The Namesake By Jhumpa Lahiri

The book The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a classic novel that does an impeccable job of describing the problems of being wedged between his native culture and American culture along with various religious and ideological differences. The novel comprises of various characters, but the book revolves around Gogol/ Nikhil, the protagonist of the story. Gogol is an American Indian, who lives with his family in Boston. He moves on to several other places as he grows up. Gogol is a perfect example of reinvention as he tries to officially change his name from Gogol to Nikhil before leaving for college. The protagonist suffers from a major identity crisis because he tries to juggle between his Indian values and American habits, while also having a Russian connection to himself, which makes things very confusing for him when he grows old. Jhumpa Lahiri does an amazing job of showing how Gogol deals with the constant frustration and isolation because of switching between two names. On the first day of kindergarten, when Mrs. Lapidus asks, “And what about you, Gogol? Do you want to be called by another name?” (Page – 59), Gogol replies that he only wants to be called Gogol and I
When the teacher talks about the author Nikoli Gogol in class and how he lived his life in loneliness, Gogol feels embarrassed and is compelled to compare his life to that of Nikoli Gogol. His name also affects his relationship with girls because he is immensely terrified of going up to a girl and telling her his name. The narrator says, “but he cannot imagine saying, “Hi, its Gogol” under potentially romantic circumstances. He cannot imagine this at all.” (Page – 76). It disappoints him that his parents chose such an irrelevant name for him and all this leads to him finally changing his name to Nikhil officially before going to