The Namesake and Bend it Like Beckham Belonging essay

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.

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.

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.

Ashima and Ashoke had a problem at the hospital with naming their baby. They had not received the letter from their grandmother yet, which has the name of the baby and they were not allowed to leave hospital without naming the baby. So Ashoke and Mr. Wilcox, who is in charge of the birth certificates, are discussing the problem about naming Gogol:

As Gogol prepares to leave for college, he makes the bold decision to legally change his name to Nikhil. He finds in college that it is easier to

Belonging isn’t easy as life throws many barriers which questions if you belong or not belong. In the film “Bend it like Beckham” Jassminder (also known as jess), the main character who is from an Indian family has to face many difficulties related to her culture which question if she belong to the culture or not. For example: during the scene where jess’s mother finds out that she played football, first her mother was concerned about jess playing football with the boys but after jess tells her mother and father that she was playing for a girls’ team it makes the situation worse and her mother and father starts talking about how her sister (pinky) was soon to marry and jess needs to think about how other people will talk about

In The Namesake, Lahiri chose to make Gogol feel a strong sense of hatred for his name because of how different it was. He never felt as if he could fully be himself if he lived on with that name so he chose to pretend to be someone else, “I’m Nikhil he said finally introducing himself… he later confessed to himself that it wasn’t him, that Gogol had nothing to do with it” (96). After lying about his identity he realized how easy it was to be someone else. Gogol felt as if he was finally able to be himself and not be the boy with the odd name. After years of hatred toward his name Gogol decided to make a change, “I am correcting the mistake my parents made… I hate the name Gogol, I have always hated it” (101-102).

He loses his virginity by using the name Nikhil, and that name has lead him to meet and have relationships with multiple women (Ruth, Maxine, Bridget and Moushumi). Even after making all determinations to erase his past, his failure to declare his identity is seen in his relationship with women. He lawfully changes his name to Nikhil before he leaves for college. The name Nikhil goes on to represent his individuality and separation from his parents. It also signifies him accepting American culture and distancing away from Indian culture. The twist comes into play when people starting calling him Nikhil and he gets startled. He likes the name Nikhil better, but he does not feel like Nikhil. On the inside, he feels like Gogol, no matter how much he dislikes the name. This adds to the controversy of his identity: is he Gogol or Nikhil. On the other hand, he is a mix of both: Gogol by day and Nikhil by night.

When Gogol is five years old, Ashima becomes pregnant with their daughter, Sonali. Gogol’s parents enroll him in kindergarten and his first day sets the scene for the struggle that Gogol will face for many years to come. His parents tell the principal, Mrs. Lapidus, that the teachers should call Gogol by his more formal name, Nikhil; however, Gogol wants no part in that. Mrs. Lapidus asks Gogol what he would like to be called, and when he responds with “Gogol,” it sticks. “They've learned their lesson after Gogol. They've learned that schools in America will ignore parents' instructions and register a child under his pet name.” (Lahiri Chapter 3) As Gogol gets older, he begins to realize how unique his name truly is. When he is 11, his sixth grade class takes a field trip to the cemetery to visit the resting place of a famous author. During the trip, the students are instructed to make rubbings of the gravestones and Gogol proceeds to make rubbings of all the unusual names he can find, since he relates to their oddity. By the time Gogol is a teenager, he is much less comfortable with his name and begins to question who he is as an individual. When Gogol’s fourteenth birthday comes around, his parents throw him a birthday party in which he is the oldest kid there. The only other person close in age is a girl named Moushumi, who is also Bengali. Later that night, Ashoke gives Gogol

