THE NAMESAKE

NILANJANA SUDESHNA LAHIRI

Introduction:
Characters:
Summary:
Themes:
Symbols and Motifs:
Critical Analysis and Conclusion:
About The Author
and The Novel
NILANJANA SUDESHNA LAHIRI
• Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri’
(born July 11, 1967) is a
Bengali American author
known for her short stories,
novels, and essays in English
and, more recently, in Italian.
Born Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri
July 11, 1967 (age 56)
London, England
Occupation Author
Nationality American
Alma mater •Barnard College (BA)
•Boston University (double MA, MFA, PhD)
Genre Novel, short story, postcolonial
Notable works •Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
•The Namesake (2003)
•Unaccustomed Earth (2008)
•The Lowland (2013)
Notable awards •1999 O. Henry Award
•2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
•2021 Dottorato Ad Honorem, University of Bologna
• Lahiri was born in London, the daughter of Indian immigrants
from the Indian state of West Bengal. Her family moved to the
United States when she was three; Lahiri considers herself an
American and has said, "I wasn't born here, but I might as
well have been." Lahiri grew up in Kingston, Rhode Island,
where her father Amar Lahiri worked as a librarian at
the University of Rhode Island; the protagonist in "The Third
and Final Continent", the story which concludes Interpreter of
Maladies, is modelled after him. Lahiri's mother wanted her
children to grow up knowing their Bengali heritage, and her
family often visited relatives in Calcutta
• When Lahiri began kindergarten in Kingston, Rhode Island, her
teacher decided to call her by her familiar name Jhumpa
because it was easier to pronounce than her more formal given
names.Lahiri recalled, "I always felt so embarrassed by my
name.... You feel like you're causing someone pain just by
being who you are." Her ambivalence over her identity was the
inspiration for the mixed feelings of Gogol, the protagonist of
her novel The Namesake, over his own unusual name. In an
editorial in Newsweek, Lahiri claims that she has "felt intense
pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in
the new." Much of her experiences growing up as a child were
marked by these two sides tugging away at one another. When
she became an adult, she found that she was able to be part of
these two dimensions without the embarrassment and struggle
that she had when she was a child.
 Her debut collection of short
stories Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and
the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first
novel, The Namesake (2003), was
adapted into the popular film of the same
name.
• The Namesake was a New York Times Notable
Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and
was made into a major motion picture.
Unaccustomed Earth (2008) won the Frank
O'Connor International Short Story Award, while
her second novel, The Lowland (2013), was a
finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and
the National Book Award for Fiction.
 THE NAMESAKE

• Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake deftly

demonstrates how the familiar struggles between new
and old, assimilation and cultural preservation, striving
toward the future and longing for the past, play out in
one particular set of foreign-born parents and their
American-born children.
‘The Namesake’ As Viewed By The
Critics
"A powerful and original voice." —
Star Tribune
 "Quietly dazzling ... The Namesake is that rare
thing: an intimate, closely observed family
portrait that effortlessly and discreetly unfolds
to disclose a capacious social vision . . . a debut
novel that is as assured and eloquent as the
work of a longtime master of the craft." —
New York Times
 "Sparingly beautiful prose ...
Lahiri's novel ultimately
dramatizes a common experience
shared by all people: the search for
identity." —
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
 "Emotionally charged and
deeply poignant, Lahiri's tale
provides panoramic views of her
characters' lives." —
Philadelphia Inquirer
 "The Namesake does such a
remarkable job of depicting the
importance of family and how people
cope in unfamiliar terrain that it is
one of the best works of fiction
published this year." —Seattle Times
Characters
Prof. Ashok Ganguly – pet name Mithu
• Bengali Family Calcutta.
• Quiet, sensitive man.
• “Doctoral candidate, electrical engineering at MIT,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology”.
• Indian Immigrant in U.S
• “Reads while walking”.
• Deeply affected by train accident, nearly killed.
• Claustrophobic.
• Great admirer of “Nakolia Gogol”.
• Arrange marriage with Ashima.
• Assistant Professor at Electrical Engineering
University, his dream job.
• A caring and devoted husband and father.
• Dead at the end of the novel.
 Ashima Ganguly-pet name Monu
• Five feet four inches, 19 years old.
• Compared to actress “Madhabi Mukherjee”.
• English was her subject, did graduation, home tuition.
• Father in law asked to recite , Daffodils.
• A true Bengali woman, never call her husband by his
name, always wears Sari, follow her culture even in U.S
• A caring wife, never complain to her husband…
• Homesick
• Tense about her children's grooming in U.S.
• Ashoke and her father death..
• Cooks food..
 Gogol, Nikhil Ganguly…
Childhood to Adulthood
• The name Gogol, complicates Gogol’s childhood
identity, neither American nor Bengali…
• Nikolai Gogol and Gogol Ganguly…
• 14th Birthday gift “The short stories of Nikolai Gogol”
• Started hating his name, the article, “second Baptism”
• Changed his name at court from Gogol to Nikhil.
• Architecture program at Columbia.
• Kim, Ezra Stiles, Ruth, Maxine…his girl friends.
• Married to Moushumi, her extra marital affair..
 Maxine
• Maxine Gogol’s girlfriend.
• Represents the true American culture, the interest in
art, physical affection and relational openness.
• Transformation of Gogol’s identity from Bengali to
American.
• Break up after Ashok’s death.
 Moushumi Mazoomdar

