The Namesake Gogol Identity

Imagine having to divide your cultural identity between two dissimilar cultures; would you not be increasingly conflicted as you attempted to attribute yourself to each way of life? For Gogol Ganguli, this is his reality in being an American-born child with deep roots in west Bengali culture. In The Namesake, the reader follows along the journey of Gogol’s development of his cultural identity. Over the course of his maturation in American society, Gogol develops relationships in respect to his Bengali heritage as well as the society he is surrounded by; therefore, he inflicts a lot of pain upon himself as his indecisiveness on which culture he truly embodies causes many of his relationships to suffer. Ultimately, Gogol forms his self-identity

Gogol was introduced to Moushimi through his mother, which speaks to the influence of Bengali culture upon him already. They quickly fall in love and get married together because of the similarities they share. However, Moushumi is not ready to give up her past and cheats on Gogol a year into their marriage; as his mother puts it, happiness was something “Moushumi had never brought” to Gogol (Lahiri 276). Although Gogol is not to blame for Moushumi’s actions, he still rushed his relationship with Moushumi because of her cultural attractiveness. They did have a lot in common; however, Gogol is clueless to Moushumi’s skeptical behavior and their growing disconnection because he values their cultural relationship over his actual love for Moushumi. According to Farahmandian and the authors, their problems begin prospering “when they go to Paris together, [as] he wishes it were her first time there, so they can feel the same feeling and share the same experience” (Farahmandian). Gogol is enthralled in his Bengali heritage at this point in the book, but the failure of his marriage and divorce to Moushumi leaves him in a state of befuddlement. Gogol has come to terms with his failed relationships that he has struggled with over the past years, but he is led to the conclusion that his name, Gogol Ganguli, will “vanish from the lips of loved ones” and “cease to exist” (Lahiri 289). Gogol’s internal struggle throughout the whole book pertained to this one area of concern; whether he would be remembered as Nikhil in the context of his American influences or as Gogol Ganguli in the eyes of his fellow Bengalis. His failed marriage to Moushumi only strengthened this disordered sense of