The audience can perceive the human complexities found in the characters’ lives, as the book reveals their inner feelings. For instance, Lahiri includes one of Ashoke’s painful memories, the train incident: “Being rescued from that shattered train had been the first miracle of his life. But here, now, reposing in his arms, weighing next to nothing but changing everything, is the second (30). Ashoke’s memory of his near-death experience during the train-wreck in India helps the reader comprehend Nikolai Gogol’s impact on Ashoke’s life and explains the reasoning behind the origin of Gogol’s name, which becomes a main topic of conflict in the story, as Gogol develops discontent towards the name. After Gogol confronts his father about the need for a name change, which he justifies as being due to no one taking him seriously with his current name, he realizes that “the only person chronically aware of and afflicted by the embarrassment of his name…was Gogol” (100). As a teenager, Gogol’s uneasiness towards the lack of his own unique identity led to a dislike for his birth name. Lahiri includes his perspective regarding his namesake to demonstrate how the conflict causes Gogol to change his name to Nikhil. With the viewpoints of both Gogol and Ashoke, the audience comprehends the main conflict and the reasoning behind each of the characters’ decisions,

Gogol’s visits to Calcutta, his first day of school, and the field-trip to the cemetery leaves Gogol questioning how his name ties to his identity. For example, the author writes, “He is afraid to be Nikhil, someone he doesn’t know,” (57). This describes the scenario where Gogol does not understand the reason why he has and must go by a second name and refuses to be called to anything else but Gogol. Also, the book mentions that, “Until now it has not occurred to Gogol that names die over time, that they perish just as people do,” (70). The witness of the unique names carved into the graves causes Gogol leaves him in wonder to reflect over his own.

When Gogol is eleven and on a class trip to a cemetery, he realizes that his name is unique. He makes rubbings of the other gravestones with names he has never heard before because he relates to them. By his fourteenth birthday, Gogol has come to hate his name and resents being asked about it: “He hates having to tell people that it doesn’t mean anything in ‘”Indian”…He hates that his name is both absurd and obscure, that it has nothing to do with who he is, that it is neither Indian or American but of all things Russian”(76). We see this hatred further at the college party in a more passive way at the end of chapter four when Gogol is reluctant to introduce himself to Kim as "Gogol". Instead, he says his name is Nikhil. It gives him the confidence to kiss her, "It hadn't been Gogol who had kissed Kim... Gogol had nothing to do with

Throughout the novel “ The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri, Gogol develops an identity that he did not believe was truly possible within his three relationships. Evidently, each of his three relationships had taken him on different paths. Ruth allowed him to feel more Americanized, and provided him with the confidence to actualize his altered identity. Throughout his relationship with Maxine, he attempted to move to a more identified Americanized lifestyle. He felt the need to expand and experience a departure from his usual Bengali lifestyle, and she learned to accept him for who he desired to be. Suddenly, when his father passed away, he realized he wanted to return to his traditional cultural beliefs. This relationship led him toward his familiar

Gogol Ganguli began his childhood with his “pet name,” a name called his family and close relatives, and then suddenly for the greater good of his culture is forced to adapt a new name, his “good name,” Nikhil Ganguli. In the novel The Namesake, Lahiri explains Ashoke’s and Ashima’s perspective on why Gogol should embrace his good name rather than his pet name in the real world, “his parents tell him that they each have two names, too, as do all their Bengali friends in America, and all their relatives in Calcutta. It’s a part of growing up... part of being Bengali” (57). Both Ashoke and Ashima went against the tradition in the beginning by naming their son legally by his “pet name” which is Gogol. He grows up with this identity then suddenly when he starts school he is expected to make a shift to his “good name” Nikhil. This where the start of his cultural conflict begins, at the fragile age of five he is forced to become someone he is not comfortable being, which this can

The name could also illustrate that even though his parents named him through their culture as the Bengali way, he does not really feel as though connected to the culture he was raised in due to his name belonging to a Russian writer. “’It’s our way, Gogol,’ his mother maintained. “‘It’s what Bengalis do.’ ’But it’s not even a Bengali name.’” (Lahiri 99). Signifying the wants and desires of Gogol to change his name to a name more connected to him as a person. Illustrating that he does not feel comfortable with the name given to him, feeling separated from his family due to his name not even a name from his culture. The desire to change his name shows his want to find out who he is a person, with no strings attached. Another reason he may have