• Gogol’s wife.
• From Bengali family.
• She has extra marital affair with her old friend, Dmitri.
• After her confession they got divorced and she moved
back to Paris.
Summary
 From India to America
• 1968 – Central Square Department
• Two weeks before her due date, pregnant Ashima Ganguli is
cooking when her water breaks. Her husband, Ashoke
Ganguli, takes her to the hospital by taxi.
• She was 19 years old and in college in India when her
parents arranged for her to meet a fellow Bengali earning his
Ph.D. at MIT.
• Train incident – “The Overcoat” by Nikolai
Gogol.
• Ashima gives birth to a son. Ashoke and Ashima
are waiting for a letter from Ashima’s
grandmother. Ashima hates living in an
unfamiliar culture with a newborn.
• Ashoke gets a phone call in the middle of the
night that her father has died.
 Gogol’s Childhood
• 1971 - The Gangulis move to a Boston suburb. Ashoke loves his job,
but Ashima hates the suburbs.
• At school, Gogol refuses to answer to “Nikhil,” and the principal,
realizing that Gogol’s legal name is “Gogol”.
• Ashima gives birth to a daughter. Sonali, shortened to Sonia.
• Fourteenth birthday party, Gogol meets Moushumi, a Bengali British
girl near his own age. That evening, Ashoke gives Gogol a copy of
The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol.
• When Gogol is in tenth grade, the Gangulis travel to
Calcutta for eight months. Gogol and Sonia feel out of
place.
• Gogol goes to a college party with his friends. He
meets a girl named Kim at the party. He tells her that
his name is “Nikhil.”
 Nikhil the American
• The summer before he begins college at Yale, Gogol tells his
parents that he wants to change his name to “Nikhil”.
• When the judge asks him why he wants to change his name,
he says, “I hate the name Gogol. I’ve always hated it.”
• During a train ride to Boston, he meets Ruth, a fellow student
at Yale. They talk for hours, and when they return to Yale,
they begin dating.
• After finishing college, Gogol completes a graduate
program in architecture at Columbia University. He
now works for an architecture firm in New York City.
• One night at a party, he meets a girl named Maxine
Ratliff, a fellow Columbia graduate who works for a
publisher of art books.
• Ashima calls Gogol to visit before Ashoke leaves to
spend nine months in Ohio. First, he refuses but finally
confesses about vacations.
 Ashoke’s Death, Gogol’s Marriage

