The Namesake Essay

In Jhumpa Lahiris novel, The Namesake, Lahiri introduces the process of assimilation on american culture and the affect on the characters. As it connects to Viet Thanhs Ngueyen’s article, “The immigrants fate is everyones”, they both open up the idea of immigrations impact on America and the perspective of those coming to America. Assimilating to American culture changes the characters perspectives,experiences, and change in comfort zones.

Ashima, a character in The Namesake is a Bengali woman who comes to America with her husband to seek a better future. When arriving in America, adaptying to the new culture and ways was a difficult experience for her as she begin her journey in a new environment. Years went by and she learned to assimilate to America’s traditions and more especially after her husband’s death. Irony is revealed by the end of the story as to the begininng, Ashima who once hated the idea of coming to America is having a hard time saying goodbye to “the house in which she has lived for the past- twenty seven years,which she has occupied longer than any other in her life time (275).”This is a goodbye to her past, and a

new beggininng to her indivdual self and new discoveries. Ashima is a character that has learned to grow and assimilate individually, one thing she thought she couldnt confront and feared.
Gogal Ganguli, son of Ahoke and Ashima Ganguli, is a character that has grown to be in two different cultural worlds.

Like most second generation children, assimilation was a much easier process for Gogal. He has always had difficulty understanding the bengali culture. As his father once told himhe was unique because of the meaning behind his name “Gogal”. At the end of the book, Gogal has a special moment and comes upon the book he was named after. A connection grows with his fathers as he realizes, “Nikhil will live on, publicly celebrated, unlike Gogal, purposely hidden, legally diminished, now all but lost,(290).” Gogal’s moment of realization makes him find his identity, self-discovery and re-connect to his father. His name is what makes him, Gogal. The novel ends with this as it demostrates finding himself and worth of his

name.
In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake reveals the connections the characters have for one another as their assimilation is in process. The characters all have different experiences and perspectives as they learn to grow and adapt to american culture and assimilate. The purpose of the book was to show the process of a characters self discovery and identity.