The Namesake

"What's in a name?" goes the old, beautiful Shakespearean quote: "That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet." However, when it comes to questions of identity, it turns out...

This is a very interesting question! Usually in criticism of novels, external conflict is directly plot oriented; while internal conflicts within characters may or may not affect the plot. It is...

In The Namesake, author Jhumpa Lahiri describes the struggles and hardships of an immigrant couple who form a new life in a country whose customs are completely at odds with those to which they are...

In the beginning of the novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, a Bengali couple named Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli leave India to begin a new life together in the United States. Their marriage was...

In Jhumpa Lahiri's book, the word "namesake" references the human search for meaning. The word essentially encompasses Gogol/ Nikhil's struggle for identity. The story begins with an explanation of...

Maxine and Moushumi are very different characters and represent two different times in Gogol's life. Ultimately, neither relationship works out because Gogol does not truly know himself. Gogol...

A bildungsroman is a narrative that tells the story of the protagonist's coming-of-age process. The novel will typically show the protagonist growing up both physically and psychologically. Often,...

Jhumpa Lahiri shows cultural differences in the Ganguli family primarily between parents and children, as they were born in India and the Unites States respectively. A key difference of the Bengali...

Although the conflict in The Namesake originates from the clash of two different cultures, the emphasis is on family relationships. For Ashoke and Ashima, the trip to India is like a homecoming....

The name Gogol is extremely significant to Ashoke in The Namesake. Ashoke gives his son the name Gogol, and at first, the naming is portrayed as somewhat arbitrary. Ashoke and his wife Ashima, a...

Identity: Gogol struggles throughout the novel with his dual identity - American and Bengali. He changes his name in an effort to do away with any negative connotation there is with the origin of...

Cultural identity is a crucial theme in Lahiri's The Namesake. The main character, Gogol, is an American born of Indian parents soon after they have settled as a married couple in Massachusetts....

Gogol's identity is enhanced by the fluid relationship he holds with his family. At first, Gogol's identity is enhanced with distancing himself from his family. This is seen in the choices he...

The main difference, which is fairly obvious and perhaps overly so to be stated, is that Maxine is not Indian, wheras Moushumi is. This difference, though blatant and obvious, actually plays a...

A sampling of Lahiri's authorial style and use of literary devices can be gotten from the beginning of Chapter 5 of The Namesake. Lahiri's authorial style employs a bold direct tone that is...

Jhumpa Lahiri explores the theme of cultural difference in The Namesake through the idea of a name. This theme is closely related to the theme of modernity. Marriage is also a culturally meaningful...

In Chapter 4, the narration focuses on the teenage Gogol, from the family party to the scene in which he receives his father's precious book, to the long trip overseas, and on into Gogol's high...

Ashima carries multiple address books with her after moving to America in "The Namesake." In her old life, prior to her arrival in the States, Ashima remained in the same few houses for her whole...

There are a few marriages in Lahiri's The Namesake. Two of these marriages influence Gogol, and one is his own union with Moushumi. The first marriage that influences Gogol is, of course, that of...

One way to approach this is to consider what the themes of the novel are and how the relationships between characters help explain that theme. Gogol resents his family when he's young because he...

Much of Gogol’s character can be understood in relation to a clever bit of foreshadowing that takes place when Gogol is six months old. During the Rice Ceremony, Gogol must choose between a dollar,...

The protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, Gogol (or Nikhil) Ganguli, is born to Indian parents who moved to the United States shortly before having him. He is an American citizen who grows...

It means that Gogol feels free from the influence of his overbearing family and their culture from which he has always struggled to distance himself. Gogol spends his adolescence and young...

Ashima is craving something spicy. Part of this craving might come from her being pregnant. Yet, another part of it might come from the fact that she has left an intense culture and moved into a...

Some of the themes in The Namesake are immigration into another country; assimilation into one's own lifestyle the customs, traditions and attitudes of the new country; marriage; home. Immigration...

First person and third person are points of view in literature. First person (I, we,) limits itself to the point of view of a single narrator, whereas third person (he, she, they, it) is able to...

Lahiri sets this up as one of the most important events in the novel. Not only does it help to explain the title, but it also establishes in the most clear of ways the identity crisis that the...

Hello! In Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Namesake,' Ashoke is Gogol's father. In Chapter 3, we read that he has been hired as an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the university. He shares a...

I think that the opening of the story in which Ashima is trying to make an Indian savoury snack using American ingredients represents much on how Ashima wishes to remake her life in Boston as a...

I think that Gogol's identity changes in large part due to his culture because it represents an aspect of his consciousness that has yet to be fully explored. Gogol is a character that defines...

Names are crucially important in Lahiri's The Namesake, as we can see from the novel's title. The name referred to in the title is Gogol, who is the protagonist of the novel. His parents are from...

In his relationships with both Maxine and Moushoumi, Gogol adopts his partner's identity (or what he perceives that identity to be) because he has not yet solidified and accepted his own identity....

A thematic essay is very different from a summary or critical analysis. Rather than simply recounting what happened in the book, you need to choose a specific theme, issue or idea, that informs a...

Painful and isolating--over many years she makes friends in the Indian community in Boston, and her children and husband bring her happiness. But when her husband dies and her two children are...

The tags of the question got me to thinking a bit broadly about the connection. I think that a really nice complement to what Lahiri brings out in The Namesake is what Mukherjee attempts to...

Lahiri does a very stellar job in articulating how the generation gap converges with the issue of racial and ethnicity. In some respects, Lahiri shows how each generation experiences a different...

I would think that when Gogol is confronted by the reality that there is a void in his life that cannot be explained through traditional analysis, this would be one of the first moments where the...

I think that Gogol demonstrates the hybridity of a second generation immigrant in a couple of ways. On one hand, he is intensely "Western" as seen in the start of the narrative. Yet, when his...

Gogol, as a child who was born and brought up in America, thinks that the arranged marriage of his parents is something that is oppressive and has resulted in a lack of love between them. When he...

Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake fits the description of a bildungsroman, which is a work of literature that tells the story of a protagonist's formative years. The protagonist of The Namesake is...

I think that Gogol shows a level of success in both cultures because he recognizes that his identity lies in both worlds. At first, he immerses himself in the American culture. Gogol does so in...

In many immigrant families, it's inevitably the case that children find it much easier to assimilate into their new country than their parents. This is not really surprising; parents are older and...

Ashima and Ashoke's immigration has a profound impact on their son Gogol. He grows up surrounded by friends and peers who understand and move comfortably in American culture in a way his family...

You could easily argue that "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost relates to every piece of fiction: every novel, every short story. At its heart, the poem is about considering your options in life,...

The novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is about a Bengali-American couple and their children, particularly their son, attempting to come to grips with the two disparate cultures with which they...

Moushumi Mazoomdar is a woman whose parents are friends of the Gangulis. She knew Gogol when she was 13, was invited to his party but she thoroughly ignored him and the rest of the kids. When she...

I believe that the statement does hold some level of validity. On one hand, there is some significance to how cultural relevance, or the lack of it, plays a role in Gogol's challenge. Certainly,...

Choosing the character of Gogol to focus on the quest of identity is a good choice indeed. There are two ways to approach this topic with the character of Gogol: his search for cultural identity...

Space is an important concept both physically and emotionally. The different apartments and houses the characters live in and the huge spaces of the countries all play their part in shaping the...

I think that Gogol learns that there are on "quick fixes" in the desire to find some level of solidity in consciousness. Gogol had focused on external attachments as helping to bring about the...