The Namesake Irony Quotes

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.

Change can be painful. This is true especially when it comes to a human’s journey of growing up and forming one’s own identity. In The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, the novel follows the protagonist, Gogol, as he grows up and struggles with balancing his Bengali identity with Western culture. The reader discovers that on his path to developing independence he chooses to push his family away, which ends up having negative effects, but he believes that he is doing the right thing. Therefore, in The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri uses irony to argue that it is human nature to want to separate oneself from one’s family and childhood in order to establish a

“In Defense of Masks”, by Kenneth Gergen regards that it is not possible for humans to adequately find a coherent self identity without an aftermath. Gergen states, “to the extent that they do, they many experience severe emotional distress” when trying to do so (172). He refers to Erik Erickson, a psychologist who speaks about how self-alienation can result due to the pressures of society to individuals with various masks of identity.

People live day to day struggling with identifying who or what they want to be. People allow parents, peers, friends, and even the media dictate what makes them unique. Identity is something that makes one person different from the next. Though it may take longer for certain people to understand that, it is a conclusion that one has to come to in time. People allow norms to stop them from being exactly who they are. We were all given a different identity so we could fully embrace the world head on. The time has come for people to stop letting outside forces like names, race, social identity, handicap, and gender determine who they are. One should identify who they are and never let any opposing forces get into the way of what they have to offer the

The public self is often times not the true self. This indication of a difference between the public and true self leads to the idea that the self and identity of an individual are different concepts. The self, is a person’s essential being that makes each individual unique compared to others; whereas the identity, is a person’s character that is essentially created to help the individual fit into society. These two concepts begin to form early in life through influences from society, family, and culture. However, as the individual beings to assimilate the world around them, their sense of identity transforms in order to adapt to the new environment, while their sense of self remains the same.

According to Steinberg (2016), individuals who have a healthy sense of identity are able to take responsibilities for their actions, and have a clear idea of who they are and who they would like to be. However, Steinberg

Unfortunately, the search for such a new identity all too often proves to be a painful and fruitless odyssey. Yet like the water that's always attracted by gravity, the human soul is constantly and relentlessly evolving—along with the world around it. Thus in the end, we often are left only with ourselves rather than labels and concepts.

This article fits into my paper in the section, “Ways to Deal with a Lost Sense of Identity” because the article addresses exactly this process.

Gogol Ganguli, in The Namesake, is the son of two Bengali parents. Throughout the novel, Gogol shows several acts of betrayal mainly to his family and their values. One such act is when Gogol changes his name out of irritation. He is constantly questioned its meaning and finding it out that it is not a Bengali name. He expresses his feelings to his parents, but they do not understand because they still have the Indian tradition/Culture in them and so he changes his name. Another act of betrayal is when Gogol lies to his mother about visiting their home when dating a woman. He does not prefer the Bengali way of life and makes excuses, he loves the life of the American way. These acts of betrayal affect Gogol and force him to make decisions that he eventually regrets, but it does play a vital role in the development of his life in the novel as a whole.

Identity is the key to life. Some go many years without knowing who they really are, some question themselves everyday, some pretend to know who they are and some know who exactly who they are. April Raintee pretended to know who she was, Thomas King knew exactly who he was and Ellen questioned herself about life and who she was and wanted to be.

Is it Gogol or Nikhil? Making changes for the sole purpose to improve is most commonly known as reinvention. Reinventing can happen in numerous different ways. Gogol in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, experiences a demoralizing childhood with finding success in reinventing himself by changing his name. By giving himself a new sense of self-confidence Lahiri demonstrates that reinventing oneself can be immensely simple.

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,

The important themes of name and identity are very evident in Chapter 3. The chapter contains when Gogol firsts starts kindergarten. Ashima and Ashoke wanted him to go by "Gogol" at home but "Nikhil" at school. However this then leads to confusing him and he has no interest in another name. He considers that depending on where he is he may need to be two different people then leading to him having two different names. "He is afraid to be Nikhil, someone he doesn't know. Who doesn't know him." (Lahiri ). During his adolescent years Gogol connects a new identity with having a new name. His unusual name does not bother him until he turns eleven and he attends a class trip to a cemetery which is when he uncovers that his name is special. Some of the other gravestones have names he has never heard before so he makes rubbings of them because he

Allusions to Nikolai V. Gogol and his short story "The Overcoat" permeate Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake, beginning with Gogol's being the name the protagonist is called through most of the book. Yet few of the reviewers of the novel mentioned Nikolai Gogol at all in their discussions of the novel, except to describe the protagonist Gogol's loathing of his name, or to quote without comment or explanation Dostoevski's famous line, "We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat." So far, no one has looked beyond the surfaces to examine the significance of the allusions to Gogol that are so much a part of the fabric of Lahiri's novel.

In The Namesake, the central character, Gogol, grows up in a unique situation: he was born to Bengali parents but grows up in America, and throughout the story, Gogol has to gradually find his place in the world. As Gogol grows up, his struggle to find his true home reflects his struggle to find his identity and sense of self. He is torn between the Indian culture of his parents and the American lifestyle he grows up with, being a part of both but never feeling quite at home in either of them. His definition of home changes dramatically throughout his struggles and life experiences, but he eventually comes into his own as an Indian-American man and finds his place in the world.