The Namesake"
This
novel written by Jhumpa Lahiri. Jhumpa Lahiri is consider as
Indo-American writer, she says:
“I
wasn’t born here, but
I
might as well have been”.
In
2003 Jhumpa Lahiri has published the first novel “The Namesake”.
In this novel she has described the barrier because of name through
the character of Gogol as Nikhil. The main theme of name and identity
itself shows the importance of title. Jhumpa Lahiri’s deep
knowledge of English poets like William Wordsworth, the Russian
author like Nikolai Gogol.
It
shows Jhumpa’s vast reading of various literature:
Character
list:
Ashoke
Ganguli
Ashima
Ganguli
Nikhil
Ganguli
Gogol
Sonia
Ganguli
In
this title “Namesake” is very suggestive with regard to the main
character Gogol Ganguli, whose good name is Nikhil and he swings
between both the names as he does between two cultures American and
Indian. Gogol is sandwiched between his dual identities and still has
not authentic one. The journey of Gogol starts with this name and at
the middle of this journey. He finds many obstacles in his path. The
struggle for identity and that is why the title is very apt and
meaningful.
Gogol
Ganguli is the protagonist of the novel “The Namesake”. He is the
son of Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli. He is the elder brother of Sonia.
Gogol is his pet name while his good name is ‘Nikhil’. The title
of the novel signifies the journey of Gogol to Nikhil. He is born in
America, never visited India still he got young and that is why he
believes himself as an American.
Ashoke:
Gogol’s father, he suggest the name of his new born child Gogol. He
choose this name for two reason:
First,
Gogol is the name of his favorite author, the famous Russian author
Nikolai Gogol.
Second
reason is that before Ashoke was married he had survived very
dangerous accident. When he was riding in train, the train had left
the tracks. In this accident many people died while Ashoke had broken
his back and could not move. But he was saved by this book ‘The
short stories of Nikolai Gogol’ as he believes very firmly.
By
listening to this Gogol stars hating his name and becomes impatient
to change his name. He asks his parents also to change his name but
Ashoke and Ashima are much habituated to his name and they do not
prefer to change it. Gogol does not care about his parent’s emotion
towards his name and Ashoke says him:
“In
America anything is possible. Do as you wish”.
Gogol
realizes that he is just an ABCD which means ‘American born
confused Delhi’. And finally his change name to ‘Nikhil’. His
journey as Nikhil:
- His affairs with so many girls like: Kim, Ruth, Maxine, and Maushumi.
- He himself as suffer.
To sum up one can say his life and he is swigged between two
cultures. He has dual identity- ‘Americanized, Indian’. At last
he realized the important of his father and the name given to him. He
becomes mature in real sense.
