Gogol's Loss Of Identity In 'The Namesake'

Tone:
Sympathetic
Genre:
Growing Up, Family Drama
Themes:
Identity: In The Namesake, everybody is seems lost under various terms . Every character struggles with his or her identity, as they feel allured by the different cultures, traditions, and personal ambition. Gogol, in particular, is torn between two cultures – the Indian traditions of his parents and the modern American culture in which he grows up. His struggle is the same one that his sister Sonia goes through. It's also related to the struggle his parents undergo as immigrants. Each character faces a moment where they must ask themselves whether or not they should take in the american culture and to what extent. Characters wrestle through their relationships with their names, their
The main Indian-American characters grow up with parents who are educated professionals; they graduate from Ivy League universities and enter similarly elite careers such as architecture and academia. But these characters often envy the lifestyle of their Anglo-American peers, who come from well-to-do families, who have never had to pull themselves up the way their Indian parents have. Many of the characters (mainly Gogal) are acutely conscious of how possessions and property reflect class status. Which isn't much different from what happens to us , even if
Ashima attempts to recreate a snack that is popular in India, because she is homesick for the life she left behind. The problem is, she can't quite get that snack right, which shows us just how far from home this woman is. That's not the only time that food goes to show a connection or disconnect between a character and his or her culture. Throughout the novel, food is an important way that Bengali culture is preserved in the Ganguli home. Gogol's first taste of solid food, for example, is during his annaprasan, a ceremony marking his sixth-month