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 doesn't feel like he truly belongs to Bengalese culture. He doesn't like his name—after a Russian author his father admired—and disconnects from his parents and heritage. He prefers to be more American than Bengalese until his father dies, at which point he becomes closer to his mother and sister, accepts his heritage, and marries a Bengalese woman.
One theme of the novel this helps illustrate is cultural identity. In order for Gogol to reject Bengalese culture and participate fully in American culture, he has to reject his family. His parents want to have a relationship with him, but he sees his family as part of the cultural practices that he longs to escape. You could talk...
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about the tight bonds between older family members and cultural traditions, as well as how restrictive these practices can be for younger generations, like Gogol.
It's also important to examine exactly why Gogol returns to his family. He's mourning the loss of his father and finds that disconnection from his family and culture has become painful and unfulfilling. It's possible that age and time can show a person the important of the traditions and family ties they've left behind, strengthening their relationship with their family the way Gogol seeks out his own family after his father dies.
Another approach would be to look at the difficulty that different generations have communicating with each other. Gogol gets his name largely because his parents never get the letter from an elderly relative in India; this lack of communication breaks the naming tradition and causes Gogol to have the name he so resents. Gogol's father tries to communicate to Gogol the importance of the name, but Gogol can only see tragedy where his father saw hope. This lack of communication makes it more difficult for the family to function as a cohesive unit.
Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake is a coming-of-age novel about Gogol (Nikhil) Ganguli as he struggles to come to terms with his cultural heritage and his name. This is related to his relationship with his parents, who are from India and immigrated to Boston soon after they were married and before Gogol was born.
The novel begins before Gogol's birth and the omniscient narrator reveals Ashima's and Ashoke's thoughts. We hear about their background in India and how they met: their parents arranged their marriage. The couple moves to Boston for Ashoke's job as a professor. At first, Ashima is very lonely and has trouble adjusting to American ways. Ashoke's transition is a bit easier since he has a community of coworkers and a job to occupy his time. When Gogol is born, Ashima's primary role is to rear her son. In the novel's first chapter, Gogol is born in an American hospital. The hospital demands the parents name him before they take him home, but Ashima and Ashoke are waiting for word from an elder relative in India, as is their tradition. They never receive the letter, so Ashoke decides to name him Gogol, after a Russian author. Gogol is special to Ashoke because he was reading a collection of Gogol's stories on a train when the train crashed, killing most of the passengers. He feels that Gogol's book saved his life; he names his son Gogol because, as he tells him later, the name reminds him "of everything that followed" the accident (124).
Much of Gogol's conflict as he grows up has to do with this name. He does not understand why his parents would name him something so strange. It is not even an Indian name. When he begins school, his parents tell the school his name will be Nikhil. At first, Gogol does not want to go by this new name since he is accustomed to being Gogol at home. As he grows up, though, he realizes how odd "Gogol" is and eventually legally changes his name to Nikhil. As a teen and young adult, Gogol distances himself from his parents. He becomes involved with a young American woman named Maxine and spends all his time with her and her parents, who are much more laidback and less traditional than Gogol's parents. Even after Ashoke tells Gogol about the significance of his name, he cannot quite understand why his dad wants to commemorate a tragedy through his son.
However, a turning point occurs when Ashoke suddenly dies while in Ohio working. Gogol has been out of touch with his family, but he is responsible for identifying his dad's body and cleaning out his apartment. He is struck by grief and finally realizes the significance of his father to his life. This causes him to break ties with Maxine and to reunite with his family, embracing his background of Indian traditions more enthusiastically.
The central conflicts in the novel are Gogol's struggle to embrace his name and his struggle to relate with his parents and their traditions. His name comes from his parents, the members of the older generation, so it is inherently connected to the generational conflict in The Namesake.