Plot. The Namesake depicts the struggles of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli (Irrfan Khan and Tabu), first-generation immigrants from the East Indian state of West Bengal to the United States , and their American-born children Gogol (Kal Penn) and Sonia (Sahira Nair).
What is the theme of the namesake?
The Namesake continues that theme of identity , complicating it with questions about cultural disorientation, loyalty to one’s personal and national heritage, and the significance of traditions, family, and, most essentially, one’s very name.
How does the book namesake end?
Gogol Meets Gogol , Finally
At the end of the novel, though, Gogol’s not so anti-Gogol anymore. He has started to come to terms with his Indian-American identity. He doesn’t try to ignore Bengali custom, and he doesn’t envy the American ways of his ex-girlfriends.
What is the main setting of the namesake?
The novel begins in Cambridge, Massachusetts , in 1968. Ashima Ganguli, expecting a child, makes a snack for herself in the kitchen of her apartment, which she shares with her husband, Ashoke. The two met in Calcutta, where their marriage was arranged by their parents.
Did moushumi and Gogol divorce?
Gogol suddenly realized that she was having an affair, and when he asked, Moushumi confessed. Within weeks, they divorced and Moushumi moved back to Paris.
Why is The Namesake called The Namesake?
The “namesake” of the title, named after his father’s favorite Russian writer, Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) . A first–generation Indian American whose uneasiness with his name exemplifies his difficulties in fitting in, either to his parents’ expatriate world or to the world inhabited so comfortably by his American peers.
What is a symbol in The Namesake?
To Gogol, the story is a symbol of his father’s love and deep ties to his family . Gogol uses the story after his father’s death to keep his father’s memory alive; he begins to read the story for the first time, realizing what kind of person his father really was.
Why did Gogol and Maxine break up?
She and Gogol break up after the death of his father , when he is pulled back toward his family and begins to feel that she is an outsider, refusing to allow her to accompany them to India for Ashoke’s funeral.
What does Gogol realize at the end of the namesake?
Gogol spends time at the party, taking pictures of Ashima, Sonia, and Ben, setting up the fake tree in the living room for the last time. ... He realizes it is his opportunity, finally, to connect more fully with his father’s life , and to learn more deeply what the name “Gogol” meant to Ashoke. The novel ends.
What was the climax of the namesake?
Climax – Nickhil married Moushumi and accepting his identity as Indian . Falling Action – Moushumi cheated on Nickhil and he divorced her. Resolution – Ashima goes back to India after Christmas dinner and Nickhil finally reads Nikolai Gogol, his father’s favourite author.
What is the major conflict in The Namesake?
Conflict (World)
The major conflict in the novel is identity .As Ashoke and Ashima struggle to maintain a balance between their Indian roots and their American life, their son Gogol rejects his Indian heritage and seeks American instead.
What is the resolution of The Namesake?
423). In The Namesake, the resolution for Gogol is the acceptance of his conflicted identity . In the text’s conclusion, Gogol realizes that it “had not been possible to reinvent himself fully, to break from that mismatched name” (Lahiri, p.
What literary devices are used in The Namesake?
Some literary techniques used by Jhumpa Lahiri in The Namesake include sensory detail, description, imagery . Literary techniques are a category of the two literary devices from which an author chooses freely to create the details of a novel, play, poem or short story.
Why is Gogol attracted to Maxine?
At first, she seems like the answer to all Gogol’s troubles, because Maxine fits the type that Gogol seems to be attracted to: she is all-American, she’s artistic and sexually uninhibited – in other words, she’s the complete opposite of the nice Bengali girl his parents would love him to marry. ...
What is Nikolai Gogol known for?
Nikolai Gogol, the Ukrainian-born writer is known as one of Russia’s greatest authors. Works like The Overcoat and Dead Souls launched Gogol into the upper echelons of Russian writers, yet his greatest masterpiece, a continuation of Dead Souls , was cut short by his tragic death.
Why did Moushumi break up with her fiance?
He proposed to her, and she accepted. But they began fighting after moving from Paris back to New York, and Moushumi realized that the banker was not at all comfortable with some of the customs of her Bengali relatives . They fought more, and eventually split, prompting a period of despair for Moushumi.
