't hate the christian trinkets in front of his guests at his party.  I also started to think of everyday instances where people, including myself could be preforming instead of acting as myself.  The first occasion I can think of when I do put on a performance instead of acting as myself is when i meet people my dad works with.  This only occurs ever once in a while when my family has a party or my sisters and I go downtown to meet him for lunch.  Are there times in everyday life that people are putting on performances?  Are some people's entire lives performances?  I have never know a person whose entire life is a performance, but then again how would I know?  The only time I have seen this is in movies and books, but that is because as a reader or viewer you get to see all sides.  Everybody does their little performances in certain situations but I would like to believe that a person's entire life is not a performance but it could be.  

This Blessed House

I found it very interesting that Twinkle in a way converted to Christianity because of a game.  She was inspired by the many Christian knick-knacks she found hidden throughout her new house.  She treated each new trinket as if it was the best thing in the world.  When she started finding the Christian paraphernalia she was not Christian.  Her and her husband, Sanjeev, were "good little Hindus" (Lahiri 139).  Sanjeev was not very happy with Twinkle displaying the Christian symbols in his house.  He especially did not approve of the statue of Mary lawn ornament.  I find it a little strange how quick Twinkle was to change her religious beliefs, in a way.  She never started practicing Christianity but she refused to throw away or hide any of the items she found throughout the house.  As a reader, we do not get to find out much of Twinkle's past so we have to infer a reason for her quick change of heart.  There are many reasons and hopefully in class tomorrow some of my classmates might have come up with some of these reasons.

O

In class the question of why basketball was chosen to be the main sport for the movie was brought up.  I was very intrigued by this question so I decided to do some research on the history of basketball. I found one website that I really found interesting.  One thing the website claimed that I think is one of the main reasons basketball was chosen for the sport was "basketball has symbolized the best and the worst of American culture". Throughout "O", the best and worst qualities of Oden are revealed.  He starts out as a very nice, dedicated basketball player, he loves his girlfriend, and is friendly towards most people.  As the movie progresses, Oden becomes extremely jealous of what he thinks D is doing.  Just as basketball symbolizes the worst of American culture, Oden's worst qualities start to come out and are shown at their peak when he pushes Mike down in practice and attempts to beat him up before he is pulled off of him.  The website also shares that basketball is associated with black men most of the time, and Oden is a black man.  I couldn't find anything on wither or not the actually playing of basketball has any significance which could help in determining why it was the sport chosen.  I found the short article on the website very informative and if you were wondering why basketball was the sport chosen also check it out!