_____Company, 2003. Print.
The Namesake is a novel written by Jhumpa Lahiri. . It begins with the life of Ashoke Ganguli and how he is inspired to re-locate from India to America. Prior to coming to America he marries a Bengali woman named Ashima. After a year in Cambridge, Massachusetts they become parents to a boy who they name Gogol due not receiving a letter that contained the desired name for him. Gogol grows American but is troubled by the Bengali roots of his parents. He is greatly troubled by a name that like himself is neither Indian nor American. Prior to starting college, Gogol decides to change his name to Nikhil, but neither Nikhil nor Gogol fit his identity. After the death of his father, when Gogol is in his late twenties, he draws closer to his family and begins to appreciate the Begali culture that his parents have clung to for many years. It takes the death of his father for Gogol to come to terms with his name and his roots.
Throughout the novel Gogol flees from the company of Indian people. He even evades his parents. This is evident when he chooses to attend Yale, so he does not study in the University his father is a professor at. Throughout his high school years he befriends American boys and when he brings them home he does not allow his mother to cook or treat them according to Bengali tradition. When he begins dating in college and afterward, he does not introduce any of his American girlfriends to his parents. After the death of his father he accepts to date a American girl of Bengali decent but she is also confused and at discontent with her roots. She is not happy to be married to a boy of Bengali background and finds comfort in engaging in a sexual relationship with another man. Throughout the novel Gogol seeks to define himself among the American culture and the Bengali culture, but he finds himself to be an American Born Confused Desi (ABCD). The clash of cultures Gogol finds himself in and the tangled ties between the foreign and American born generations will continue to prevail among families who have migrated outside their place of origin.
Throughout the novel Gogol flees from the company of Indian people. He even evades his parents. This is evident when he chooses to attend Yale, so he does not study in the University his father is a professor at. Throughout his high school years he befriends American boys and when he brings them home he does not allow his mother to cook or treat them according to Bengali tradition. When he begins dating in college and afterward, he does not introduce any of his American girlfriends to his parents. After the death of his father he accepts to date a American girl of Bengali decent but she is also confused and at discontent with her roots. She is not happy to be married to a boy of Bengali background and finds comfort in engaging in a sexual relationship with another man. Throughout the novel Gogol seeks to define himself among the American culture and the Bengali culture, but he finds himself to be an American Born Confused Desi (ABCD). The clash of cultures Gogol finds himself in and the tangled ties between the foreign and American born generations will continue to prevail among families who have migrated outside their place of origin.
