Comparison Of The Namesake Characters

This paper is all about a comparison between two characters of the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake. We are going to compare how the author paints these characters about other characters in the novel. Gogol Nikhil, who is the main character, and his mother, Ashami is the center of this analysis. The choice of Gogol and Ashami is founded on contrasting thematic struggles inevitably depicted by the narrator.

Gogol Nikhil is preoccupied with his new modern life that surpasses the Bengalese culture of his parents. At first, he was comfortable with his name but immediately he received negative sentiments he feels uncomfortable. He persuades his father to give him a new public name. In as much as his name meant a lot to his father, it did not matter to Gogol. When he is taken by his parents to India it was expected he would adapt immediately but, “He stares at the commuters clinging precariously to trams and buses” (Lahiri 282). This shows alienation from his ancestral land. Contrary, Ashami is struggling to connect with the people and her culture. This is evident when she creates a group of his natives and Bengali-speaking friends. The author depicts a closed nature of her, she wore Indian clothes and she had refused to learn driving.

The initial stage of courtship between Gogol and Moushumi is even-handed: both of them demonstrate insecure and flawed characters. In this relationship, Gogol expects her to accomplish certain desires because she would be required to make submissions to him. To Gogol, his insecurity began to emerge a long time during his childhood, and he shuns using her name in their marriage based on chauvinistic reasons. The author provides the unity of their characters, as she hides her other name.

Gogol is painted as a person willing to reconcile with the events as they come through in very tough circumstances. This eminent character is evident in the novel when the author takes us through the moment of decision that forced Gogol to move out of Maxine’s life for good after the death of his father (Lahiri 188).On the other hand, Ashtami struggles to keep cultural practices as a preserve of their identity. Though she does not feature as a dominant character, her role in the text is extraordinarily huge. She fights to preserve their original identity from the onset of their move to the foreign land. In the analysis of Ashami, the author introduces her in the first chapter as trying to conjure an Indian meal from a mixture of American ingredients.

This shows Ashami’s acts craving for her culture and home while in Cambridge. This instance gives an insight into the inability to belong to an alien culture with which her husband has associated her. Their consistency in seeking out their families and restricting their association with the alien culture. It is convincing evidence that she was against alienation despite the open opportunity that she was entitled to in the new environment.

The concept of belonging enormously preoccupies the entire text with a contrast between Ashami and her first-born son, Gogol. Gogol was born in America, a land that is far away from his Bengalese background. His birth opens up the beginning of isolation from the realities of his original self.

Trying to protect their traditions, Ashami protests the Hospital compiler’s suggestion that they name their son. She says, “But sir, we can’t possibly name him by ourselves” (Lahiri 27). He insisted on her lack of intention to raise Gogol in a foreign land when she said to Ashoke “I am saying hurry up and finish your degree. I am saying I do not want to raise Gogol alone in this country. It is not right. I want to go back” (Lahiri 33).

This repeated insistence by Ashami reinforces her fears and her need to go back to their country where she can happily raise her family. She believes that foreign land is not able to offer the best grooming to her only son who is in needs to adapt to the culture of her home country well. At this moment, the narrator creates an early struggle for cultural autonomy between the alien American traditions perceived to be unfit and the homeland culture.

In conclusion, the two characters demonstrate the cultural tension and the struggle for retention, and the search for identity. The similarity between the two characters lies in the fact that both of them depict the major theme raised by the author. Although conflicting, their role in the text remains imperative in examining ideological friction and the quest for identity.

The author depicts Gogol as an accomplice of alienation through the second generation. He fights to turn around the prevailing conservative traditions when he is born in a completely different environment perceived to be un-bearing by his predecessors. On the contrary, his mother, Ashami, perfectly positions herself as a figure to cushion against this emerging cultural protest staged by the birth of the second generation.