The Namesake Literary Analysis

“The reader should realize himself that it could not have happened otherwise, and that to give him any other name was quite out of the question.” - Nikolai Gogol. This is the epigraph for the Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, for the quote foreshadows a lot of what the novel contains and helps us understand the difference between what we're being told and what we're, seeing. Jhumpa Lahiri chooses to start with a quote from Nikolai Gogol for it connects to both The Overcoat and The Namesake for names having more meaning than a label. Jhumpa Lahiri connects with both The Overcoat and The Namesake using names with meaning that have importance in their families. With both the The Namesake and The Overcoat they start with not the main characters
Both Gogol and Akaky have names that reflect who they are, for Gogol when he got his name change he felt like he was a whole new person leaving Gogol behind when he got his first kiss he felt this confidence and he contributed it to the fact that “Gogol had nothing to do with it (96).” but it was Nikhil. In reality his still Gogol and will always be he tries to separate Gogol being Bengali and Nikhil being American but he can’t there the same his name is him and reflects who his culture and past something he can’t just forget. As for Akaky, it’s sort of the opposite, the irony of his mother not picking all these bad names because “all those names are poor (2).” not knowing later on her son would grow up to be extremely poor. Even though it seems it’s the opposite of his personality it isn’t really, Akaky never lived up to his mother's expectation of being “not poor” his a letdown and that kind of supports him Akaky isn’t a tough guy but a scared man who never stood up for himself. Both Gogol and Akaky are names picked by their respected authors on purpose, not just names but reflections of who they are as