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The Namesake Essay

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Recommended: Critical analysis of namesake by jhumpa lahori

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s debut novel, The Namesake describes the ethical aspect of Indian immigrants. In the nineteenth century those Indian immigrants were migrating to the west directions as apprenticeship labourers. Now a day they migrate for the prospect of career building and also a way of profit manner. But in both the cases culture plays a significant role in their life. The immigrants were enjoying their life in economic subjugation but have an emotional emancipation in their contra-acculturation. The Namesake deals with the problems of Indian immigrants of Bengali origins in America. The immigrants were come across several problems especially in language, political ideology, cultural practice, and social adjustment. They do not have any …show more content…

The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima leave Calcutta, India to Cambridge, Massachusetts. The namesake is about the way various generation look at their native and foreign land. The first generation belongs to 1960s. They faced a lot of problems and trouble. They cannot easily to merge with foreign culture. On the contrary, the second generation practices Indian culture to pacify parents. But they live as American in their heart of hearts. Most of the diasporans intentional as choose to migrate to an alien country of their choice and also with the hope of living there. They were migrating to live a happy life. In the real life, they struggle a lot of problems for …show more content…

He gets a job, where he worked as an architect. Simultaneously he goes back to Pemberton road, because the home where his childhood had been spent. Now he again changed a Gogol because he loves the Indian dishes prepared by his mother and enjoyed. He was happy and content at this stage of life. At a party Gogol meets a pretty girl named Maxine and very soon develops a steady relationship with her. Maxine takes him to her home and introduces Gogol to her parents, Gerald and Lydia and observes the difference in their open culture. He finds burdened too heavily by the past and by India. He brings Maxine to visit his parents. He starts to live with her family and slowly becomes more and closer to her family. He starts to go on vacation with her family rather than with his family. He is spending most of his time at her

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Born to Bengali parents in July 1967,in London and with her family’s move to Rhode Island, Jhumpa Lahiri began life in the U.S.A. She grew up in the background of traditional Bengali culture. From childhood, she often accompanied her back to India-particularly to Calcutta (now known as Kolkata).. She observes that her parents retain a sense of emotional exile and she herself grew up with conflicting expectations. In her work, Lahiri, is a second-generation immigrant, reflects on the Indian diaspora and creates a narrative that reveals the inconsistency of the concept of identity and cultural difference in the space of diapora.

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Ultimately, Lahiri suggests the idea that American culture plays an influential role in shaping one’s physical and cultural beliefs, but it is possible to avoid being assimilated through self-determination and resistance. In the story Interpreter of Maladies, an Indian-American family, known as the Das’s, travel to India, but upon arrival, they are clueless about the culture and history of their own country of nationality. Throughout the story, the behavior and actions of the Das family is told through the eyes of Mr.Kapasi, the

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Gogol, the son of Ashima and Ashoke, was born in America and spends the first half of his life trying to run away from his Bengali roots. Although Gogol does not feel as lost and detached as his parents in America, he has a difficult time trying to balance the Bengali culture he was born into as well as the American culture he sees and experiences all around him as he is growing up. Throughout the novel, The Namesake, Gogol struggles to develop his identity due to the clashing of Bengali and American culture in his life. Gogol’s first obstacle in his search for self-identity occurs only a couple days after his birth, when his parents must decide on a name in order to be released from the hospital. Ashima and Ashoke eventually decide on Gogol, after the writer who saved Ashoke’s life during a train crash.

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To be alone on an island, painting the sky the desired shade of blue, but to be secluded, fending away civilization as it it were a parasite, is not one’s ideal state of mind. Yet, by a particular female character named Moushumi In the book The Namesake, they are confused. Moushumi is the ex-wife of Gogol and identified in detail by Jhumpa Lahiri. Moushumi’s identity is composed of her experiences, her values, and her background.

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He quickly becomes absorbed into her lifestyle, which is also drastically different from the more modest style of living he and his parents had. Maxine is a source of appeal and envy for Gogol as she is at ease with her identity. Gogol appears to be attracted to her simply as she is different from him, and different from his family. “And then he remembers that his parents can't possibly reach him: he has not given them the number, and the Ratliffs are unlisted. That here at Maxine's side, in this cloistered wilderness, he is free.”

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This is the moment where his two identities, Gogol and Nikhil, begin to pull apart from each other and more major differences between the two show more intensely. Later on, Gogol develops a serious relationship with an all-American woman named Maxine who leads him ever further from his family. “He tells her he has a deadline at work, but it’s not true-- that’s the day that he and Maxine are leaving for New Hampshire, for two weeks” (144). Since Gogol is spending all this time with Maxine and her family, he barely has any time for his own family and he’d rather be with Maxine. Gogol starts lying to his parents and making up excuses to avoid them which causes him to drift from his family even more than he already has.

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