Lahiri's "The Namesake"

1) Compare/contrast Gogol's "The Overcoat" with Lahiri's "The Namesake." How is a name like an overcoat?

Dostoevsky said: “We all came out from Gogol’s overcoat.” Ashoke refers to this quote when giving the book to his son Gogol, hoping that some day he will understand what was meant by it. In Nikolai Gogol’s “The overcoat,” the author makes much of his protagonist’s name: “His name was Akakiy Akakievitch. It may strike the reader as rather singular and far-fetched, but he may rest assured that it was by no means far-fetched, and that the circumstances were such that it would have been impossible to give him any other.” The way Ashoke chooses his son’s name is much like the way Gogol finds his protagonists name. He did not look very far; he chose the one moment in his life that changed everything, the train accident. I think the meaning of the overcoat is that your origins are not very far. In a way, us all coming from Gogol’s overcoat symbolizes the fact that we all have the same origins; we are all the same in some ways. The quote binds Gogol with his family and his origins that he denies for such a long time. 

2) Trace Gogol/Nikil's struggle with his name and his identity. Do you think he ever makes peace with his name?

Gogol shows the very first sign of struggling with his name and identity on his first day of school when his parents explain to him that now that he is going to school he has to be called his "good name." Indians receive two names: a pet name that shall only be used by their family members, and a good name that is used by everyone else. Gogol's pet name is Nikil. But on his first day of school, he feels uncomfortable with this name that no one has ever called him by. A name that is not his. Later on, when he is 11, he comes to realize the peculiarity of his name, on a field trip with his school to a graveyard. He realizes that he is the only person to have his name. He shares it with no one. He then grows ashamed of his name: "Other boys his age have begun to court girls already, asking them to go to the movies or the pizza parlor, but he cannot imagine saying "Hi, it's Gogol" under any circumstance" (p.76.) For years, until he finds out the real reason behind his pet name--the story of the train--Gogol is confused and irritated with it: "The writer he is named after--Gogol isn't his real name. His first name is Nikolai. Not only does Gogol Ganguli have a pet name turned good name, but a last name turned first name. And so it occurs to him that no one he knows in the world, in Russia or India or America or anywhere, shares his name. Not even the source of his namesake" (p.78.) His discomfort with his name strengthens when one of his English professors decides to study Gogol's short stories in class. Gogol is viscerally upset when he sees the printed letters spelling out Gogol on the cover of the book.

One evening, at a party, when Gogol finds himself alone with a girl and she asks him his name, he lies: “I’m Nikhil.” He then kisses her, but when he tells his friends about the kiss, “he doesn’t tell them that it hadn’t been Gogol who’d kissed Kim. That Gogol had had nothing to do with it” (p.96.) This just shows us how confused Gogol/Nikhil is about his identity. He doesn’t love himself as Gogol, but doesn’t identify himself to Nikil either. Similarly, he is neither Indian nor American, he is stuck somewhere in the middle. In an interview, Lahiri explains that “The question of identity is always a difficult one, but especially so for those who are culturally displaced, as immigrants are, or those who grow up in two worlds simultaneously, as is the case for their children. The older I get, the more I am aware that I have somehow inherited a sense of exile from my parents, even though in many ways I am so much more American than they are. In fact, it is still very hard to think of myself as an American.”

During Gogol’s search for his identity, Gogol goes through phases where he first denies his origins and lives someone elses life, the American life. But after his father dies, he realizes that living in exile from his own culture is not an option: “with a stamina he fears he does not possess himself. He had spent years maintaining distance from his origins; his parents, in bridging that distance as best as they could” (p.281.) As he goes home, he makes peace with his family, his mother, and starts immersing himself in his old life again. But essentially, Gogol/Nikil will always have a certain confusion concerning his identity. He will always be living in two worlds, nether completely American or completely Indian. But yet, that is what has formed Gogol, that is what has made him who he is. In a way, he makes peace with his name after his father’s death:”The name he had so detested, here hidden and preserved—that was the first thing his father had given him” (p.289.)

3) Consider the blossoming of Ashima in the course of the novel. In what ways does she grow and develop?

Ashima’s development and growth is apparent in the novel. When she moves to the United States, she resists her new environment slightly. She is unhappy, in a word so far from everything and anyone she has ever known. Before her first child is born, she expresses her fear of raising him in this foreign country, and wants to go back to India. Ashima feels extremely lonely and isolated, especially because her husband spends the entire day away and only comes home in the evenings. She has no friends or people to lean on. When her son is old enough to go to school, she will once again feel this loneliness, but eventually grows to accept it. She eventually stops resisting to her children’s inevitable immersion in the American culture, and even ends up accepting the fact that her daughter will marry a non Indian man.

