Answered the three question.
1. As a little boy, Gogol is fine with his name. As he grows up, he begins to see his name as odd. Why does Gogol have difficulties accepting his name? What do his struggles with his name signify?
2. How do Ashima and Ashoke adjust to their new life in America? Discuss one specific example. You can focus on Ashoke or Ashima or both.
3. While for the most of the novel, Gogol has a strained relationship with his father, consider what Gogol and his father have in common. Focus on one characteristic and illustrate it with one specific example.
Cultural Context – The Namesake
The American author of Bengali origin Jhumpa Lahiri shot to fame very early in her carrier after the publication of her first collection of short stories The Interpreter of Maladies for which she was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Her stories and novels draw on her experience of growing up as a second generation American.
Her characters struggle to define themselves against both the American and the Bengali tradition. In this sense her work is symbolic of contemporary America, a nation of immigrants from all over the world, not just Bengali Americans. Her stories examine the struggle to define one’s sense of self and establish meaningful relations with other people. The Namesake hints at a global or post-national identity symbolically represented in the name of the main character Gogol – his name is neither American nor Bengali but Russian, and even in Russia, quite unusual and unique.
Writing Style and Literary Influences
Lahiri is a great admirer of Russian classics, such as Anton Chekhov and Nikolai Gogol. Just like the two great Russian authors, Lahiri focuses on details and small everyday fleeting moments that reveal more about characters than their conscious conceptions of who they are. For example, the opening scene when Ashima mixes Rice Krispies, Planters peanuts, and green chili peppers reveals her longing for India, but more importantly shines light on her nascent ability to combine creatively American and Indian traditions, something she is still struggling with at the beginning of the novel.
Gogol’s “The Overcoat”
The author Nikolai Gogol’s influence is reflected not only in Lahiri’s style, but in some of the main motifs in The Namesake. Towards the beginning of the novel, after a train accident, Ashoke is lying on the ground half-conscious among dozens of bodies, and the rustling pages of the book by Gogol draw the attention of the first responders to his barely audible breadth. In this instance, Nikolai Gogol’s stories literally save Ashoke’s life. Furthermore, the story “The Overcoat” from Gogol’s collection is particularly important.
In this quirky, absurdist story, the main character Akakiy Akakievich, an excessively reserved and timid clerk, becomes more socially comfortable after obtaining a new coat. Not only do his colleagues begin to notice and acknowledge Akakiy, but they throw a party in his honor – or, if you will, in honor of his overcoat. Incidentally, on his way back home, Akakiy is robbed of his coat, catches a severe cold, and dies. After several days, he returns as a ghost to haunt all those who ignored his pleads for help during his illness.
The overcoat in Gogol’s story stands for social and cultural identity; the new overcoat gives a spring to Akakiy’s step, and without it, Akaiy dies. As you read Lahiri’s novel, notice how clothing or objects associated with specific people seem to impart them a sense of identity. The ghost is another important symbol. Akakiy’s ghost seems to signify the guilt of those who didn’t help him in his time of need. In other words, the ghost signifies the troubled conscience of those who try to repudiate cultural bonds. Consider how this motif plays out in Lahiri’s novel.
The Taj Mahal or simply the Taj
The famous Indian landmark the Taj Mahal is a particularly important symbol in the novel. Gogol/Nikhil is on a constant search for love that seems to be evading him. On a visit to India as a teenager his parents take him and his sister to visit the Taj Mahal, the magnificent monument of the Moghul emperor Shah Jahan immortalizing his love for his wife Muntaz Mahal. The magnificent Taj Mahal looms large in the background of the novel. The Taj is a symbol that Gogol doesn’t grasp yet, a symbol of love that transcends death, be it material or spiritual. The Taj as a Muslim monument at the heart of predominantly Hindu India, is a powerful symbol of love whose home is not restricted by cultural or national boundaries.
The Taj Mahal in Agra, India (Links to an external site.)(2010) by Yann Forget/Wikimedia Commons (Links to an external site.) (CC BY-SA 3.0 (Links to an external site.)).
The Film Adaptation
In 2006, The Namesake was adapted into a film directed by a famous Indian American filmmaker Mira Nair. Like most film adaptation, the film The Namesake alters some of the plot, places more emphasis on some scenes, or completely leaves out others.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. Houghton Mifflin, 2003. Print. ISBN 978-0-618-48522-2
