The Gangulis Sparknotes

‘I didn’t realize,’ he says. ‘That’s okay,’ Gogol says, reaching for his wallet” (200). Although it is small gesture of speaking in his native tongue, he starts to embrace his cultural identity as Indian American. This happens after his father’s death. He might not have moved to India for the rest of his life or sworn to speak only Bengali, but it was the start of him embracing his culture more than he had before.

She explains her thesis by stating “Others who write stories of migration often talk of arrival at a new place as a loss of communal memory and the erosion of an original culture. I want to talk of arrival as a gain,” (360). The key points of the text include Mukherjee describing her transition between Calcutta and the United States, and what it means to be and American and how culture influences that aspect. The information in the text is significant; the people of America are a part of a melting pot, sometimes it is hard for them to find the distinction between American culture and their own. The information in Mukherjee’s story is clear and specific, unbiased, and is relevant to the purpose of the story. I believe Mukherjee has achieved her purpose of informing her audience about cultural differences; she presents certain strengths and weaknesses within the text.

Many second generation minorities from immigrant parents are driven subconsciously to conform to new culture and social norms. For foreign born parents and native born children integrating the two cultures they inhabit brings about different obstacles and experiences. In Jhumpa’s “The Namesake” the protagonist Gogol is a native born American with foreign born parents. The difference with birth location plays an important role in assimilating to a new society in a new geography. The difficulty for parents is the fact that they’ve spent a decent amount of time accustomed to a new geography, language, culture and society which makes it difficult to feel comfortable when all of that changes. For Gogol the difficulty only lies with the cultural norms imposed by his parent’s and the culture and social norms that are constantly presented in the new society.

Forming a new identity in a foreign country is not an easy task. Immigrants usually face challenges to identify themselves. Identity formation is the development of one’s distinctive personality due to particular reasons such as new environment, new culture and conflicts. During the process, some characters from Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake either create or deny the bond with their own culture; some undergo conflicts among generations. Those processes reflect significantly in Ashima and Gogol throughout the book. The degree of assimilations determines to what extent the characters have formed the new identity in the new culture.

Mukherjee uses contrasting diction to emphasize the difference of experiences the sisters had on immigration and the sacrifices they had along the way when faced with the American culture. For example, Mukherjee’s use of “maintain” and “self-invention” are contradictory to each other, but in the context “maintain” refers to her sister Mira and “self-invention” is directed to Mukherjee herself. In Mira’s case, she is very attached to her Indian culture and stresses about not letting the American culture take that away from her. The author’s purpose was to highlight the tenacious mentality Mira has on her culture. In contrast, Mukherjee's use of “self-invention” regards to her loosening her strict hold of Indian culture; the exact opposite

An individual’s identity is reflected in many aspects of their character. On of the aspects which affect a person’s identity is culture; culture plays a major role in the formation of an individual's character. It imposes customs which ultimately manifest through a person’s identity. The clear link between culture and identity suggests that conflict with one’s culture may affect a person’s sense of self. Jhumpa Lahiri explores this type of conflict in the novel The Namesake, in which Gogol Ganguli is stuck between two cultures the Bengali traditions of his parents and the American culture he grows up with. The novel explores Gogol’s conflict with both cultures and how it ultimately impacts the development of his identity.

The Namesake, by Jumpa Lahiri, is a misfortunate story of an Bengali immigrants who came to live, to give birth, and to raise family in America. Through different themes, Lahiri portrays the struggle and conflict revolving around family and the notion of one's identity. It emphasizes the role of identity asserted on the Gangulis in the story. Unlike others, Lahiri’s uses of food as a central theme to connect and disconnect the Ganguli to the conflict of hybridity. Hybridity involved the Americanisation of the Ganguli’s culture, tradition, and food.

This is shown when Gogol’s family move to Calcutta for eight months and how the describe the first night, “sleeping under mosquito net, bathing by pouring tin cups of water over their heads…hoping to keep with cross-country training, it is impossible, on these cracked, congested, chock-a-block streets, to run… It’s easier to surrender to confinement.” (Lahiri, 83). This shows that American life is different from Bengali life by describing life in Calcutta showing that sleeping in mosquito nets, bathing is hard, and he cannot get out of the house too much, because the roads are too confusing. This shows the conflict between cultures because the setting shows how poor life is in Calcutta, which us conflicting against an American life style which is shown when they move because Gogol has to drop what he is used to do when he is living in Calcutta. Setting is also showed when Gogol visits Maxine’s house “ the biggest difference between them, a thing far more foreign than the beautiful house she’d grown up in, her education at private schools…Gerald’s head resting on Lydia’s shoulder, Gogol is reminded that all his life he has never witnessed a single moment of physical affection between his parents.” (Lahiri, 138). This shows that the setting of life in Maxine’s house hold is very different from his own by Maxine’s life style and Gerald and Lydia love, because

