Isolation and Identity in The Namesake

The Namesake explores the themes of isolation, identity, clash of cultures and the immigrant expertise. By means of the Ganguli household Lahiri looks at how the immigrant encounter is various for the two generations of immigrants, Lahiri does this by first introducing us to Ashima’s encounter and her feeling of alienation which is representative of most of the initial generation immigrants. Lahiri contrasts Ashima’s encounter to Gogol’s encounter as a second generation immigrant when the viewpoint modifications to that of Gogol. Lahiri illustrates the troubles he faces like lacking an identity and feeling isolated from his two cultures. The book begins with Ashima’s viewpoint, which offers us an insight about her feeling of isolation, homesickness and alienation from her new property. Ashima has a challenging time letting go of her Bengali culture, she tries to hold on to it as much as feasible, whereas Gogol tries to disconnect himself as significantly as he can from his roots as he has grown up seeing and accepting the American culture, which he feels he cannot be completely apart of if he accepts his Bengali heritage, so in order to match in the American society he goes out of his way to overlook all about his Bengali roots. Lahiri shows us the journeys of the Ganguli household members, and us how the parents gradually begin accepting the American culture by way of their young children, whilst the second generation attempt to figure out which culture they belong and discover their true identity.

In the very starting of the novel we can tell that Ashima is feeling quite homesick, and Lahiri tends to make this clear when Ashima says “nothing feels normal” to her in this alien land. We uncover out that Ashima is “… terrified to raise a kid in Nation exactly where she is related to no one, exactly where she knows so tiny, exactly where life seems so tentative ands spare.”, this presents one of her largest fears of raising Gogol in a spot where there is a distinct culture and diverse individuals, that she does not comprehend and she knows nobody here which strengthens the theme of isolation and the immigrant expertise. We also know her night at the hospital is “…the 1st time in her life she has slept alone, surrounded by strangers”, which once more stresses upon the theme of Ashima’s isolation, as it shows us how crucial family is to her and now in this new land she does not have them with her by her side. Ashima tries to hang on to her beloved Bengali culture by means of symbols of her home such as her “tattered copy of Desh magazine… “, the watch she got as a departing present, her group of buddies, Bengali books, letters from her loved ones back residence and traditional celebrations and practice. Her group of pals “…all come from Calcutta, and for this purpose alone they are close friends.”, which shows us what a strong bond and connection sharing the identical values and norms of the Bengali culture can bring about in very first generation immigrants, as they really feel like they can after a long time relate to someone. Even following the culture shock, the Ganguli parents have to go by means of a lot of other hardships as they are now isolated from their loved ones, and Lahiri tells us that “… Ashoke and Ashima live the lives of the intense aged, these for whom everybody they once knew and loved is lost… Even these loved ones members who continue to reside seem dead somehow, usually invisible, impossible to touch.”, and so all the loved ones they have loved behind are lost to them given that they hardly communicate and even if they do ones in the while it is impossible to actually connect and feel their presence more than the phone. “…Ashima is beginning to realise, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy — a perpetual wait, a continuous burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. “, here Lahiri describes how Ashima feels a lack of belonging, and is continuously waiting for some connection to be formed, she tells us assimilation is a “constant burden” and living in this atmosphere surrounded by an alien culture she feels “out of sorts.”, and it is for this reason that she desires to go back to her loved ones in Calcutta and raise Gogol there, but does not for Ashoke’s sake.Even when they go to check out India the trip is “…put behind them, swiftly shed, swiftly forgotten… irrelevant to their lives”, which reinforces the theme of isolation from ones residence Country and the immigrant expertise.

