Question

Read the excerpt from The Namesake.

She opens a door, and Gogol is introduced to his teacher, Miss Watkins, a woman with hair in two braids, wearing overalls and clogs. Inside the classroom it’s a small universe of nicknames—Andrew is Andy, Alexandra Sandy, William Billy, Elizabeth Lizzy. It is nothing like the schooling Gogol’s parents have known, fountain pens and polished black shoes and notebooks and good names and sir or madam at a tender age. Here the only official ritual is pledging allegiance first thing in the morning to the American flag. For the rest of the day, they sit at a communal round table, drinking punch and eating cookies, taking naps on little orange cushions on the floor.

Which central idea of the passage is established in this excerpt?
Globalization causes people to redefine their cultural identities.
Globalization allows people to maintain traditional cultural identities.
Globalization has more of an impact on adults than it does on children.
Globalization is unaffected by the dominance of any one particular culture.

Answer 1

Globalization causes people to redefine their cultural identities.

Answer 2

"Globalization allows people to maintain traditional cultural identities." is wrong, since traditions were clearly changed.

"Globalization has more of an impact on adults than it does on children." is wrong, because those who are going through different things are the children, not the adults. At least that's the case in the excerpt.

"Globalization is unaffected by the dominance of any one particular culture." is wrong since not only there's no real mention of other cultures to see what's affecting what, we are shown clearly that there is a change in culture.

Answer:

"Globalization causes people to redefine their cultural identities."

Gogol who is the son of Indian Bengali parents. He seems very confused about his own identity. He changes his name from Nikhil to Nick and even gets engaged to an American women. He redefined himself to fit in. His cultural identity changed because he was living in a whole new place with a whole new set of behavioral rules. You get a tip of globalization and cultural identity changes when you notice the hair style of the teacher, common to native Americans.