The Namesake Literary Analysis

In “the namesake”, chapters 3 and 4 show how Gogol develops from a child attached to his family, in particular, his mother, to a teenager that often rejects his parents and their culture. This is most dramatically seen on his first day of Kindergarten, when he rejects his “good name”’ Nikhil, because he wants to be called the name his parents call him at home, and at the end of chapter 4 when he is so fed up with the name Gogol that he lies at the college party, telling Kim his name is Nikhil. Gogol changed a lot over the course of chapters 3 and 4. The major change is his relationship to his name. At the beginning, he hated the name “Nikhil” so much that he doesn’t want to go to kindergarten because he won’t be called Gogol and instead, being called by his new name, Nikhil (Lahiri, 56).

As a young boy, Gogol doesn’t really care about people teasing him or calling him names. After a year or two, his classmates no longer tease him or call him names. However, at the age of eleven, he is starting to dislike his name when he thinks that “no stone in this country will bear his name beyond life” (Lahiri, 69). At that time, he only dislikes his name, but later on, he started to hate his name. He hated “questions pertaining to his name, (hated) having constantly to explain” (Lahiri, 76). At this time, he hated his name and wanted to change it. Gogol no longer likes the name his parent call him. Another major change is his relationship with his parents. As a young boy, he was very close to his parents, especially his mom, and would listen to them, but as he grew up, it changed. He wasn’t as close to his parents as he was when he was at a young