How Steinharts Name Affects His Identity - Essay Example

How Steinhart’s Name Affects His Identity A book or a film character may have different names and different identities. These identities may be unleashed at different episodes in the book or in the film. In addition, a character’s name may affect his identity in one way or the other. For example, in the book, Little Failure: A Memoir by Shteyngart, the author has different names and splitting personalities. The author’s name affects his identity and his personality meaning that that the way he views himself and the way other view him are affected simultaneously. By analyzing Shteyngart’s names and their effects on his identity and personality, it becomes possible for the reader to understand how a person’s name affects his/her identity and other things such as his/her name. To start with, the author’s initial name was Igor. However, his named changed to Gary. The author also once held other nicknames such as Yitzhak Ben while in a Hebrew school and another name, Gary Gnu. Associated with his names is a “Dissociative Identity Disorder.” He explains, “I’ve got four! To my parents and Grandma Polya I am Igor Semyonovich Shteyngart, disobedient son and beloved grandson, respectfully. Very respectfully. To the American teachers at SSSQ, I am Gary Shteyngart, strange salami-smelling boy with some aptitude at math. To the Hebrew teachers at SSSQ I am Yitzhak Ben Shimon or some shit like that. And to the children, to my fellow pupils in their Macy’s regalia, I am Gary Gnu the Third” (Shteyngart). Based on his assertions, it is clear that Shteyngart is trying to find himself and he has personal conflict. In addition, he is unconfident, which is the reason he tries to find himself while in school and after in college. While with his girlfriend, the author feels as an immigrant and an unquenchable need to learn. Among his different names is the name Gary, which carries the American part of the author’s personality. Shteyngart’s life as Gary starts from Hebrew school since it was here that he started transforming from Igor to Gary or from the Russian boy to an American. At all this time, Shteyngart, is fighting with an immigration life. Consequently, Gary has problems with schoolmates since none of them wants to speak with him because “the Russians are liars.” Therefore, he doesn’t have no friends while holding his Russian name. In addition to this problem, the author has a problem with language. Only one thing makes him happy; writing. He writes down his first novel, “challenge.” Once he gets a chance to read his novel in a class he feels different. He says “As I’m reading it, I am hearing a different language come out of my mouth. I do full justice to the many misspellings (“the Earth cir-culed the moon”), and the Russian accent is still thick, but I am speaking in what is more or less comprehensible English. And as I am speaking, along with my strange new English voice, I am also hearing something entirely foreign to the squealing and shouting and sheket bevakasha! that constitute the background noise of SSSQ: silence. The children are silent. They are listening to my every word, following the battles of the Atlantans and Lopezians as far as the ten minutes of allotted time will go. And they will listen to the story for the next five weeks as well” and by this way he “moving the children away from my Russianness and toward storytelling. And toward the ideology of strength and Republicanism” (Shteyngart). However, he still fears being Gary. In his current name, he manages to get one friend in a school whose name is Jonathan. The author feels confident in Jonathan’s presence since he can share with him all his feelings and he can also show him his other identity as Igor. After school, Shteyngart goes to college and loses his friend for a while. He starts new step in life. In his current life, he is not excellent student at all, which disappoints his parents. Gary is trying to find his place in the college but he has problems social problems because there are different people and different situations than in the former Hebrew school. However, he still manages to get some friends here and girlfriend too, but he still unconfident in himself. Apart from being confident, still he doesn’t knows many things. He explains this by asserting that “As an immigrant, my job is to fucking learn. And what Oberlin has to teach me is how to become a part of the cultural industries in a handful of American cities. How to move back to Brooklyn’s Williamsburg or San Francisco’s Mission District and be slightly known among a select group of my own duplicates. You can’t announce your ambitions. You have to join a band where you dress like a chicken. You have to complain about the Soviet Union’s recent collapse even as your parents celebrate it. You have to bring a beach bucket and shovel to your morning shower and Lenin’s child is learning Marxism” (Shteyngart). Although he is still writing in a college and he’s in love with Jennifer, an American, Gary is still unconfident. He thinks that he’s not strong enough for her but keeps fighting with himself and with a new world in front of him. However, he still feels some connection with his past. During the summer vacation he is invited to Jennifer’s house and for once, he feels that he is welcome in a family. While in this situation, he keeps comparing his family Jennifer’s family and he can see difference between them. For example, Jenifer’s mom is nice to him and he even gives him a present during his 21st birthday. After spending summer in Jennifer’s house, there still one more year for Gary to be in college and somehow he gets chance to go back to Russia through the exchange program with the Moscow State Institute. Finally he gets a chance to go to the country of birth. However, his mom doesn’t want him to go since she is still afraid of this country. She still remembers the terrible feeling they had because of being Jews. During this time he writes downs the story,“Tree Views From The Avenue Of Karl Marx” and with his professor’s advice he sends the story to the New Yorker. However, the response is negative and Gary is heartbroken. To express his feelings, he writes. “I was ridiculed for being an inauthentic American, and now I am being charged with being an inauthentic Russian. I do not yet understand that this very paradox is the true subject of so-called immigrant fiction. When the inevitable rejection slip comes from The New Yorker, I decide I have to go back to Russia to get the details right” (Shteyngart) Based on his ideas, he thinks of going back to his country in order to get things right. However, Jennifer doesn’t want him to go since she does not want to be alone without Gary during a year. Despite this, she still understands that Gary needs to go home because of his novels but decided not to go because of her. After college he goes back home in Ohio. He finds some job too and after many years he goes to back to Russia with his parents in 2011. His first time to go home was in 1999 but alone without parents. After that he would go back to Russia almost every year. When they get in a hotel Gary asks his Russian parents “are you tired?” Suddenly, he becomes surprised after hearing his Russian language with an American ascent. He barely speaks as an native Russian. His anger at himself is noticeable where he says, “How much time have I spent in the last twelve years running up and down this exhausted, melancholy city, retracing their steps, trying to somehow make them my own. And then with the first Russian words out of my mouth, I realize the truth of the matter. It’s not possible to make their lives my own. While my mother and father are here, this is their country. And so my responsibilities lighten. And so I realize that what I have to do for the next week is to ignore my own goofy Russian bass and, simply, to listen” (Shteyngart). Based on his experiences in different identities, it is clear that Gary was trying to find his own place in America as an immigrant. However, he was still feeling as a stranger in this country; he was feeling alone. All the time, he was learning how to live in a foreign. All this time, he was missing his language and the place where he was born. However, only after many years when he got back to Russia with his parents did he realize that he was just born in Russia, and this country was his parent’s home. Therefore, Shteyngart finds his identity as Gray only after going back to Russia. Work Cited Shteyngart, Gary. Little failure: a memoir. New York: Barned & Noble, 2014. Print. Read More