• Ashoke goes to Cleveland for a nine-month research

appointment.
• Ashoke calls unexpectedly to tell her that he is in the
hospital with a stomachache.
• Several hours later, he still hasn’t called her back. She calls
the hospital and learns that he has died from a heart attack.
• Gogol visits Cleveland to identify his father’s
body and authorize his cremation.
• Gogol spends the next few weeks in Boston with
his mother and sister.
• Breakup of Maxine and Gogol.
• In January, Gogol takes a train back to New York.
• Gogol meets a woman named Bridget. Gogol and Bridget have a brief
affair but never exchange phone numbers or become emotionally
attached.
• Gogol met Bengali Girl, Moushumi and start dating each other.
• Moushumi tells Gogol about her past – At Paris she get engaged with
a man, Graham but broke up a few weeks before the wedding.
• Gogol and Moushumi marry the following year in a ceremony that
their parents plan.
• However, their marriage quickly becomes strained for several reasons.
Firstly, do not change surname, secondly, longing for Paris and finally
Gogol’s name change.
 Failure and Future Hope
• 1999 - Anniversary of Moushumi and secretly applied
for dissertation fellowship in Paris.
• She finds the contact information of her old friend
Dmitri. They begin having an affair and divorced
Gogol.
• Sonia engaged with Ben and Gogol planned a vacation
to Italy.
• 2000 - Ashima prepares for a final party at her
house on. She’s sold the house and plans to spend
six months in Calcutta and the other six months
with her children and friends in America.
• Gogol returns home for the party and finds a
copy of The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol, an
earlier gift from his father. He begins to read it.
Themes
 Identity and Naming

• “The Namesake” is an identity-driven novel, as its

title suggest
• Gogol’s pet name confuses him as he grows up
• He feels it is not his own,
and it is not until college,
after he has legally changed
it to Nikhil, that his father
tells him the story that lies
behind it. Gogol realizes
that it is one thing to change
one’s name officially, but
changing one’s identity is
quite another
 Cultural Identity
(Family, Tradition and Ritual)
• The novel delves into the complexities of culture
identity, particularly the struggle of first-generation
immigrants in reconciling their Indian heritage with
their American upbringing.
• The Namesake focuses on the importance of family,
explores the dynamics between different generations
within the Ganguli family, highlights the clash between
traditional values and the desire for independence.
• The novel also
highlights the
significance of
tradition and rituals in
maintaining cultural
heritage
 Feeling of Homesickness

• Ashima Ganguli in “ The Namesake” deeply

feels homesickness as an immigrant longing
for her homeland and the familiarity of her
culture. The novel captures her feelings of
nostalgia and the longing for the place she
once called home
• “Ashima thinks that it’s strange that her child will be
born in a place most people enter either to suffer or to
die” (Lahiri 4).
• This emotion adds depth to her character and journey
in the novel.
 Love and Relationship
• The novel explores various forms of love and
relationships, including familial love, romantic
love, and the complexities that arise within them
• Gogol, Ashima, and Moushumi each experience
different types of love and navigate the
challenges that come with them
Symbolism
 Train
• Appears multiple times
• Significant role
• Reminder of a constant forward motion in life
• Symbol of journey and destiny
• Symbol of exploration
• All characters seem to explore their inners throughout novel
 Books

• Begins with a book and a short story “The Overcoat”

by Nicolai Gogol, a Russian author
• Ashok’s Love for Gogol
• Saves Ashok’s Life
• Protagonist got his name from the same
• Give power to explore minds of readers without
moving an inch
• Books are carriers of Past and Names
• Symbol of Enlightenment
• Also in the form of Travel guide
 Graves and Graveyard
• Bearing of legacy
• Permanent place of residence
• Only names are left written as identity
• Bodies are cremated in Hindu tradition
• Gogol is initially fascinated by the names and thought
to find a namesake for himself when he visited
 Naming
• Scenes of naming crop up repeatedly
• Ashima and Ashoke decide to name their son “Gogol,” as they
wait for his “official” name from Ashima’s grandmother.
• Bhalonam means good name
• Daknam means pet name
• Resistant towards his name by the start of high school
• Highly hybrid and loss of identity
• Not Indian nor American.. Russian Name
• Ashima never calls her husband by name
• Suggests how important is our identity
• Effects of names
• Gogol chose Nikhil and so his personality changes with
name
• His whole identity crisis and the cultural clash that
exists within him
 Shoes
• Wore his shoes in the beginning meaning that she is ready to
leave behind her life in Calcutta and start a new one with Ashoke
in America
• Gogol steps into his father’s shoes when he dies
• shoes symbolize either the beginning of a new chapter or the
ending of something
• Ready to start a new journey
• Stepping into ones shoes also mean that we want to feel what
they feel
 Overcoat
• “ We all came out of Gogol’s Overcoat”
• Symbolises one’s identity
• Something that hides when worn and reveals truth when taken off
• Overcoat is necessary but can become a burden
• “Gogol” is the true identity but when he wears “Nikhil” he
changes completely but it becomes burden to him
• Realizes the true meaning of Gogol when his father reveals the
truth behind his name
Critical Analysis
 Question