A little later on in Ashima’s journey, she began to really feel much more settled and in manage of her new life, although she does not assimilate completely into her new culture she is understanding to come to her own terms with it. We see that“By and by she comes to her own, requires pride in rearing up the youngster, moves out alone in the marketplace with her child in the pram, communicates with the passers-by who smile at her and goes to meet her husband on the campus, thus increasing confident…”, so she starts to grow to be more confident and much less intimidated by the new culture and people. Ashima and Ashoke make a quite active work to preserve their culture in their new house, they teach their young children they language and teach them about their traditions and beliefs. A single example could be the rice ceremony they had for Gogol, and when they asked him to memorize a 4-line poem by Tagore. However, Ashima and Ashoke understand that for Gogol his American culture is also critical to him, but they do not realize just how considerably till later on. Ashima gets her first job in the library, “… she is friendly with the other girls who work at the library…They are the 1st American buddies she has made in her life.”, so we can inform that Ashima is truly growing and becoming much more comfy with the American society, and is breaking out of her isolation by diversifying her group of buddies to a lot more that just Bengali’s. Lahiri tells us “she has learned to do items on her own”, and we can see this as she has her personal job, a bigger group of friends, and learns to do distinct tasks. Towards the finish of the novel when Ashima decides to remain in India for six months each year and is packing up her property, we come to know that “She feels overwhelmed by the believed of the move she is about to make, to the city that was as soon as property and is now in its personal way foreign.”, this shows us that she feels like her name suggests “…without borders”, and she feels that because it is been such a long time India which was once her residence with no any doubt, is also starting to really feel “in its own way foreign”, this also highlights the themes of the value of names and the immigrant expertise. Lahiri makes it clear to us that “… she does not really feel completely at property inside the walls of Pemberton Road she knows that this is house nevertheless…”, for Ashima this is her residence as nicely, for which “…she is accountable.” again showing us how much she has grown over the years, and it tells us that she has created a lot of work to make Pemberton Road house for herself and her family members, and feels proud to have completed that successfully.

Ashoke embraces their new life, although Ashima clings to her culture with full force, and Gogol and Sonia really feel like they do not belong in either culture and attempt their greatest to fit in to their American surroundings. Ashoke is quite settled as he has a job he is proud of, “what a sense of accomplishment it gives him to see his name printed below “Faculty”in the university directory”, here the theme of the American Dream is touched upon, how Ashoke is now operating his dream job and living in America it was feasible for him to find such a excellent job. Ashima is not prepared to modify herself and her culture, and “Though Ashima continues to put on nothing at all but saris and sandals from Bata, Ashoke, accustomed to wearing tailor-created pants and shirts all his life, learns to purchase prepared-created.”, and so we can inform that Ashoke is rapidly assimilating into the American culture and generating small alterations that make him feel more apart of the American culture. He is also informed about the politics in the US, as “He reads about U.S. planes bombing Vietcong provide routes in Cambodia…”, and now has more exposure to the outdoors world and US itself. Although the Ganguli parents try to raise their youngsters in the Bengali way, Gogol and Sonia are both very influenced by the American culture outside of their residence. Sonia and Gogol try to locate themselves and what culture they match into, and due to the fact they are exposed to the American culture and develop up surrounded by it, they feel of it as their ideal match. When ‘Nikhil’ calls his New haven hostel his house, Ashima does not approve and does not understand this need for distance or Gogol’s extremely American behavior. Ashima does not force her future upon her youngsters, but teaches them about it hoping they will understand to accept it and at some point stick to it. We know that the kids face an identity crisis and Lahiri sums this up when she says: “The query of identity is always a hard one, but especially for these who are culturally displaced, as immigrants are who grow up in two worlds simultaneously”. The young children of the migrants face their own difficulties that are various from the ones of their parents, as they do not feel they belong fully to either culture, and Lahiri shows us this through mostly Gogol and Sonia in some situations. It is due to their kids that Ashoke and Ashima reluctantly start embracing the American traditions and culture, and“For the sake of Gogol and Sonia they celebrated with progressively increasing fanfare, the birth of Christ, an event children look forward to a lot more than the worship of Durga and Saraswati.”. Lahiri also tells us that the kids choose the American culture more than the Indian, simply because they are far more familiar with this culture. The children assist their parents assimilate to the American culture, and here the theme of clash of cultures also comes about. Even when Gogol falls in adore with numerous American girls, despite the fact that his parents do not approve, they are practically forced to accept it for the sake of their children. This also makes it clear that there is a big cultural gap among the initial and second generation of immigrants. Meals is an important symbol of the Bengali culture, and quickly they make sacrifices when it comes to Bengali food since “In the supermarket they let Gogol fill the cart with things that he and Sonia, but not they, consume.”, which emphasizes on the clash of cultures and the cultural gap between the parents and the young children. So, it can be mentioned that the youngsters bring both their parents closer to and aid assimilate them into their American culture.

