The Namesake By Jhumpa Lahiri

He loves their lifestyle and living with them brings him so much joy he doesn’t stop to remember those back at home. One day, Gogol tells his parents he will be spending a couple of weeks in New Hampshire with Maxine and her family and not long after they were off on their adventure. As they are leaving the house, Ashima call out, ‘“Call to let us know you’ve arrived there safely.” But he waves and drives off, pretending not to hear” (150). According to this quote, it is easy to see that as the story goes on, Gogol becomes less and less family oriented and cares less and less. This makes the readers wonder if Gogol will actually call to check in or if he will keep in touch with his family at all. Continuing in the book it is shown that unfortunately, Gogol does not call, he does not even give his parents the number of the house they are staying at in case they wanted to contact him. Gogol is too caught up with Maxine to remember his family. He has a great time on the trip spending time with Maxine and living life as a full American while his family is back at home, isolated from him life, wondering if he is

“I’m Nikhil” (Jhumpa Lahiri 96) these are the words that Gogol uttered for the first

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.

Regardless of how a child acts towards their parents, all that matters in the end is their unconditional love for them. However, the time it takes for them to express their gratitude will depend on each child. In the novel The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrates this, describing the life of a young boy named Gogol and his continually progressing relationship with his mother. It demonstrates that a child is unable to view his or her parents as a human being until the parent figure experiences a traumatic event that allows the child to empathize with their parents.

He doesn’t exactly choose the right people to be with in his life. His love life is a huge component of this struggle. One of the first girls that Gogol goes on a date is not exactly what his parents had in mind for him. The narrator explains this moment when they say “ He cannot imagine coming from such parents, such background, and when he describes his own upbringing it feels bland by comparison.”(Lahiri 111). In this moment, he is attracted to this girl, who’s name is Ruth, and he is attracted to her for her American essence. This makes her seem unique and exotic to him, which he really likes. As time goes on, Gogol becomes more interested in sexual experiences rather than building an actual relationship with a woman and getting married. The outside voice in the story explains this issue when it says “They’ve even gone so far as to point out examples of Bengali men they know who’ve married Americans...It only makes things worse when he says that marriage is the last thing on his mind.”(Lahiri 117). He is young and naive but he is going against normal customs for people of his culture. Gogol really tests his parents wishes with his relationships and sexual encounters. When Gogol does get married, he marries someone who is not really the right girl for him. He finds out that she cheated on him with another man and had an affair. What goes through Gogol’s mind after he finds all of

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.

Chapter two was an emotional rollercoaster. Some events were joyful and celebratory such as the first rice ceremony while some events were melancholy like Ashima’s father dieing. The first event that took place in the book was Gogol's birth. This event brought me joy and happiness because, the parent characters otherwise known as Ashima and Ashoke were overjoyed at the sight of their infant. In addition, Gogol's birth is an important stepping stone to their life in America. His birth started their life in America because that's when Ashima and Ashoke, specifically Ashima started to realize what living as an American family was like. Before and for a short period of time after Gogol was born. Ashima was set on having her grandmother name him

For some people finding out who they are is not exactly the hardest thing to do in the world, some know it from the moment they are born. There are, however, also other people who have to struggle and search for their identities. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is the story of a boy who does just that. It focuses on the Ganguli’s, a Bengali family, who, after moving homes from India to the United States, struggle to uphold a delicate balance between honoring the traditions of their heritage and assimilating into the American culture. Although Ashoke and Ashima’s parents are proud of the sacrifices they have made to provide their children with as many opportunities as they could, their son, Gogol, strives to create his own identity without leaving his heritage behind. In the novel Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, Gogol faces many struggles while searching for his identity.

Chapter three of Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, when first read, confusion will start to seep through because of the concepts and writing style within the story making it unique in it’s own ways. More time processing the little details can lead to a different perspective of viewing the story in a more indepth way. Chapter three is a short story about Mrs.Das, who is miserable with her marriage and her life, as she starts revealing her secrets to Mr.Kapasi who also identical to Mrs.Das, is miserable with his marriage and life. In this chapter, Jhumpa Lahiri applies symbolism to affect the meaning of the story and to exhibit more concepts with ordinary objects you might not see as an alternative meaning.

Ashima is Gogol’s mother, who moved to America for her husband Ashoke after they were arranged for marriage. Ashima misses her family and life back in Calcutta, she has trouble setting in to the American lifestyles. “On more than one occasion [Ashoke] has come home from the university to find her morose, in bed, rereading her parents’ letters.” Ashima feels lonely and homesick. Ashima tries to keep Bengali tradition by always wearing a sari and a bindi in her forehead, and always cooking an Indian dinner. “For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy — a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been ordinary life, only to discover that that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding.” (49) In America, Ashima is surrounded by people she does not know, and she does not quite feel that she fits in. There are new customs and a new way of doing

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.

(12). Ashima and Gogol are facing the same process of integrating into two totally different cultures but maintain different levels in assimilating and forming American identities.

In the Namesake written by Jhumpa Lahiri, America is often referred to as the land of opportunity despite how foreign immigrants are still being treated as second class citizens such as an outcast. Throughout the novel The Namesake the parents of Gogol, Ashoke Ganguli and Ashima Ganguli brought their family to America to find their opportunity despite their strong beliefs in their Bengali culture. Going against their Bengali belief, Ashok and Ashima settled in america with their baby boy Gogol and their baby girl Sonia. Throughout the novel The Namesake Gogol has been struggling to find himself and make peace. Gradually throughout the story Gogol begins to wonder why his parents made the decision to come to america, Despite their strong Bengali beliefs to stay in india. Gogol’s crisis to finding himself slowly deteriorates when he finds himself come to peace with who he is. The author, Jhumpa Lahiri shows Gogol improving and developing as a mature character intellectually, socially, and emotionally despite all the hardships that Gogol had faced.

After Gogol leaves home, he meets Maxine who is American in every sense of the word. She is in the upper social class, and Gogol is attracted to her family because they are American. They call Gogol, Nick short for Nikhil. He distances himself from his parents by not returning phones calls, and upsets Ashima when he would rather visit Maxine’s parents than his own. Gogol does decide to stop at his parents on the way to visit Maxine’s, out of possible guilt for not keeping in touch. Gogol introduces Maxine, and she calls Ashima by her first name. It’s apparent that is not the respectful introduction Ashima would have preferred. Again, a clash in cultures, and what’s considered appropriate. Gogol and Maxine leave, and Maxine states she would’ve never guessed those were his parents. Gogol celebrates his birthday with Maxine’s family and his mother cannot get in

For Ashima, books are carriers of names and records of past connections with friends and family. Later in the novel, Gogol’s wife Moushumi ends up rekindling an old romance with a man named Dimitri in a blatant act of infidelity, after discovering his name on a resume in her colleague’s office and rediscovering his name scrawled inside a book on her shelf at home. Both the resume and book are fraught with meaning as they bear his name and remind her of their previous connection. Literature is central to Lahiri’s depiction of past connections because reading is a method for validating human experience, while teaching empathy for separate human experiences: reading connects people.