ipl-logo

The Namesake Essay Thesis

1885 Words8 Pages

The Namesake Essay
Melody Su
A Block
Immigration is when people leave their original homelands for various reasons, carrying their distinct cultures, religious beliefs, and live permanently in the new land. In the book The Namesake, Lahiri uses the Ashima and Gogol’s experiences to suggest the dark sides of the immigration, which involves the lost sense of belonging, loss of identity, presensence of microaggression, and the generation gap between the first-generation immigrants and their children. Primarily, immigrants might lose their sense of belonging. We could see it clearly from Ashima’s perspective. In the beginning of the whole story, she is in the hospital giving birth to Gogol. As she calls out to her husband, she doesn’t call him …show more content…

She educates Gogol and Sonia both Bengali and American culture by giving in and cooking them American food once in a while. In the meantime, though she has lived in America for most of her life, has a social security number and driving license, and has raised two kids here, she never sees the U.S as India, her root. Long after her husband’s death, Ashima is experiencing a complicated moment, According to her, “True to the meaning of her name, she will be without borders, without a home of her own, a resident everywhere and nowhere.” (p276) She is going through a hard time thinking who she truly is: “For thirty years she missed her life in India. Now she will return to India with an American passport. She will return to a world where she will not single handedly throw parties for dozens of people...” (p276) When living in America, she doesn’t feel her belonging. When she’s back in India, she doesn’t feel her belonging neither. She completely lost her sense of belonging for she is culturally displaced, and this is what Immigrants face.
In addition, immigrants may face the loss of identity. The book started from the day Gogol was in Ashima’s womb to the day he wonders about his identity at the age of 32. …show more content…

The difference between first-generation immigrants and their children are significant. When Maxine invites Gogol to have dinner with her family in her house, Gogol is surprised and confused. As described, “This unexpected piece of information deflates him, confuses him. He asks if her parents will mind his coming over, if perhaps they should meet at a restaurant instead.”(p129) This proves the difference between American culture and Indian culture. As Gogol is more familiar with American culture, he feels his parents’ way of inviting people to dinner is vaguely foolish, and that leads to the fact that he prefers to spend more time with Maxine’s family rather than his own. The gap also widens in the relationship aspect. When they are curling up on the sofa in the evenings, Gogol is reminded that, “in all his life he has never witnessed a single moment of physical affection between his parents. Whatever love exists between them is an utterly private, uncelebrated thing.”(p138) He loves every companion and that is why he chooses to be with thim. On the other hand, his parents choose to be with each other and then they started to love each other. Marriage to them was like an obligation. It was their duty and that was why they had to remain as couple forever till the end of time. However, Gogol is different. After he marries Moushumi, they are happy for only one year, then Moushumi

Show More
Related
1160 Words | 5 Pages

Immigration, a foundation and guiding force in a premature United States, helped establish the identity of today’s modern world. The US is the progressive, prosperous nation it is today for the baseline unity and coming together of peoples from different places, different countries - different cultural and ethnic identities. Acceptance diversity, and humanity are necessary for new beginnings, all of which can be found in the new beginnings that come with immigrant status. An immigrant herself Ántonia Shimerda, from My Ántonia by Willa Cather, knows the hardships that come with new beginnings. The prosperity of a Ántonia, directly correlates to the the United States success.

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

Challenges of Immigration: The Shimerda’s Struggle Willa Cather’s novel, My Ántonia sheds light on the topic of immigration. Immigrants have many different reasons for why they might migrate to the United States. Some were trying to escape something from their old country such as avoiding a war, trouble with the law, or shame as is the case of the Russians Pavel and Peter. Reasons for immigrating could also relate to chasing the American dream as is the case with the Shimerdas.

Read More
1215 Words | 5 Pages

Immigrants usually go through phases when it comes to migrating to a new country and this essay was an attempt to outline those phases with an emphasis on the negative effects of assimilation. Firstly, isolation. Nearly every immigrant finds themselves isolated at first, but this tends to go away as they become assimilated with the new culture. As this happens, they start to lose touch with their cultural identity and start to change in order to fit in with the new culture. Sometimes this is forced, other times the immigrant knowingly assimilates.

