The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a fictional novel detailing the struggle of finding yourself in another country, and learning how to survive- while slowly becoming less like yourself as you adapt.The main characters are a Indian couple from Calcutta at the beginning, but it eventually changes to become their son Gogol after he reaches a certain age. Gogol struggles with finding his identity, believing for a majority of his life that it is associated with his name, which is yet another thing which sets him apart from both Indians and Americans. Published in 2003, The Namesake gives us a modern day view on what it is like to live in the United States, and not feel at home, but also not feel at home in the place you left behind. After living
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His parents are still trying to balance their Indian lifestyle with the American world around them, normally resulting in differences between what they do and what he wants. Gogol begins to feel like his name is not his own, that it just belongs to the author and not, wishing instead for a name that he could tie to his identity. For his mother, his name symbolizes another Indian tradition she had to give up in her move to adjust to american life. For his younger sister, his name does strike curiosity, as hers is a pet name but also has Indian roots at least. Jumping forward, Gogol decides to change his name to Nikhil- not wanting to be stuck with a pet name that means nothing. His father then tells him what his pet name really symbolizes, the story of his near death experience. The train crash that nearly killed him but as he kept reading, he survived, and he was reading a novel by russian author Gogol.The struggle with changing his name however, is the two groups of people in his life, those who refer to him as Gogol, and those who refer to him as Nikhil. His old name represents a different person in his eyes, an Indian child that he never fully was. His new name is his, just his, an Indian born but American student and eventually adult. He tries on different personalities throughout his life, many revolving around the lifestyle he was living during each of his relationships. The problem with these
His parents are still trying to balance their Indian lifestyle with the American world around them, normally resulting in differences between what they do and what he wants. Gogol begins to feel like his name is not his own, that it just belongs to the author and not, wishing instead for a name that he could tie to his identity. For his mother, his name symbolizes another Indian tradition she had to give up in her move to adjust to american life. For his younger sister, his name does strike curiosity, as hers is a pet name but also has Indian roots at least. Jumping forward, Gogol decides to change his name to Nikhil- not wanting to be stuck with a pet name that means nothing. His father then tells him what his pet name really symbolizes, the story of his near death experience. The train crash that nearly killed him but as he kept reading, he survived, and he was reading a novel by russian author Gogol.The struggle with changing his name however, is the two groups of people in his life, those who refer to him as Gogol, and those who refer to him as Nikhil. His old name represents a different person in his eyes, an Indian child that he never fully was. His new name is his, just his, an Indian born but American student and eventually adult. He tries on different personalities throughout his life, many revolving around the lifestyle he was living during each of his relationships. The problem with these