The Namesake

The Secret of Identity
In the book “The Namesake” Jhumpa Lahiri uses the psychoanalytical lens to show the reader that a western culture society, can challenge an Asian individual’s cultural identity in a negative manner. This is shown through Ashima, and Gogol, the conflicts between Gogol and society, and the technique of foreshadowing and flashback.
Firstly, Gogol and Ashima start to confront society as Ashima starts to avoid growing accustomed to the new world, she has “the oldest address book. Bought twenty-eight years ago […]” (Lahiri, 159). This shows that Ashima does not want to grow as her heart is still in India, where she is used to living. Ashima is scared because she believes that change in her standards will end her relationship

Gogol starts a new identity when turning fourteen, Gogol gets two parties, states “his own friends from school were invited the previous day [...]. The other celebration, the Bengali one, is held on the closest Saturday [...]” (Lahiri 72). He starts to change from the Bengali culture to the American culture, because of his friends being American it gives his mind a think to change to fit in with them and avoid your true identity. Gogol has a challenging multicultural identity when he reaches his parent's house with Maxine he tells her rules to follow “that they will not be able to touch or kiss each other in front of his parents, that there will be no wine with lunch” (Lahiri 145). Gogol has two identities, one with his parents where he is quiet and understanding, and another identity far away from his parents which, is not Bengali man standard. He does not want to show the lifestyle he is living to his parent because his parents have not shown any affection to each other, as they are not exposed to such things. Japanese Canadians must change their identity to live in a society where Japanese people are an outsider. James H. Marsh says, “Japanese Canadians had to put signs that they are Canadians”. They must change their identity to survive in a society, where there is hate, towards a different culture, and because they do not look the

Gogol identifies himself as someone who could never kiss someone, this results in him to change his identity to something he is not. Gogol thinks that if he told his actual name, Kim will not make out with him. Gogol decides to change his name to Nikhil because he thinks that from this name gets the confidence he needs, but it is own mindset and willpower. Gogol becomes ashamed of the what he did to his pet name which got him further away from his wife, when Moushumi tells her friends, “Nikhil. It was [not] the name he was born with it”(Lahiri, 243). He became devastated as the person who gave him the name Gogol had died, as he finally found the importance of the pet name that his father has given him. When Moushumi tells Gogol his secret to all her friends, as he thought that Gogol was an alien word, to them. After this Moushumi and Gogol start to pull apart from the relationship that ends in a divorce. Gentili has been a subject in an identity crisis as she is a transgender and the id are not at the perfect condition which can be “[awkward], [humiliating] or, in some cases [discriminating] […]”. Gentili has been discriminated because of who she really wants to be that have a negative effect in the human mindset causing them to go in depression and hide in the shadows, which can result into