Literary Analysis: The Namesake

Literary Analysis-The Namesake The important theme of naming and identity is introduced at the very beginning, when Ashima calls out for her husband. She does not use his name when she calls for him, since "it's not the type of thing Bengali wives do" (Lahiri, J. p. 2). Their husbands' names are considered too intimate to be used. The Bengali tradition of pet names and "good" names. Only close family uses the pet name in the privacy of the home, while the "good" name is used in formal situations. Ashima and Ashoke have to give their son a pet name as they wait for the "good" name suggestions to arrive from Ashima's grandmother, but the letter from Calcutta never comes. The name Gogol is important as he starts kindergarten. His parents intend for him to go by "Nikhil" at school and "Gogol" at home, but Gogol is confused and does not want a new name, "He is afraid to be Nikhil, someone he doesn't know. Who doesn't know him" (Lahiri, J. p. 59). As a child, he associates a new name with a new identity. As a little boy, Gogol likes his name and when his parents try to give him a "good name" Nikhil, when he enters kindergarten he dislike the name change to Nikhil and decides to be known as Gogol. Gogol is not bothered by the unusual nature of his name until he is eleven and realizes, on a class trip to a cemetery, that his name is unique. He makes rubbings of the some gravestones with names he has never heard before because he connects to them. As he gets older, he gets more aware that his name is different and it upsets him that his parents picked such a unique name for him. As the years go by Gogol begins to hate his name stating, that he "Hates having constantly to explain. He hates having to tell people that it doesn't mean anything "in Indian". He hates having to wear a nametag… he hates that his name is both absurd and obscure, that it has nothing to do with who he is, that it is neither Indian nor American but of all things Russian” ( Lahiri, 76). Learning