The Movie ' The Namesake '

Throughout the novel The Namesake you see the similarities and the differences between Gogol and Ashoke. Ashoke is born in India and he has made himself an educated man, he has also worked hard for his family to provide for them and show them how to succeed in America. Gogol is Ashoke’s son, Gogol has some hard times trying to figure out who he is as a person and who he wants to be. Both father and son seem to be so different on the surface when really, deep down they are so much alike.

his freedom he quickly began to forget his original Indian traditions. The first of which was

Difficult choices come and go from our life. Like trying to understand who you are as a person and where you come from. In the book The Namesake, a boy named Gogol grows up in a cultural Bengali family while living in a different country with different customs. Gogol is special because he is trying to balance the two cultures. Gogol tries to understand and learn his family's culture but tends to pick and choose things from each culture to fit his lifestyle. His response to his cultural collision is very unique. From this cultural collision Gogol question himself and his life decisions.

Gogol grapples with his name throughout the majority of the novel, yet this tension was in the makings even before his birth. Ashoke and Ashima being immigrants set Gogol up to live in two different cultures, American and Bengali. Many children of immigrants may feel like Gogol, having one foot in each world. Gogol framed his struggle with cultural identity through something tangible, his name. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, Gogol’s struggle with cultural identity is exposed most greatly by the name others call him and his reaction to it.

After the initial rejection of his name at a party, Gogol has decided to legally change his name. This change is driven by the character’s disgust at the name his parents had given him, although it is he that had rejected being called Nikhil in kindergarten. The name Gogol comes to represent two very different things to his father Ashoke, and Gogol. To Ashoke, the name represents his life being saved the fateful night of the train derailment. As Caesar writes, “To Ashoke, the name Gogol is...a reminder of the way in which the reading of [Nikolai] Gogol’s short story saved his life…” (108). To Gogol Ganguli, the name simply reminds him of a strange and sad writer he learned about in English class, with no meaningful representation in his own life. Gogol is frustrated that his parents named him something so silly, especially since it is not even a Bengali name. As Gogol stands before the judge, he is asked why he wishes to change his name, to which he responds, “I hate the name Gogol...I’ve always hated it ” (Lahiri 102) His rejection of the name Gogol allows him to escape the identity placed upon him by his parents. Although Nikhil is an Indian name, it enables him to try on a new and more sophisticated identity. The one by which he has his first kiss, his admissions to college, and subsequently the relationships that

After his divorce, which is a second difficult experience in his life, Gogol spends time with his family, specifically at a party his mother is hosting before she leaves for India, which again influences him to accept his Bengali culture. At this party, Gogol explores his old house and finds the copy of The Overcoat that his father once gave to him, which makes him realize that “without people in the world to call him Gogol, no matter how long he himself lives, Gogol Ganguli will, once and for all, vanish from the lips of loved ones, and so, cease to exist” (Lahiri 433). In college and when he was Maxine, going by Nikhil gives Gogol a newfound perspective in his life, one where being shameful of his name does not really exist. However, after going through both his father’s death and his divorce, Gogol feels upset when thinking about how he changed his name, which “provides no solace at all” (433). With most of his family and Moushumi gone, few people are left to call him Gogol, reminding him who he once was. Gogol’s sadness shows how he has become comfortable with his birth name, which he originally hated. Through his reading of The Overcoat and his reflection on the possible nonexistence of his life as Gogol, Gogol accepts both his name and his culture, which ultimately shows how he becomes comfortable with

As Gogol grows, he begins to hate his name as Gogol, and requests to change his name to Nikhil. ""What is the reason you want to change your name, Mr. Ganguli?" the judge asks. … "I hate the name Gogol," he says. "I always hated it."" (p.101-102) as Gogol brings up this topic to discuss during dinner befor he changes his name in the summer, Gogol claims that because he is an Indian with a Russian name in America, nobody is taking him seriously, thrust requesting to change his name into Nikhil, even if it makes a huge hassle to change his legal documents. With out the question of his rare name and confusion of the choice, Gogol accepts himself more easier and believes that he has become more Americanized. Gogol sees himself more Americanized as people do while he attends parties and other group activities in his social circle.

In Jhump Lahiri’s The Namesake Gogol Ganguli is constantly forced to choose between his American side and his Bengali side. Throughout the novel he has many relationships and goes through many stages of life, especially with his name. Gogol is running from his culture, but his culture has been so forced and pushed on him his entire life he will never really be free from his Bengali culture. From a young age Gogol has had a separation from his culture. So it is up to him to choose whether he wants to follow his cultural traditions or be a full and true American.

