Set over three decades, The Namesake describes the lives of the Ganguli family as they live in a country that challenges their culture and values. The family is separated by a generation gap; Ashoke and Ashima were born and raised to traditional families in Calcutta, but their move to the United States means that their children grow up adopting very different lifestyles. As the years pass, their firstborn, Gogol, displays a strong disapproval of his identity and especially his name, instead embracing the American culture. As he searches for liberty, many complications arise in the form of family and love life, leaving him with deep regrets and disturbing experiences. However, in the loneliness and quiet that surrounds him, Gogol is at last …show more content…
Before maturing into a man, Gogol entangles himself into a set of relationships, all of which are eventually damaged from disagreements and drifts. Nonetheless, in Moushumi, a Bengali family friend, he sees flawlessness and in a matter of months they are engaged. It is afterwards that he experiences disloyalty and discovers that a formal document cannot safeguard a relationship. This reality is better accepted by Gogol in the novel. For example, when Moushumi discloses to her friends that he “changed his name” (Lahiri, 243), he is “stunned” (Lahiri, 243) given the sensitivity of the issue, but chooses to ignore her. On the other hand, in the adaptation he confronts her angrily, stating, “What I told you about my name is . . . not just some joke!” (Nair). Later, after he realizes that she is having an affair, he is “strangely calm” (Lahiri, 282) in the novel, whereas in the adaptation, he aggressively grabs onto her in frustration. In this way, the novel stays true to Gogol’s character. He is one to internalize his feelings, and therefore never openly displays sadness in regards to his many break-ups and father’s death. As a result, the novel more realistically expresses Gogol’s response to his dissatisfying
...o assimilate into the society by entering school with a more acceptable name, but Gogol refuses. The acceptance of the society has pressured him to change his name in college, and to hide Gogol from the society. Till the day Gogol understands the reason why his father chose to name him Gogol instead of an Indian or American name, Gogol experienced a lot of changes, as a second generation American immigrant. Gogol has been assimilated to different culture than he ethnically is. At the end, through family, Gogol has come back to his roots. Gogol was not given an Indian name from his Indian family or an American name as he was born in America, to emphasize an individual try to assimilate into a different culture, but in the end, he is still bonded to his roots as the person he ethnically is.
The desire to learn about family and its history can lead a man to great monuments of nature. Scott Momaday is Kiowa in the blood, but doesn’t know the impact of his ancestry, what they had to endure, and how they adapted to the obstacles thrown at them. Scott Momaday decides to travel 1,500 miles to “see in reality” what his family went through. He writes this story with a mixture of folklore, myth, history and personal reflections. Scott Momaday uses nature as a main component of his story, incorporating different voices and his memory to bring personal vision into the story with different time frames to give the ultimate experience of the Kiowa and his family.
Unsurprisingly, the novel is a classic coming of age story which centers on a young man who is confused about himself and his sexual identity in his early twenties. This confusion about himself and his sexual identity is the driving force of his interactions with his friends and lovers. Moreover, this confusion about himself and his sexual identity also facilitates the conflict and unforeseen consequences which occur during the novel.
There he makes this identity of himself to try to totally forget his parents’ cultural identity. He changes his name to Nikhil and later ends up moving to New York with a girl by the name of Maxine. “He is overly aware that they are not used to passing things around the table, or to chewing food with their mouths completely closed. They avert their eyes when Maxine accidentally leans over to run her hand through her hair” (Lahiri 277). This quote is describing Maxine and Gogol having a meal with his parents. This whole scene is very awkward for both because Gogol’s parents aren’t used to doing things the American way. When the two are leaving his parents’ house Gogol’s father says to him “Drive safely, Gogol” (Lahiri 279). This confuses Maxine because she is not familiar with his real name. He doesn’t want to be reminded of who he was before. By chapter 8 Maxine and Gogol are no longer together due to
the progression of this novel. The changes she undergoes can be given to the fact the she was
In a troubled household, the Nour El-Din family find themselves in a series of compelling moments in their lives where arguments about identity, religion, customs, and tradition ensue. Every time something terrible happens, everyone is out the door, and on their way home.
Within the framework of familial lives of Bengali immigrants in the U.S, the novel explores and exposes the deep schisms behind the veneer of equality and uniformity in America, marked by its shopping malls, suburban housing, etc to a more poignant and startling cultural depths – a hiatus too wide to bridge. However, it is in The Namesake, her first novel that a sustained attempt is made to deal with these concerns of two generations of an immigrant Indian family. What emerges at the end of this deeply psychological study is the hybridity and luminal existence of the diasporic community, what with the ubiquitous conflict between strong ethnic ties and a matching resolve to settle down in the New World. In the process, the feeling of ‘neither there nor here’ spills over into the lives of the second generation also. It is a deeply moving and finely wrought family drama centred around the Ganguli couple, first generation Indian immigrants, whose experiences in the U.S. are pitted against those of their children, complicated further by the choice of name for their son-all of which leads to the clash of cultures resolving into a sense of hybridity and
Over the course of the novel, The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, Gogol is constantly moving, and by the time he is in his late twenties, he has already lived in five different homes, while his mother, Ashima has lived in only five houses her entire life. Each time Gogol moves, he travels farther away from his childhood home on Pemberton Road, symbolizing his search for identity and his desire to further himself from his family and Bengali culture. Alternatively, Ashima’s change of homes happens in order to become closer to family, representing her kinship with Bengali culture. Ashima has always had difficulty with doing things on her own, but by the end of the story she ultimately decides to travel around both India and the States without a real home as a result of the evolution of her independence and the breaking of her boundaries; in contrast, Gogol finally realizes that he has always stayed close to home, despite his yearning for escape, and settles into his newly discovered identity - the one that he possessed all along.
