The Namesake Character Analysis

Homesickness can be defined as the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from home. The frantic attempt to recreate the previous life leads to depression and a loss of identity. Distraught and alienated in America, Ashima pushes her Bengali heritage upon her children, Gogol and Sonia, in an effort to lessen her homesickness throughout The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Ashima completely rejects the bewildering American culture that is thrust upon her and becomes depressed and homesick. These characteristics cause her to be very miserable in her new home on Pemberton Road as she wishes she could be surrounded by the Bengali culture she grew up with and loved so dearly. Furthermore, this sense of homesickness and absence
Dahiya adds onto this discovery as she states, “the thought of bringing up a baby in an alien land terrifies [Ashima]” (501). In an effort to decrease this fear as well as to decrease her homesickness, Ashima does everything in her power to recreate the culture she grew up with and misses when her children are born. Examples of this can be found throughout the novel, whether it be from the day Gogol is born and her husband, Ashoke, and her struggle to name him, how Ashima cooks only Indian food for her family and enrolls Gogol in Bengali lesson and forced him to go to them until he was an adult, and her insist on planning a traditional Indian wedding for Gogol. The constant Bengali dinner parties they would attend or host as a family on every Saturday is another instance where Ashima is trying to recreate her old culture for her children. For example, the dinner parties would consist of only Bengali families and friends, Bengali food, language, customs and culture. By making Gogol and Sonia go to these parties Ashima was trying to replace the family members back in Calcutta with new Bengali families in America, as well as expose them to controlled environments Ashima deemed fit for her “perfect Bengali