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. However for Gogol and Sonia, it is an ordeal. Gogol's identity crisis begins with his dislike for the name his father gave him. He is in a state of conflict with his parents and the entire Indian culture they promote. As soon as he goes to college, he distances himself from his family.
After Ashoke's death, Gogol returns home. The Indian traditions that annoyed him earlier begin to make sense. He tonsures his head, foregoes meat, and eats a "mourner's diet." He begins to understand the importance of his name and how much it meant to his father. His desire to reconnect with his family brings him close to Moushumi, who he decides to marry. When his marriage...
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ends in divorce, he understands how difficult it must have been for his parents to balance marriage, raise two kids, and adapt to a new culture.
After Ashoke's death, Ashima decides to spend six months in India and six months in America. While India symbolizes her roots, America represents the life she shared with her husband and children.
Sonia lives in San Francisco. After her father's death, she returns home to live with Ashima. Sonia applies to law schools so that she can find work as a paralegal. She decides to live with Ashima and take care of her.
Ashoke's death is the catalyst for the transformation with Gogol. Having to retrieve his father's ashes in Ohio causes a change within Gogol. It is at this point where so much that had been dismissed or deferred comes back to haunt Gogol. The configuration of relationships in the family, with Gogol on the periphery, seeking his own appropriation of consciousness is something that changes with the death of his father. The transformation involves Gogol withdrawing more from Maxine and the "Westernized" life he had been living, one that he was quite content to live. It also encompasses emotionally moving closer to his mother and sister and seeking to find answers in this realm and not going outside of it. This transformation of the relationships in the family is brought on by death for a couple of reasons. The first is the immediacy of Ashoke's death. Considering that he had lived through the train accident, facilitated a life for his family in America, and had essentially fulfilled the obligation of the immigrant settling in America, the sudden prospect of his death causes an inward gravitational pull in the family, most noticeably in Gogol. Additionally, the death experience in America for the Ganguli is different in American than it would have been experienced in Bengal. Consider the opening where the birth of a child is something that is so isolated in America, and something that is in stark contrast to the familial and collective setting of India. In much the same way, the family emotional dynamics are altered through death to create much of the collective experience that is so noticeably absent in America.