The Namesake By Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of, The Namesake wrote this story from personal experiences and does a tremendous job showing how a person can move on with their life but the people who truly love them will always be in the same place. The main character, Gogol (aka Nikhil), is a first-generation Indian who seems to only care about his life/future and wants nothing to do with his heritage. We are taken through his life long journey up until the end where he truly finds meaning in his life. Gogol’s definition of home changes throughout The Namesake as he experiences the world when he journeys off on his own. In the beginning Gogol finds himself despising his Indian heritage and doesn’t want anything to do with his parents until they are both gone
The lifestyles of Gogol and his parents are quite different as their cultural views are pretty much opposite of each other. Ashima and Ashoke aren’t used to American holidays, when they were growing up they celebrated different holidays in a completely different country. Gogol and his sister hear about these American holidays from friends at school, they don’t feel they fit in because they do things differently, like not celebrating Christmas. To make up for this, Ashima and Ashoke try their best to celebrate these new American holidays with their children whom live vastly different lives. Gogol tends to feel left out and lost when his parents have huge get-togethers with all of their Indian friends they have made in America. He doesn’t think his parents understand him as he blames them for his name and any issues he encounters. But his parents truly do understand the feelings of not belonging, they know what he is dealing with because they experienced the same troubles when they moved to America. Overall Gogol tries his best to fit in, he doesn’t see that he is as normal as everyone else. He tends to only focus on the problem at hand, and this ends up straining the relationships he has with his mother and