Ashima has never uttered Ashoke's name in his presence; the reader is reminded of this fact as she signs his name to their Christmas cards. In Chapter 8, after his date with Moushumi, Gogol makes the decision to speak to his taxi driver in Bengali. Suggestions Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." The theme of name and identity emerges in Chapter 9 while Astrid, Donald, and the guests at the dinner party discuss what to name Astrid's baby. Directed by Mira Nair. As the novel progresses, the characters begin to feel more and more nostalgic about earlier times in their lives. It's not right. Gogol realizes that it is one thing to change one’s name officially, but another thing to become a different person. He feels it is not his own, and it is not until college, after he has legally changed it to Nikhil, that his father tells him the story that lies behind it. If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. While Ashima is pregnant with Sonia, Gogol and Ashoke eat dinner alone together and Ashoke scolds Gogol for playing with his food. It is "the first time he's been out with a woman who'd once known him by that other name." A summary of Themes in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake. Cloudflare Ray ID: 5e71d4f0aa8bcf3c Print Word PDF. It is not that Bengalis experience a feeling of “outsider-ness” when they come to America. ", The language barrier arises as an issue as Gogol and Sonia grow older. Introduction and Key Themes of Reckoning and The Namesake. Moushumi reveals to the guests nonchalantly that Nikhil was not always named Nikhil. The tension between the way things are in the United States and the way things are in India is apparent in the character of Mrs. Jones, the elderly secretary whom Ashoke shares with the other members of his department at the university. • The Namesake Themes. Asked and answered yesterday. She hates returning in the evenings to a dark, empty house, going to sleep on one side of the bed and waking up on another." Joyce, Meghan. Gogol’s struggle for independence from the family that he sometimes finds embarrassing is a major feature of the novel. He says, "I'll be back," in Bengali, a language neither the nurses nor the doctor speaks. She remembers when Gogol and Sonia were little, helping her prepare the food for these parties: "Gogol's hand wrapped around the can of crumbs, Sonia always wanting to eat the croquettes before they'd been breaded and fried." The theme of the relationship between parents and children becomes prominent, as Gogol grows old enough to interact with his parents as a child. Her son, Gogol, will feel at home in the United States in a way that she never does. "They talk about how they are both routinely assumed to be Greek, Egyptian, Mexican - even in this misrendering they are joined." If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. But, by the end of the novel, it becomes clear that Lahiri’s point is much larger. It is that Amer… Are you referring to the train wreck in chapter 1? The novel is centered around the Ganguli family, and the ways in which two very different generations interact with one another. She "feels lonely suddenly, horribly, permanently alone, and briefly, turned away from the mirror, she sobs for her husband." As the Ganguli children grow up as Americans, their parents give in to certain American traditions. Sometimes she wondered if it was her horror of being married to someone she didn't love that had caused her, subconsciously, to shut herself off." This Study Guide consists of approximately 41 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - The tension of life versus death is apparent to Gogol as he gets ready for his wedding. Gogol (Nikhil) Ganguli: Character Analysis. This offends him because it feels like a betrayal of an intimate detail only she knew to people he doesn't like. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. The Namesake Moushumi, too, is wrapped up in an identity that is “French,” continental, and intellectual. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our, read analysis of The Indian Immigrant Experience, read analysis of Family, Tradition, and Ritual, read analysis of Independence, Rebellion, and Growing Up. However, Gogol feels that the strange name makes him stick out like sore thumb. They learn about these deaths by phone calls. All that time, his father was in the hospital, already dead." They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Ashoke decides not to tell Gogol about his near-death experience because he realizes that Gogol is not able to understand it yet. She went to Paris so she could reinvent herself without the confusion of where she fit in. But she does not do so to argue that life is entirely change. After she has been given a bed, Ashima looks for her husband, but he has stepped behind the curtain around her bed. Who doesn't know him." The name Gogol, which “Nikhil” finds so distasteful, is a direct result of the literal identity confusion at his birth, when the letter … Gogol is used to being the only Indian in a group of children, of standing out in a crowd. This decision points to the tension between life and death: "Today, his son's birthday, is a day to honor life, not brushes with death. The theme of alienation, of being a stranger in a foreign land, is prominent throughout the novel. Learn and understand all of the themes found in The Namesake, such as Importance of Names. What is familiar for most readers in America is deeply unfamiliar to Ashoke and Ashima, who therefore provide a unique perspective on seemingly everyday things within American society. In her view, the pressure to settle for less than "their ideal of happiness" has given way to "American common sense." Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. But, by the end of the novel, it becomes clear that Lahiri’s point is much larger. The tension between life and death is prominent in this chapter, especially as Gogol deals with the death of Ashoke, his father. This causes Gogol to enjoy it, to cherish it, especially the time they spend in the woods of New Hampshire. American-born Gogol, the son of Indian immigrants, wants to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers, despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways. She does not feel motivated to be in Calcutta with the family she left over thirty years before, nor does she feel excited about being in the United States with her children and potential grandchildren. Only close family uses the pet name in the privacy of the home, while the "good" name is used in formal situations like work. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Moushumi, too, is wrapped up in an identity that is “French,” continental, and intellectual. As Gogol takes the train from Boston back to his life in New York, he thinks of the train accident his father had been a victim in so long ago. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. This section contains 1,222 words While Ashima is pregnant with Sonia, Gogol and Ashoke eat dinner alone together and Ashoke scolds Gogol for playing with his food. She thinks, "Fortunately they have not considered it their duty to stay married, as the Bengalis of Ashoke and Ashima's generation do." Although Ashima occasionally longs for life in Calcutta, she realizes she has made a new life, a new home for herself and her family in the United States. Despite their Bengali-American heritage, Moushumi grow apart, become foreign to one another, because Moushumi longs for a different set of experiences, and for a different kind of relationship. Because she is a woman, they had been presenting her with Bengali suitors throughout her teenage years, none of whom she was interested in. They know that their relationship will appeal to their Bengali parents, and they find this both comforting and surprising; they never thought they would please their parents in that way. At the college party, Gogol is reluctant to introduce himself to Kim as "Gogol," so he says his name is Nikhil. The theme of the United States vs. India is apparent during the wedding between Moushumi and Gogol. Struggling with distance learning? Visit BN.com to buy new and used textbooks, and check out our award-winning NOOK tablets and eReaders. She still calls him Nikhil like everyone else in his life, but she knows the first name he ever had, and that seems like a secret bond between them. In particular, both texts take an intergenerational approach, which means that they look at how children might struggle to … And Ashima feels again out of place when the family relocates to the suburbs of Boston, just as Ashima was becoming accustomed to her Cambridge neighborhood. Gogol grows up perplexed by his pet name. He thinks about how "they were already drunk from the book party, lazily sipping their beers, their cold cups of jasmine tea. -Graham S. “Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. • Gogol (Nikhil) Ganguli: Character Analysis. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri chapter summaries, themes, characters, analysis, and quotes! The thought is comforting to him. It is only when Ashoke dies suddenly that Ashima begins to learn a new identity, that of a widow, albeit one surrounded by a loving and supportive family. Ashima and Ashoke have to give their son a pet name as they wait for the "good" name suggestions to arrive from Ashima's grandmother, but the letter from Calcutta never comes.
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