In The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, I must admit that I was disappointed by the lack of good judgement made by both Ashoke sand Ashima. Not only does Ashoke bring his newly married wife to the United States while he is still in school, but they also have a child together. Ashoke, a P.h.D. student at MIT probably has enough to worry about relating to school work. Bringing a wife while even he is not yet properly settled in my opinion is not the best idea. As I started to read through chapter 2 of The Namesake, I could see an array of issues arising. Most of them originated from the new wife missing her family. She is losing her elderly family members and "wants to go back." Her words show how naive she truly is. After having a child with a husband who is studying at one of the most difficult programs, going back to India may not be the best or easiest idea. We learn early in chapter 1 that Ashima had only come to Boston eighteen months ago, before which she had never heard of the city. Although it's easy to sympathize with her, I definitely think that having a child so early was too hasty. Ashima claims in chapter 2, "I don't want to raise a child alone in this country." Later she also says, "hurry up and finish your degree." I feel like Lahiri has given us strong evidence that a child at such an early stage has added more tension and grief to the parents' worry. Ashima also thinks it to be unfair that she must sit at home alone with the baby while Ashoke spends the day at MIT's engineering department. In Indian culture, the baby is always being cared for by not only the mother, but by the grandmother, aunts, and so on. Meanwhile, she feels lonely to have to do all this by herself. The best solution, I think, would have been to wait to have the baby at least until Asoke was out of college.
I agree that Ashima is worried. She is almost too worried. She prefers to go by tradition, which is good but is it really? I believe that they can start a new tradition or at least break part of the old one. Ashima and Ashoke should learn to live on their own and adapt to their surroundings. They should behave like animals moved out of their homeland and put into a completely different habitat. All of this is a possibility because they are both really young. Plus, they live next to a family of hippies who would support them in everything they do that is unorthodox. I also believe that they could pay for a relative to come and live in the United States with them if Ashima is really desperate. I also agree with you Dave that they had the chid too early. I feel like Ashima needs to grow a pair and woman up. She's in America where the women are working their way to equality and they are all showing their strengths while she's just sitting and crying like her son.
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