"The Namesake" By Jhumpa Lahiri

"The Namesake" By Jhumpa Lahiri

The Namesake is the first novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. It was originally a novella published in The New Yorker and was later expanded to a full-length novel.

 

Originally Published in :- September 2003

Author : Jhumpa Lahiri

Gener : Fiction

Characters : Ashoke, Ashima, Gogol, Sonia, Maxine

 

 

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:

 

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”.

 

After Ashoke died, Gogol finally takes an interest in his heritage. He marries Moushumi, a Bengalese woman, but their marriage crumbles after Moushumi has an affair.

 

In the end, Gogol takes comfort in a book of Nikolai Gogol's stories. He knows now that Ashoke was reading Gogol before he got caught in a train accident, and that the page he tore out during the crash alerted medics to his presence in the midst of the wreckage.

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