Gregory Coles - Cliffsnotes on Lahiris the Namesake

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eISBN 978-1-328-78027-0

v1.0417

Jhumpa Lahiris The Namesake tells the story of the Gangulis, a Bengali American family grappling with love, loss, and identity in the final thirty years of the 20th Century.

When Ashoke Ganguli survives a catastrophic train accident in India thanks to a book of short stories written by Nikolai Gogol, he decides to move to America. Shortly after the move, he enters an arranged marriage with Ashima, and they give birth to a son. A twist of fate keeps them from naming the boy according to Bengali traditions, so they give him the name Gogol instead. As he grows, Gogol comes to hate his name and decides to change it, hoping to leave both his former name and his Bengali heritage behind. Now as Nikhil, he begins dating a woman named Maxine, living with her family and adopting their culture while ignoring his own. However, Gogol is pulled back to his Bengali heritage after his father dies of a heart attack. Gogol then marries a fellow Bengali American named Moushumi. Their marriage lasts only a few years before Moushumi, also rebelling against her Bengali heritage, has an affair with a white man. This final loss forces Gogol to come to grips not only with his multiple names but also with his multiple identities.

Written by: Jhumpa Lahiri

Type of Work: Fiction

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

First Published: 2004

Setting (primary): Boston, Massachusetts

Settings (secondary): New York City; Calcutta, India; New Haven, Connecticut

Main Characters: Ashima (Bhaduri) Ganguli; Ashoke Ganguli; Gogol/Nikhil Ganguli; Sonali Sonia Ganguli; Moushumi Mazoomdar; Maxine Ratliff

Major Thematic Topics: cultural identity; the power of names and naming; the immigrant experience; love and commitment; memory

Major Symbols: trains; Christmas traditions; Indian foods made with American ingredients; The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol

Movie Version:The Namesake (2006)

The three most important aspects of The Namesake: The first important aspect of The Namesake is its exploration of Bengali American identity. Each Ganguli family member struggles to understand how to reconcile life in America with Bengali culture and heritage. This struggle is most obvious in Gogol, who tries to escape his Bengali heritage while in college and later, especially by dating women who seem American to him. In his relationship with Maxine, he functionally exchanges his own Bengali family for Maxines stereotypically white American family. He tries to bury his memories of the past, believing that his Bengali heritage keeps him from being the kind of American he wishes to be. Only Ashokes death is powerful enough to pull Gogol back to his Bengali roots, forcing him to negotiate an identity that is both American and Bengali rather than seeing the two cultures as irreconcilable. Ashima struggles in the opposite way: Her dedication to her past in India makes her resistant to becoming too American. For her, Ashokes death becomes a reminder of all the precious memories they have shared in America, and she, too, begins to think of herself simultaneously Bengali and American. Her resolution to spend six months of each year in Calcutta and six months in America symbolizes the joint identity at which she finally arrives.

The second important aspect of The Namesake is much like the first: the relationship between names and identities. As the novels title implies, the matter of Gogols name and his namesake is central to the story. The name Gogol complicates Gogols childhood identity because it is neither American nor Bengali. Gogols rejecting his childhood name in favor of the name Nikhil coincides with his attempt to flee everything about his childhood as well. When he calls himself Nikhil, Gogol feels like a different person, and he prefers being this other person. Still, the rich history of the name Gogol is also part of the heritage Gogol receives from his fatherand in the end of the novel, Gogols choice to be at peace with his own past is also a choice to begin reading about the original Gogol who changed his fathers life.

A third key aspect of The Namesake is its examination of love and obligation. Ashoke and Ashima have a relationship that begins with obligation and has no love at first. But by the time of Ashokes death, Ashima knows that she has loved Ashoke deeply. Their journey of romance is far different from their childrens journeys. Gogols relationship with Maxine seems based on love without obligation; Gogol enjoys being in a relationship that violates the Bengali patterns of obligation his parents followed. But this lack of obligation also leads to a lack of depth: Gogol realizes that he has never truly allowed Maxine to know him deeply. Moushumis marriage with Gogol seems to be a combination of both attraction and obligation; over time, however, as the relationship begins to remind her more and more of her parents obligation-based Bengali marriage, she falls out of love with Gogol. The novel offers no easy answers about romance, only a discussion of the possible outcomes of each approach.

The Namesake covers five primary periods in the life of the Ganguli family:

Chapters 1 and 2 narrate the story of the Gangulis early days in America. Ashoke decided to move to Boston and begin graduate school after barely surviving a catastrophic train accident in India. A few years later, his parents and Ashimas parents arranged their marriage, and Ashima left Calcutta to join Ashoke in Boston. As the novel begins, the two of them are going to a Boston hospital because Ashima is in labor with their first child.