How Did Gogol Change In The Namesake By Jhumpa Lahiri

To Be or Not To Be
Throughout the novel, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the character Gogol changes in many different ways. One of the most apparent changes was in his "Indian ness". By "Indian ness" I mean the amount of his parents Bengali ways and traditions that he retained. While growing up he did everything in his power while growing up to stray away from his parents' Bengali ways. Gogol spent most of his life trying to differ from his parents, however in the end he ends up obeying their wishes as to who he marries. As he was growing up Gogol felt only embarrassment and shame because of his background and because his parents did things differently than his other American friends' parents. For example, unlike his American friends, while in college Gogol had to return home every other weekend to accompany his parents to their Bengali friends' parties. Throughout his life he tried to shed his parent's un-American lifestyle but in the end he succumbed to his past and ancestry.
The first thing that separated Gogol from his parents' Bengali ways began before he was even
Nikolai Gogol, the author he was named after, was Russian. An Indian having a Russian name would have been unheard of in Calcutta where his parents are from. In America it isn't like that at all. All kinds of people have all kinds of different names and more often than not parents pick out their children's name simply because they like it, and not because it has any significance whatsoever. That is not to say that all names have no importance in America. People are often named after relatives or favorite actors or even favorite authors like Gogol. This was just a more American thing to do than an Indian thing and it makes Gogol more American from that point