The book, Keeper, by Mal Peet includes multiple themes within its storyline, but the one that stood out to me the most was how Gato loves and hates the Keeper at the same time. Throughout the story, the author is able to display Gato’s feelings both explicitly and implicitly. These parts are crucial to the story because they show how as Gato’s skills improved his relationship with the Keeper got stronger.
For thousands of years in many, if not all cultures, men have been dominant over women. For example, women need to cover their bodies and if they are even allowed to get a job, they are limited to certain fields of work. This is especially true in the book, Lost Names. Throughout the book, Lost Names, there are people and events included to show the reader what the book has to say about the relationship between men and women. That is men are more important than women in society, a man has the right to dictate a women’s future, and men are more suitable for war and violence than women.
Through two main characters author involves us in a specific business going on between Leo Finkle, a lonely rabbinical student, and Pinye Salzman, a matchmaker. In order to get a good congregation Leo supposed to be married. How a man, who was studying for six years and who never was in a company of woman, easily can find a wife? The same way as his parents did. He went to the matchmaker. It was not so easy for Leo to appeal to Salzman, because he hoped to find the wife by himself. He wanted to be in love before he gets married. But he resorted to help. It was a firs time when he turned his mind over. Pine Salzman, the marriage broker, represented the old generation, and respected the old Jewish tradition. Marriage is a very important part of a Jew's life, and the family is more important than the girl herself is. He does not think about love. It is possible to imagine how Leo was disappointed when Salzmen introduced the girls to him. "Sophie P. Widow. Father promises eight thousand dollars. Has wonderful wholesale business. Also realestate." "Lily H. Regular. Father is successful dentist thirty-five years. Interested in professional man. Wonderful opportunity." Moreover, "She is a partikiler. She wants the best." Leo's interest to Lily was aroused, and he began seriously to consider calling on her. Finally they met. She provoked him to say the strange, but a very capacious and valuable phrase: "I think, that I came to God not because I loved Him, but because I did not." But Lily didn't dream about him, she dreamed about an invented hero. After this date he turned his mind over again. He felt that he could not love a girl. Although Leo returned to his regular routine, he was in panic and depression from one thought: nobody loves him and he does not love anybody either. There was no bride for him.
Life becomes hard and miserable when a person feels they have lost their sense of identity of his culture. The movie is a reflection of culture and full of values. Culture is highly reflected in the movie The Namesake. Reflection of culture in the movie can be seen when the lead protagonist discovers that the lead actor of two cultures and tries to bring them into one. Gogol, the American Indian whose parents are migrants in the US from India is worried how he is supposed to live two cultures. Despite the fact that these couple are living in a flat amid a city in America, there Indian culture and custom is evident. This is one of the main examples that can define how culture is being reflected in the movie. Culture has been and continues to be so innate in many people that once they are faced by its squeeze, it becomes a major phenomenon. The culture can effect in a person within values, material, and behavior.
The novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri details the life of Gogol Ganguli, following him from birth, through childhood, and into adulthood. Growing up, Gogol struggles with his unusual name because it is a constant reminder that he is different from the American society around him, and eventually changes it to Nikhil. Lahiri also uses the motif of names to craft a message about the theme of marriage in the novel: one must humanize and empathize with their partner in order for a marriage to be successful.
Characters both a young woman and man, Nene and Nnaemeka, plan on getting married to each other in “Marriage is a Private Affair.” Nene tells him to tell his father of their plans, but Nnaemeka believes he won’t approve since she is not from the same tribe, Ibo. Nene did not like that someone would care as much about tribal background and so continues telling him to write a letter. Nnaemeka wants to tell his father in person instead, because his father sent him a letter in regards to his arranged marriage and of the woman whom Nnaemeka has no interest. Later, Nnaemeka and his father talked, he sincerely told his father that he does not want to marry the woman he chose, but the women that he truly loves and wants to marry. Once her attributes
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a bildungsroman that involves an array of themes and related symbols. The story centers on our protagonist, Gogol Ganguli, the son of Ashima Ganguli and Ashoke Ganguli, both of which are immigrants from Bengal. The story is set throughout the span of Gogol’s life, where he struggles to accept the name he was given. He rejected his good name in school and changed his legal name before going off to college. In the end, after learning the significance of his name, he learns to love and accept his name. Throughout the story, many symbols are introduced and all of them relate to a major theme of the story. Names, trains, and food are three of the symbols mentioned throughout the novel that relate to nostalgia and