The Light That Left Me

The warmth upon my hand calmed the slight cramps I received from writing a painful journal entry on the characterization of Moushumi and Gogol’s absurd relationship; however, as I soon found out, all good things must come to an end. The following afternoon when I anxiously awaited that afternoon sunlight, a dark, frightening shadow engulfed the beam of hope that shown into the treacherous room. As quickly as she came, and eliminated my happiness, she left without a word other than, “No sunlight for you, you can live in the darkness like me!” and a cackling laughter that still, almost a week later, wakes me in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Ironically, a frost seemed to drift over the entire class that fateful afternoon when this denier of light, Ms. Serensky, left us with the horrific notion that the narrator contains an indifferent, didactic tone throughout the entirety of The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and gives just the straightforward facts with no emotion. I am horrified by this statement because throughout the book I did not recognize this purely factual style, which highlights my weakness in AP English 12. However, the repetition of rhetorical questions, from Moushumi, at the end of chapter eight still puzzles me because the interrogative diction “why hadn’t he told her these things?” definitely creates a saddened and confused tone towards Moushumi's former love's, Graham, actions (217). This seems to contradict the fact that the narrator has an indifferent tone but, as Ms. Serensky brilliantly put it, these questions do not come from the straightforward narrator but really from Moushumi’s mind. Nevertheless, I remain under the impression that the narrator’s purpose consists of discussing what occurs in the plot besides the dialogue. I am thoroughly convinced that the narration, which includes the rhetorical questions, consists of tone but who am I to dispute the great one? Which leaves me still cowering in darkness with no refute at least until college when I will have enough effrontery to dispute my teacher.