The essential conventions of American society greatly differ from the essential conventions of Indian society. This disparity in culture was used as a basis in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Lowland, in order to make apparent the change an Indian woman, Gauri, went through in coming to American society. By underlying the difference in cultures of Indian and American societies, Lahiri characterizes Gauri as one who does not meet Indian societal. Gauri’s transformation in coming to America allows Lahiri to show that American society’s mores transform an Indian woman with limitations into a woman with newfound desires and traits.

People that we care about are very important in our life. They can be the most important thing to any person. Some people find reasons why they like a certain individual, whether it would be in a current situation, personality, or physical attraction. In the book The Namesake Gogol is a first generation of immigrant parents trying to adapt to their new life in the U.S. Since his parents are immigrants, they practice unique tradition that the average American are not used to. Throughout his life he has a few relationships that have been very important to him and changed him. Each of these relationships shows his views on Bengali tradition. Through the use of Gogol’s relationships, Lahiri shows Gogol’s feelings towards

The Namesake, by Jumpa Lahiri, is a story of misfortune that strikes a family of Bengali immigrants who came to live, to give birth, and to raise a family in America. Through different themes, Lahiri portrays the struggle and conflict revolving around family and the notion of one's identity. It is these themes that are use to emphasizes the role of identity asserted on the Gangulis. In this story, Lahiri’s uses food as a central theme to shows the Gangulis' conflict of hybridity. Hybridity refers to the Americanization and improvisation of the Ganguli’s Bengali culture, tradition, and food.

A person is only allowed to go by their pet name in private, and by their “Good” name to non-family members. The teacher helps to detach Gogol from his Bengali culture by letting him go by his pet name instead of listening to his father and calling him by his “Good” name. By allowing this, the Ganguli’s lose a sense of their cultural identity since they are forced to go with the American way of things. Cultural alienation is present in the way that the teacher completely disregards the parents’ requests of preserving their cultural identity. Gogol loses his cultural identity completely as he grows older leaving him disengaged from both Bengali and American culture. “He inherits not only his parent's way of life or looks, but also inherits the same pain of being lost in the midst of an alien culture” (Mangayarkarasi, 58). Cultural alienation has led the Ganguli’s, especially Gogol to feel isolated and unaffiliated with others in America. They are not fully accustomed to joining both American and Bengali culture and this causes them to lose sense of themselves and their cultural

The Namesake is a novel that describes the life of a Bengali couple who immigrate to the United States to form a life outside everything they know. The novel provides a detailed account of the family’s hardships and struggles that they face as they seek to belong in their new country. The story follows the life of their son, Gogol Ganguli and his struggle to belong in his family, culture and society. In the novel his name, Gogol begins to shape many aspects within his life and is central theme to the concept of belonging in the novel. The novel is open to ages 15 and provides an insight into the troubles that people may whilst trying to belong to a new society.

| One of the main themes in this story is pressure. Throughout the story Gogol feels pressured by his parents to follow the Bengali culture, to marry a Bengali girl, to eat Bengali food and to live the Bengali lifestyle. Myself being of the South Asian decent, I can relate to Gogol as well. My parents expect me to marry a Sri Lankan boy because they believe a Sri Lankan boy can make me happy. They also want

One very famous Indian speaker named Mahatma Gandhi once proclaimed “A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” Culture is a deeply overlooked topic among many individuals who now look towards social media and videogames. The term, culture, has lost significant meaning from the time Jhumpa Lahiri wrote Interpreter of Maladies to current times. Interpreter of Maladies is a book that includes many different stories about Indian culture and presents the difficulties of adapting to American culture. Three chapters/short stories in the book are Mrs. Sen’s, When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, and A Real Durwan, which are stories Lahiri has created to display the hardships of adapting to an American lifestyle. Lahiri is an immigrant from the United Kingdom who uses her books, such as Interpreter of Maladies, to channel her family’s, friend’s, and own experiences into different stories about their cultural values. Although some may believe change is not a difficult concept to adapt to, Lahiri uses the 3 Indian characters, Boori Ma (A Real Durwan), Mrs. Sen (Mrs. Sen’s), and Mr. Pirzada plus Lilia’s parents (When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine), and their backgrounds to exemplify change is never an easy task to accustom to.