4) Discuss Gogol/Nikil’s relationships with women. What do the relationships have in common? Why does each break down at some point?

Gogol has two major relationships in the book. In both relationships, Gogol becomes passive, and lets the other control his life. Both Maxine and Moushimi make all the decisions. Gogol completely adopts Maxine’s life style, culture and even her family. He becomes as much a child to Maxine’s parents than a lover to her. He sleeps in her bed, moves in with her when she asks him to, and would rather go on vacation with her family than spend time with his. At the beginning, he is as happy as ever, enveloping himself in this new lifestyle, so different from the one he had known so far, the one he had spent such a long time rejecting. But soon enough he begins to realize that living the life of someone else is not healthy, and not a way of life.  His regrets, that he had until now buried deep inside him, surface from time to time: “he is conscious of the fact that his immersion in Maxine’s family is a betrayal of his own.” (p.141) He then realizes that all this time, he had been immersing himself in her life without letting her into his. In fact, Maxine hardly knew him. And the people he had surrounded himself with, were not the people that truly cared for him: “Everybody sings Happy Birthday, this group who had known him for only one evening. Who will forget him the next day” (p.158.) Gogol’s father’s death is what truly ends up separating him and Maxine. When she asks Gogol to get away from his family, shortly after his father dies, it is evident how little she really knows him, and he finally stands up to her. In a similar way, Moushimi also dictates Gogol’s life. They start visiting with her friends all the time, dinner party after dinner party. Despite the fact that Gogol and Moushimi have the same cultural background, he feels very misplaced and uncomfortable when he is around her and her friends. To make things worse, they constantly compare him to Graham, her ex fiancé. Moushimi keeps a part of her life secretive. She never reveals the sentimental details of her relationship with Graham, to Gogol, like the fact that it was so passionate. Inevitably, the two grow apart. Gogol feels judged by Moushimi, for example when she mocks his name change in front of her friends. I think that Gogol’s problem remains in his relationship with his family and himself. In both relationships, he lets his significant other take control. Instead of each sharing parts of their lives with one another, Gogol is too focused on the other person and tends to forget that he has a life of his own.

5) Many episodes in the novel occur in the train. What is the significance for this?

The trains in the novel symbolize change. Change can take on several variations. When Ashoke comes close to death in a train accident, his life changes. A man he had met on the train told him of the wonders of traveling. He said: “Do yourself a favor. Before it is too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can” (p.16.) After the accident, those words stay with Ashoke and he decides to move to America, starting a new life. The train can take on the meaning of growing up as well, a change from childhood to adulthood. Gogol meets his very first girlfriend, Ruth on a train, and together, they travel on the same path of life for a little while. The symbolism behind the train is there to reinforce the changes that the characters are experiencing. For example, Gogol finds out about his wife Moushimi’s affair in a train station. This is significant in that they are not on the actual train, but have come to a halt. They are no longer moving forward together, their relationship has come to a stagnant stage, and they now part ways. The train could also symbolize a sort of deracination. Trains are often associated with hobos that travel from city to city without a home. Gogol resembles a homeless person in that he has no sense of belonging to a single culture, a single home. He is neither Indian nor American, and this is a struggle that is present throughout the entire novel. He is still searching for his identity.  At the end of the book however, I think that Gogol has finally stopped seeking. He has finally found himself. The story ends with Gogol opening the book his father had given him years ago. The book that had always been there, but Gogol simply hadn’t paid any attention to it. This illustrates the fact that the answer to Gogol’s identity search had been there the whole time, in his very own home; he just had to look closer instead of searching on the outside, far away from home and his origins. .

6) In an interview with the author, Lahiri said she wanted India to function as a ghost in the background of the story. Does India function as a ghost or as something else?

The fact that she desires India to function as a ghost in the background of the novel draws another parallel between “the namesake” and “the overcoat.” Indeed, in Gogol’s “The overcoat” Akaky comes back from the dead in the form of a ghost, to haunt people on the bridge and steal their overcoat. The ghost is here to remind us of the things that are important in life. Part of the criticism of human nature that Gogol implies in his story is that people assign too much value to unimportant things such as social status, financial means, and material possessions. In that sense, I think that India functions as a ghost in the story. It is there to remind us that we can never deny our origins, because that makes us who we are.