The Relationship Between Moushumi And Gogol

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

They have never been on a date in their lives and therefore they see no reason to encourage Gogol, certainly not at his age." Both of Gogol's parents grew up learning the Bengali culture. They know that living in another country may change some of their traditions, but they still want to withhold the culture as much as possible. Nevertheless, Gogol doesn't so much care for his Bengali culture because it is now affecting his life. Gogol's relationships have been affected by his cultural collision, "His relationship with her is one accomplishment in his life about which they are not in the least bit proud or pleased... He wishes his parents could simply accept her as her family accepts him, without pressure of any kind." Both Gogol and his parents have been brought up differently about things. Because they don't see eye to eye their relationship isn't like it used to be. Now that Gogol is growing up, his diverse traditions are affecting his life with his girlfriend and his family. All of Gogol's life is not being afflicted because Gogol has stopped continuing the Bengali culture. It is just grasping the American culture more than he did in the past.

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.

Therefore, the characterization of Gogol listening to Maxine over Ashima characterizes Gogol as wanting to distance himself from his culture and family in order to try and embrace a new period of independence and Western culture- this is symbolized by Maxine. Furthermore, the fact that Gogol will move into Maxine’s house reinforces the idea that Gogol wants to create distance away from his family because he will completely immerse himself in a family that is not his own. Overall, Lahiri uses situational irony created by characterization of symbolism to illustrate that humans will try and distance themselves from their family in order to try and establish independence- this is shown through Gogol only listening to Maxine. Later on in the novel, Moushumi displays a similar characterization of Gogol in a different way. While Moushumi was still married to Gogol, she started an affair with her the boy to whom she lost her virginity- Dimitri. However, after these dates, she would go back home to Gogol as if nothing happened- hence dramatic irony. The narrator explains this routine, “They begin seeing each other...The meals are ambitious: poached fish; creamy potato gratins; puffed chickens roasted with whole lemons in their cavities. There is always a bottle of wine… drink coffee and cognac and smoke”(263) The narrator then goes into more details about their dates until it is revealed that

After becoming Nikhil to the outside world, Gogol struggles to find his identity after rejecting the one his parents gave him. On the weekend trip home, he meets a girl named Ruth, whom he then begins a relationship with. While he likes Ruth a lot, he never introduces her to his parents. This is most likely because he knows they would not approve of her, nor is he sure of himself because of his identity creation through Ruth. As Song writes, “His first girlfriend Ruth...suggests a particular version of American identity, one forged in the progressive counter-culture formations of the 1960s, into which Gogol might merge” (357). Furthermore, Ruth represents an American identity that Gogol lays hold of and seeks to embrace. After dating for a while, Ruth goes to study abroad at Oxford and after returning, their relationship begins to fall apart and they breakup. His head-over-heels style in which he forms relationships leaves him very open to becoming disheartened after his relationships

Yet Moushumi is the only one who is involved with his family and can fully understand Gogol. He looks for ways to escape the pieces in his life that he dislikes which makes him seem eccentric to the rest of the society he lives in. While Moushumis relationship is imperative with Gogol, Maxine gives him closure, the ability to experience the life he may actually have wanted to grow up in America, while it lasts, ”Quickly, he falls in love with Maxine, the house, and Gerald and Lydia's manner of living, for to know her and love her is to know and love all these things. He loves the mess that surrounds her Maxine, her hundreds of things always covering her floor and her bedside table, her habit when they are alone on the fifth floor, of not shutting the door when she goes to the bathroom. Her unkempt ways, a challenge to his increasingly minimalist taste, charm him”(137). The author utilizes an ample amount of detail in this passage to describe what he loves about his relationship and what lured him to Maxine even more; however, I feel Gogol admires this part about his relationship with Maxine because her lifestyle is not as strict as his or Moushumi’s. This girl had a great amount of freedom and he embraced what he didn’t and couldn’t like he does with her and her family have in his

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

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

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

In light of Gogol’s parent’s cultural roots and norms it is difficult foreign born Americans to assimilate into a new society. Gogol’s sudden change in “normal” can be traumatic discouraging for him to conform into what is “normal” in America. “The New World offers professional opportunity and financial betterment but also insists on assimilation and acculturation, a rejection of old habits, traditions and conditioning, and a merging with the culture of the new context […] invited to experience the death of the self as he has known it. He is asked to despise home culture which is seen by the New World as inferior, as less

The first reason, they can possess a right to choose their own passion. In the novel “The Namesake” Gogal and Moushumis’s parents believed that they possess the power to decide their kids future. They wanted them to become someone else in their life but, Gogol and Moushumi, on the other hand, refused it

An English scholar further describes, “This arouses in Asha a deep longing to find out more about the country of her birth and bitterness against Somer for her indifference towards India and her inability to learn Marathi” (Hasan, 150). Asha does not try to conceal her bitter feelings against Somer at all, and continuously shows that she never tries to understand her mother's perspective. Her curiosity of her background sabotages her relationship with her mother. Clearly, she is too immature to understand that she should be grateful for all the love and care she receives from her mother, and not dwell on the few flaws her mother possesses. Her pessimistic attitude mirrors her immature and inconsiderate behaviour and proves that a change in attitude is significantly needed.

At the start of the film, Ashoke and Ashima leave India for America and their life together begins. The move from the big city of Calcutta to the big city of New York is much lonelier because they have no family nearby and the land is unfamiliar. The climate is also different, it is winter time and the weather is cold. Ashima is learning very quickly that the living conditions are different. Ashoke explains to her that they have gas twenty-four hours a day, and the difference between hot and cold water symbols. Also there was no need for her to boil the water for drinking; she could just drink straight from the tap. Life in America is different and at times lonely, however Ashoke believes it’s the land of opportunity.

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.