He is bewildered as to why his father named him Gogol as it not Bengali nor a normal American name which leads him to struggle to understand himself and his identity. In Bengali families, "individual names are sacred, inviolable. They are not meant to be inherited or shared" (28). However, Gogol grows up living in America, where children are often ashamed of their differences from others. As a teenager, Gogol desires to blend in and to live unnoticed. This presents a struggle between two cultures. Ashima and Ashoke want to raise Gogol and his younger sister with Bengali culture and values. On the other hand Gogol grew wanting to belong by relating mostly to peers and the surrounding culture in America. It is only much later in their lives that they begin to truly value their Bengali heritage and that Gogol finds the importance in his name. During high school Gogol struggles to accept his name as he sees it has no real significance not him. When Gogol heads for college he rejects his identity completely and legally changes his name to Nikhil which allows him to somewhat feel a sense of belonging as this name relates to his Bengali roots, even though he had been ashamed of those exact roots in schooling. Gogol dreads having to go visit home and return to a life where he is "Gogol". To him, Gogol is not only his name; it bears all his discomfort and struggles to fit into two different cultures as he grew up. His life at college makes it easy for Gogol to live as

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.

Intergenerational conflicts mainly involves in the process of searching identity in a new country. In The Namesake, it seems like the major part of the book is about Gogol’s identity formation and confusion. In fact, Ashima is also part of the process of forming American identity. One of the significant incident is the name-changing process of Gogol. At first, we can see how Gangulis’ parents Ashima and Ashoke are “still proudly and deeply entrenched in their Indian heritage” (Bhattacharyya 77), when they were asked to name their baby after themselves or one of the ancestors. They think “This tradition doesn’t exist for Bengalis, naming a son after father or grandfather, a daughter after mother or grandmother. This sign of respect in America and Europe, this symbol of heritage and lineage, would be ridiculed in India” (The Namesake 28). But later when Gogol ask to change the name, his parents agrees either because becomes accepting individualism or doesn’t want to explain why they name Gogol at the very first place. This explains how much Gogol wants to possess a new identity beyond his parents’ traditional norms.

In Mira Nair’s film, The Namesake, the disparate cultures of India and America affirms to the binary paradigm of “the one” and “the other”, manifesting the dominance of one from the other and its impact to influence and cause cultural and identity issues. The collision of the two cultures forms a process of trying to construct an identity and a destruction of an ethnic identity, with different factors to consider such as space and other sociocultural codes. This film about the Indian American also shows the concept of model-minority image, standards and expectations imposed to Asian Americans. The Namesake embodies the cultural and identity issues of an Asian American, particularly the Indian Americans, exemplifying the experiences of the

The author Jhumpa Lahiri shows how much Gogol has developed and matured throughout the course of the novel. From the the beginning of The Namesake to the end, Gogol is shown developing intellectually. Gogol intellectually improves himself by allowing himself to be more acquainted with his name and identity which gogol prefers to be referred to as. In the third chapter of The Namesake, Gogol takes on one of his first challenges when Gogol is introduced to his first year school. Gogol is perturbed when he finds out that Ashok and Ashima were allowing the other children to call Gogol by his “good name,” Nikhil instead of Original name Gogol. Although, Gogol had never had someone refer to him by anything other than Gogol throughout his entire life, Gogol is perplexed as to why he is being referred to by two names. The Principal of the school refers to him as “Nikhil” in a conversation, Gogol chooses not to respond. As Gogol is in the office with Mrs.Lapidus Ashok says “Go on Gogol”. In doing so Ashoke bagans to worry that by doing so Mrs.lapidus would began to catch on, however,

Once Gogol goes to you and introduces himself as Nikhil he realizes that he does not know who Nikhil is. He is confused because everyone he knows him as Gogol but when he's at Yale everyone knows him as Nikhil. It takes him a while to adjust to his new name which is represented to his new identity.

Gogol’s Parents, Ashima and Ashoke, gave him a name to add meaning and purpose to his life. The meaning is shown through Ashoke giving his son a name that represents hope for a better life and second chances yet it also represents tragedy. Nikolai Gogol, at the scene of Ashoke’s train wreck has passed away and this has a connection with Gogol’s life. When looking at his life it seems to be filled with confusion, disappointments, and dead-ends (Such as?) as he struggles to figure out whom he is and where he believes the curse of his namesake will lead him next.