Characterization on Gogol from The Namesake - Book Report/Review Example

 Characterization of Gogol in The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri’s critically acclaimed novel The Namesake (2003) unfolds the story of the Ganguli family and their endeavors to survive in the middle class neighborhood of Boston. It is often referred to as an immigrant tale that traces an East Indian family’s conflicting attempts to assimilate American ways. This was, in a way, their way of surviving in a strange land where “life seems so tentative and spare”? Gogol Ganguli is the most impressive character in the novel. In fact the entire story revolves around him, he being the son of Ashoke, an Indian academic and his wife Ashima, and the brother of Sonia. A second generation Indian American, Gogol makes persistent efforts to shun his Bengali lineage, with which he refuses to identify. Gogol Ganguli, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri’s first novel, is on a quest: He is compelled to reinvent himself, to achieve a sense of dignity that will overcome the embarrassment of his name. Gogol gets his name from his father, who before he arrived in America was almost killed in a train accident. Rescuers spotted the volume of the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol’s short stories that Ashoke held and hauled him from the train. Ashoke gives his son the name as a kind of placeholder, and the awkward sounding name sticks. The name does not fit into either category -Indian or American and this makes him miserable. While a teenager, Gogol desperately seeks to fit in. His apartness makes him demand that his mother make an “American meal” of hamburger and “shake-n-bake” chicken at least once every week. Although Gogol grows up to be a smart American lad who secures a place at the prestigious Yale and goes on to become an established architect, he never can make peace with his bicultural identity. He still suffers from the pangs of rootlessness and cannot really make a place for himself in the world. Gogol’s has always been inclined towards the American way of life. Without paying any heed to his Indian origin and the inherent values, he indulges in several misbegotten relationships in an attempt to be accepted within the folds of the American Society. However, disappointment looms large as he realizes that there is exists a cultural divide between him and his girlfriends. Gogol’s apparently living life on his own terms makes him all the more ‘rootless’ and ‘displaced’. Though he maintains a somewhat amicable relationship with his family members, he always appears to be embroiled in an identity crisis. The death of Ashoke is a wrenching experience for Gogol and a turning point in his life. The precisely detailed description of Ashoke’s body, the hospital rooms, and the bare furnishings of the apartment are a stark reminder to Gogol of his loss, his discovery that he has never truly known his father. These scenes recall an earlier event when young Gogol and his father had walked on the sands at Cape Cod to the lighthouse, as far as they could go. Ashoke said, “Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.” After Ashoke’s demise, Ashima finds the daughter of a Bengali friend for his son, “fulfilling a collective, deep-seated desire” on the part of their families. His unfortunate choice in marriage stems from an instinctive desire to cling to his Indian roots. Moushumi, like Gogol is at odds with the Indian-American world she inhabits. Her clandestine affair leads to the breakdown of their marital relationship. Gogol becomes completely disillusioned as he sees his great American dream wither away. Gogol though having passed through many emotional setbacks because of his ‘bicultural identity’ is shown to be feeling dejected, distressed displaced and lonely in the end not knowing what to do after the thwarting of his dreams, his father’s death, his wife’s desertion and his mother’s impending departure to India. But his desire to settle in a home, have a family and a son and rise professionally in other countries hints at his quest for the new route which will dawn on him after his reflections in the company of the stories by his namesake. An atypical hero, he goes about his life without a sense of purpose, going where fate leads him. Gogol never thinks to do otherwise. He does take a few drastic steps in his life, but they are motivated more by his rebellious streak against his upbringing rather than a genuine desire to swim against the current. A couple of hundred pages, two failed relationships and a marriage later, Gogol is able to finally come to terms with his name and his roots. The reader is taken on a turbulent journey of his life and then dropped off at the point where things start to look a little less bleak, a little more hopeful. Works Cited Bheda, P.D. Indian Women Novelists in English. Sarup & Sons, 2005 Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake - A Novel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004 Mishra, Binod. Indian Writings in English. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2006 Pathak, Vandana. CONTEMPORARY FICTION: An anthology of female writers. Sarup & Sons Read More