Gogol wants to modify his name in order turn out to be a lot more like his American classmates and folks outside of his house, nonetheless to do so he tries to get rid of his previous and he does this by avoiding any reminders of the past like his loved ones. At some point he gets rid of the name Gogol and tries to turn out to be someone else. Lahiri nevertheless calls him Gogol so we know that Gogol is his genuine self, but Gogol doe not know this at the time. Gogol feels like his name alienates him from both his cultures “For by now, he’s come to hate inquiries pertaining to his name, hates possessing continuously to clarify and inform folks that it does not mean anything in Indian…”, Lahiri is trying to show us that Gogol feels like his name holds him back from getting apart of both the American and Bengali culture. Gogol starts to think about altering his name, and “In history class, Gogol has learned that European immigrants had their names changed…Though Gogol doesn’t know it, even Nikolai Gogol renamed himself…”. Lahiri also emphases the similarity amongst Gogol and his namesake, considering that even his namesake had changed his name. Gogol does not realize the point of getting two names, Ashima replies saying “It’s our way”, it virtually implies that Gogol does not know recognize the Bengali way and does not want to comply with it, even so it is nevertheless the “way” of his parents.

He manages by getting into university far from his parents to separate himself from his family members geographically. So now he can create his personal world and personal identity for himself in a location exactly where everyone would know him as Nikhil. In his new planet he finds Gogol makes use of their connection as an escape from locating out his personal identity, and from his past. He starts living with Maxine in her parental home, and begins to distance himself from his own family as much as possible. He stops responding to his mothers telephone calls, partly since he does not want to be reminded of his previous of who he was before and how diverse that is from who he has turn into or is attempting to be. “He is conscious of the fact that his immersion in Maxine’s household is a betrayal of his own”, he knows that he is becoming distant from his loved ones and by spending so considerably time with Maxine’s family exactly where he feels like he fits in, but he knows his parents would not “He cannot picture his parent’s sitting at Lydia and Gerald’s table… And yet right here he is evening soon after night… doing just that.”. By spending so significantly time with Maxine’s family who are so distinct from his own and who he prefers to commit time with, he feels by doing this he is being disloyal to his personal loved ones. The word “betrayal” and the reality that he is pondering about getting disloyal to his loved ones, hints that he is feeling guilty about it and knows he is performing one thing incorrect. Even so, “he feels free of expectation, of duty, in prepared exile from his personal life”, this relationship is an escape for him. This life that he creates becomes absolutely nothing much more than an escape from the old one particular, and with Maxine and her household he celebrates his twenty-seventh birthday, “the 1st birthday in his life that he hasn’t spent with his parents either in Calcutta or Pemberton Road.”, which goes to show how much he has distanced himself from his loved ones, and almost totally replaced them with this relationship that serves as an escape from his parents and the culture they used to share. On his birthday “…he remembers that his parents can not possibly reach him… That here at Maxine’s side, in this cloistered wilderness, he is totally free.”, this verifies that Gogol views their connection as a retreat from his old life and in the approach he feels “free”.

Almost everything alterations for Gogol soon after his father passes away, his attitude towards his family completely alterations and so do his priorities. Maxine can not comprehend what Gogol’s going through and does not recognize how significantly this effects him, she asks him to get away from his family for a even though, but he replies saying “I don’t want to get away.”. His priorities shift from Maxine to his family members, and “He does not want to be with a person who barely knew his father, who’s met him only once”. He starts to reflect on his connection with his parents, and he realizes he should not have tried to escape them. His father is gone now and he knows that it is too late to get to know his father much better now, so he starts to search for his father by finding what ever is left of him, so he can find a sense of connection with his father. He now desires to get in touch with his household and embrace the Bengali element of him, he does this by coming together with Moushumi, spending time with his family and trying to recognize his parents and their culture. He starts hunting up to his parents now, as “He knows now the guilt that his parents carried inside, at becoming capable to do practically nothing when their parents had died in India, of arriving weeks, occasionally months later, when there was absolutely nothing left to do …”. He also starts to grasp some of the Bengali traditions,“ Years later Gogol had learned the significance, that it was a Bengali son’s duty to shave his head in the wake of his parent’s death.”, Lahiri shows us that Gogol has right after all this time connected to his parents and their culture. Lastly, he begins to also accept and attempt and realize his name, “The name he had so detested, here hidden and preserved — that was the very first factor his father had provided him”. By carrying out this he is also finding one more way to connect to his father by way of the name that his father had offered him.

In The Namesake Lahiri records the journey of the Ganguli family members to locating their personal identities (private and cultural) and finding a sense of belonging. Lahiri appears at the immigrant expertise in depth employing the experiences of the Ganguli family members. Lahiri also looks at the different difficulties the first and second generation of immigrants face. Ashima represents the 1st generation immigrant who feels homesick and displaced, Lahiri tracks her journey and towards the finish we see just how significantly she has grown. Then we the novel switches to Gogol’s viewpoint, who is the second generation immigrant and appears at all the problems he faces with confusion about his identity