Read More
604 Words | 3 Pages

At the same time, resisting the genre convention of having a sensitive protagonist further demonstrates that eventually an individual will start to favor one culture over the other. Second generation immigrants in the United States during the late 20th century typically struggled with balancing two different cultures, their ethnic culture and the American culture. However, eventually they would end up assimilating to the culture of their society. In the article “Immigrants in America: The second-generation story”, a couple of second-generation immigrants were interviewed and were asked to comment on how they felt about themselves and their accomplishments. A man named Martinez said, “I’m on my way to doing better than my father” (par 8).

Read More
1523 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More
769 Words | 4 Pages

eMaria-Gloria Contrada Introduction to Literature Professor Obuch 9 October 2014 Paper I Often when first-generation immigrants come to America, they make little effort to assimilate into American culture and do their utmost to retain their customs and languages. In contrast, many second-generation immigrants find it necessary to discard the culture that had been preserved in the home for biological descent does not ensure feelings of cultural identity.

Read More
849 Words | 4 Pages

Bharati comes to America with her arms open wide, willing to adjust her customs and conducts in order to assimilate to her new country. She celebrates change and views it as a positive aspect in her life. The author says, “America spoke to me - I married it - I embraced the demotion from expatriate aristocrat to immigrant nobody,” meaning that to Bharati, America is not just a country. It symbolizes opportunity and freedom, which she desires most. (Mukherjee 282).

Read More
823 Words | 4 Pages

Kite Runner Being an immigrant is about leaving one’s native country; but it is also, more importantly, about adapting and assimilating to a new culture. Relocating to a new country could sometimes cause a life-transforming moment. In 2003, when Khaled Hosseini published the mainstream fiction story, “The Kite Runner,” he was an extremely successful M.D. (Medical Doctor) who was practicing internal medicine. Throughout his novel, he describes different characters which possess different characteristics and personalities. As illustrated in the book, Baba and his family moved to the United States to get a better life, and they quickly started to assimilate the American culture.

Read More
1779 Words | 8 Pages

She recalls that the interaction “sounded like the description of a long-enduring, comfortable, yet loveless marriage, without risk or recklessness” (9). Her comparison highlights the strained relationship between the United States and new immigrants that search for opportunity there because the government does not protect resident aliens as it does US-born citizens. She also alludes to arranged marriages, common in India, as a symbol of unmodern cultural practices from her home country to parallel them to the “backwards” immigration policies of America, continuing her point from earlier in the essay about the questionable virtue of many Indian values. By utilizing a simile of two serious issues, she makes the reader aware of the severe impact the legislation can have on immigrants as well as the nation as a

Read More
1229 Words | 5 Pages

Gogol’s serious relationships began after he legally changed his name to Nikhil. The significance of relationships and marriage in the novel is purely based on intimacy and defining one’s identity. Gogol’s relationship with Ruth was his first real relationship. They

Read More
703 Words | 3 Pages

(6.140) : Maxine and her family are an escape for Gogol, but they also represent the distance from his family. Gogol views this relationship as an escape from his past, as an escape from his old self. He is now even more distanced and alienated from his parents. The closer he becomes with Maxine, the further he distances himself from his parents, and when his fathers dies, Maxine becomes a symbol of this alienation, and Gogol is overridden with

Read More
1105 Words | 5 Pages

However, as time passes, they begin to nurture a love for each other. This is only the beginning of a series of relationships in “The Namesake.” The primary one, centers on Gogol and his tight relationship between his Indian-cultured parents. At first, Gogol is completely in disgust at his parents and their background. This is evident during the beginning of their trip to India.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America,” from 50 essays, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts the different views of the United States from two Indian sisters. The author distinguishes her American lifestyle to her sister’s traditional Indian lifestyle. Both sisters grew up in Calcutta, India, moved to America in search of education and work. Bharati adjusts to the American society very quickly, where her sister Mira clings to her Indian traditions more strongly. Despite both sisters living in America, only Bharati is an American citizen, while her sister Mira is not.

Read More
764 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

There are many challenges that immigrants face throughout their lives. Many immigrants are able to come to the U.S., but it is not easy as it seems. One challenge that immigrants go through is being able to have respect that the U.S. citizens have. Another challenge that immigrants face is being able to adapt to the new environment. People who arrive in the U.S. might not be able to speak English.

Read More

More about The Namesake Essay Thesis

Related Topics

Open Document