The Namesake

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri socially and culturally features the value of family through the characters as well as the author. It is shown through cultural influences by the characters when they start to celebrate Christmas and by Lahiri when her parents are skeptical of her getting a degree in creative writing. It is said in the movie, “For the sake of Gogol and Sonia they celebrate, with progressively increasing fanfare, the birth of Christ, an event the children look forward to far more than the worship of Durga and Saraswati.” When the Indian family came to America, they were influenced by the American culture to celebrate Christmas. This influenced the children’s culture very much because they enjoyed it more than their own religion.

Gogol listens to rock music and Sonia dresses differently from the Indian standards. Alike the character, Lahiri is culturally inclined to value family. In Trading Stories, she said, “Like so many aspects of my American life, the idea that one could get a degree in creative writing, that it could a legitimate course of study, seemed perhaps frivolous to them.” Lahiri’s parents were not familiar with American culture so getting a degree in creative writing did not seem like an accomplishment in their point of view. Lahiri said that her parents thought that so many aspects of her American life were frivolous as was her degree in creative writing. This hints that in India, those degrees with rarely, if not ever held, high in regards. However, Lahiri was influenced by the American culture which did put it high in regards so she did too. The value of family is shown through social influences by the characters because Ashoke names his son after Gogol and by Lahiri because she acquired her love of stories from her grandfather. In the movie, Ashoke chooses Gogol, the name of the author whose stories he was reading when the train crashed years