immigrate to America. They are two different worlds and trying to live both may become difficult. Jhumpa Lahiri has experienced the struggle of balancing the two worlds. In America, most people have table manners and eat with a spoon, fork, and or knife. While in India, food is mostly eaten with your bare hands. The hardships to fit in America as an immigrant are possessed in The Namesake written by Jhumpa Lahiri. Gogol, the main character, struggles to uphold the traditions his parents expect him to follow
In all her works Jhumpa Lahiri has dealt with the themes of culture identities and the problems of generation – of Indian parents and their children growing up in America while facing challenges of coping with the demands of their parents who are nostalgic about things and memories Indian and the pressures of American life and that society’s ways and norms. These conflicting norms and values as regards life’s important affairs like love and marriage find very effective expression in her stories –
have opportunities to be whoever they want to be. An author praised for her eye-opening works, Jhumpa Lahiri is a Bengali-American author who writes about life as an immigrant in America. Being both Indian and American created a complex identity for Lahiri. She struggled with the competing cultures of assimilation into American culture but keeping her heritage and Bengali roots. Although Jhumpa Lahiri is known for her collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, she was significantly influenced
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri Living in America, the Ganguli’s have the difficult choice of choosing between two dramatically different cultures. As a second generation Indian American, Gogol Ganguli is expected to preserve the
Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, follows the journey of a Bengali-American man named Gogol Ganguli and his struggle to find his identity. Lahiri prefaced the novel with the quotation: "The reader should realize himself that it could not have happened otherwise, and that to give him any other name was quite out of the question," by author Nikolai Gogol. The quote itself foreshadows the basis of the novel as Gogol discovers his true identity through his family and himself. Gogol was brought into
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri Jhumpa Lahiri in The Namesake illustrates the assimilation of Gogol as a second generation American immigrant, where Gogol faces the assimilation of becoming an American. Throughout the novel, Gogol has been struggling with his name. From kindergarten to college, Gogol has questioned the reason why he was called Nikhil when he was a child, to the reason why he was called Gogol when he was in college. Having a Russian name, Gogol often encounters questions from people
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
In The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates several factors contributing to an individual’s life, such as the struggle faced by settling immigrant families and their growing second-generation children. Lahiri develops the fundamental idea that the absence of strong roots heavily affects an individual’s identity. This is clearly depicted through Gogol and the conflict he faces with his identity, the central theme and the symbolism found in Gogol’s names. Firstly, the main protagonist, Gogol, is heavily
life you thought everything was perfect. You slowly drift away from home, culture, and the person you were before coming to the new land. In the novel, The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, Lahiri mentions loneliness throughout her three works: A Real Durwan, Mrs. Sen’s, and When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine. Lahiri presents isolation through a little girl who doesn’t know It was a misunderstanding, but the people did not want to believe an outsider. Boori Ma’s skeleton keys were stolen from her
In The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and directed by Mira Nair there are many examples of love, experiences, challenges and drama. For instance, Jhumpa Lahiri’s representations of the American Indian identity, by examining the character of Ashima, mainly focuses on the phrases of reconstruction of her relation to her conflicted identity. Also, Lahiri shows another challenge on Ashoke and Ashima when his son Gogol embraced American cultural traditions. Lastly, Lahiri portrays how Ashima overcome all of
“Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new, approved of on either side of the hyphen” (Lahiri). Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer Prize winner, describes herself as Indian-American, where she feels she is neither an Indian nor an American (Lahiri). Lahiri feels alienated by struggling to live two lives by maintaining two distinct cultures. Lahiri’s most of the work is recognized in the USA rather than in India where she descents (Mullan)
"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri Through her tasteful selection of contemporary Indian influenced prose pieces, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the unique journey of Indian families established in America. Focusing on the intergenerational aspect of traditional households, Lahiri conveys the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies a person who is branded as a foreigner. In America, there exists a common misconception that immigrants who arrive in this country fully assimilate or seek to assimilate
In her unornamented style, Lahiri portrays the tension between the family tradition and individual freedom. The central characters of the novel are woven to highlight the social and cultural polarities. While Ashima and Ashok Ganguli are conscious and nostalgic about their ‘home’, this feeling, on the other hand, is simultaneously contested in the characters of the siblings, Gogol and Sonia, who try to ‘root’ themselves in America. The travails of Ganguli seniors is explicative of the two most important
see that relationships are based only on a basis of reproduction and sometimes the child of the relationship is rather irrelevant. In a Temporary matter by Jhumpa Lahiri, the reader can see how relationships have developed with the rest of the world into failing, no relationship, and feminist relationships. A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri is a short story explaining how these short relationships can fall apart so quick. The couple, Shukumar and Shoba have a very complicated relationship. Shukumar
When emerging into a new culture, many find it difficult to adapt to new customs that have not always been presented to them. Jhumpa Lahiri, novelist of The Namesake and Mira Nair director of the movie based off the novel, both create a way for people to understand the pressure placed upon individuals who are trying to fit into a new society. The book and movie are both accurately able to show struggles faced in a new environment, the importance of religion, and becoming at peace with what cannot
In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, the protagonist, Gogol, struggles with his cultural identity. He is an American-born Bengali struggling to define himself. He wants to fit into the typical American-lifestyle, a lifestyle his parents do not understand. This causes him tension through his adolescence and adult life, he has trouble finding a balance between America and Bengali culture. This is exemplified with his romantic relationships. These relationships directly reflect where he is in his
Some people believe that opposites attract. Others believe that people who are more similar will have a better relationship. Some prefer relationships with older people, and some prefer them with younger people. Jhumpa Lahiri, author of the short story collection Interpreter of Maladies, explores the dynamic of relationships in her works. In her short story “Interpreter of Maladies” a married woman confesses a secret to a man she barely knows. In her story “This Blessed House” a couple fights over
identity. Literature teaches us the value that holds in our identity. To many individuals literature helps find specific values that they have not realized before, for me literature taught me to appreciate my identity. The novel, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri has shown me the strength in identity and how it can constrain one’s values to mold themselves to fit their identity. As Vishva said in book club, Gogol has become an independant new person as Nikhil after he changed his name. The nature of the
Jhumpa Lahiri is an Indian American author who likes to write mainly about the experiences of other Indian Americans. She is a very successful author. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her first novel and her fiction appears in The New Yorker often. One of those works from 1998 is a short story, “A Temporary Matter”, about a husband and a wife, Shukumar and Shoba, whose electricity will be temporarily cut off for one hour for five days. This seems simple enough, but as you read the story you find that
States and how difficult it is to adjust when you want to keep past traditions. I’m still sticking with my original opinion that I tend to think that books are better portrayed than movies, but this one was a close call. Works Cited Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. Print. The Namesake. Dir. Mira Nair. Prod. Mira Nair and Lydia Dean Pilcher. By Sooni Taraporevala. Perf. Kal Penn, Tabu , and Irrfan Khan. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2007.