The Power of a Name

Upon reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, I became exceedingly attached to the main character, Gogol. Whether it is because we share the same background, or because he simply seems realistic to me, I cannot help but empathize with him throughout the novel. Through the course of the novel, the reader sees Gogol develop from initially despising the sound of his name, to eventually being able to accept his identity. His transformation, though slow, is a true representation of human character.

I particularly admire Gogol because of his flaws. He looks down upon his heritage, and chooses to dissasociate himself with every aspect of his culture. He is unable to realize the importance of family until he has undergone severe tragedies. Before he knows the significance of his name, he blames his parents and disregards their efforts at compliasance. Lahiri made him a very realistic individual because he does not undergo a drastic change in attitude overnight. His new perspective is sparked by his father’s explanation of giving him a seemingly peculiar name.

When Gogol is young, he is told that his “namesake” was selected on the basis that his father’s favorite author was the Russian, Nikolai Gogol. One day, when Gogol is finally old enough, his father, Ashoke, recounts the train accident that nearly took his life. Although the accident was a traumatic experience, it opened his eyes to how short life is. Books saved Ashoke’s life during his time of recovery. After hearing about his father’s experience, Gogol looks at him as though he is a stranger.

“And suddenly the sound of his pet name, uttered by his father as he has been accustomed to hearing it all his life, means something completeley new, bound up with a catastrophe he has unwittingly embodied for years” (Lahiri 124).

But Gogol’s change is not that simple. The fact that his change was an ongoing process enables the readers to indentify with him. He continues his ways of smoking, neglecting his family, and sleeping with various girls (all of which are completely “American”). His shift in attitude finally becomes evident when his father suffers a sudden heartattack. Ashoke’s death takes great effect on all the family. Not only must his strong-willed mother, Ashima, learn to live alone, he must also live with the fact that he never gave his father a fair chance. After years of neglecting him, and hating him for giving him such a ludicrous name, Gogol is finally appreciative of everything his father did for him. He begins to feel closer to his father than he ever did while he was alive. Gogol’s guilt was insightfully expressed by Lahiri because she captured the essence of human nature. Many a time, we are unable to grasp the importance of something until it is gone. Ashoke’s death was like a slap in the face.

The third major step to finally becoming secure with his identity is his marraige with Moushumi. Moushumi, a Bengali girl his mother has selected, seems to be everything he could possibly want in a wife. When Gogol discovers that his marraige has been based on a lie—she repetitively cheats on him—he realizes that he has no one. There is no one left for him to focus his attention on, no one to distract him from his family. He finally realizes what he must do. He picks up the novel his father gave him. Instead of feeling sad, he feels free. In the last few pages of the book, Lahiri makes many powerful statements, “There were things for which it was impossible to prepare but which one spent a lifetime looking back at, trying to accept, interpret, comprehend. Things that should have never happened, that seemed out of place and wrong, these were what prevailed, what endured, in the end” (Lahiri 287). (637).