• After reviewing the story, themes, symbols,

characters, how would you explain the title ‘
‘The Namesake’
 Example

• If your parents named you after your Great Uncle

Abner, then you are his namesake. The two of you
share a very nice name. Use the noun namesake to
describe the recipient of a handed-down name, like Bob
Jr., or Ricky Smith III.
 Question

• What was the name that the writer used as a

‘Name’ due to which the story becomes
significant?
 Nikolai Gogol
Russian Novelist
 Jhumpa Lahiri
• “The Namesake” was the Jhumpa Lahiri first Novel
• The author had lucidly poured in her own experience of being
born to an Indian immigrant to England
• She takes her reader through the complexities of living a life
of an immigrant as that is marinated with multi-layer
emotional experiences ranging from alienation to efforts to
assimilate to the host country.
A REVIEW ON 'IDENTITY REDEFINING' IN THE NOVEL THE NAMESAKE BY JHUMPA
LAHIRI
 Diasporic Literature-Definition
• Writers living in Foreign Countries, writing for and
about their motherland wherein the writings reek of
their quest for identities through the complexities of
dual culture, nostalgia of their homeland and the
palpable contrast in way of living in the host country
etc can broadly be categorized as Diasporic literature.
A REVIEW ON 'IDENTITY REDEFINING' IN THE NOVEL THE NAMESAKE BY
JHUMPA LAHIRI
 Diasporic Literature
• While talking about Diasporic Literature, Homi K.
Bhava stated that the negotiation of cultural identity
involves the continual interface and exchange of cultural
performance that in turns produce a mutual and mutable
recognition (or representation) of cultural difference.

A REVIEW ON 'IDENTITY REDEFINING' IN THE NOVEL THE NAMESAKE BY

JHUMPA LAHIRI
 Diasporic Literature
• The Namesake is born from the duality of the author’s identity being a
second generation immigrant to United States of America from India.
• Through the protagonist, Gogol, the author portrays the assimilation
and synthesis of two cultures in one character, wherein Gogol grows
up in an Indian Home and breathes freedom American way of living
outside the four walls of home. At the same time the main
protagonist’s mother Ashima who happens to be the first generation
immigrant continued to hold onto their Indian values.

A REVIEW ON 'IDENTITY REDEFINING' IN THE NOVEL THE NAMESAKE BY JHUMPA LAHIRI

 A Search For Identity
• The search for identity is a concept that is often expressed in
literature and is regarded as one of the most significant issues in
the advanced world.
• Ever since his creation, man has striven to live a high-quality
existence. In the search for the best existence, the stone age has
evolved into a time of cutting-edge innovation.
A REVIEW ON 'IDENTITY REDEFINING' IN THE NOVEL THE
NAMESAKE BY JHUMPA LAHIRI
 A Search For Identity
• Similar to The Namesake, her tales are often placed in Indian and American
settings and depict the Indian American experience she is familiar with:
• Indian-American has been a common way to depicting me, yet my control
over the word is inconsistent. In Rhode Island in 1970, I was going through
my upbringing at the time, and I didn't feel Indian or American.
• I had extreme stress from having to be two things at once— faithful to the
past while also being knowledgeable about the present, as urged off on both
sides of the hyphen. Looking back, I can see that this was generally the case.
A REVIEW ON 'IDENTITY REDEFINING' IN THE
NOVEL THE NAMESAKE BY JHUMPA LAHIRI
 A Search For Identity
• The lives of each distinct transitory from India in the USA are depicted in
the story with realism. The journey of the Indian Diaspora includes
estrangement, and whether or not people feel at home anywhere in the globe
doesn't mean that they won't continue to experience a sense of isolation.
• The narrative also shows how the settlers deal with societal problems in
their new environment. Through the development of the identities of her
characters, she has attempted to respond to each of these questions with
steadiness. In the second phase, the Diaspora discovers its true
underpinnings after going through societal unrest.
 A Search For Identity
• Diaspora is about the creation of new identities, potential
regions for growth, the subject of disputes, and every other
culture. Lahiri demonstrates how the immigrants assimilated
some of the social techniques of the host kingdom while still
clinging to their own convictions and practices. Their 'bilingual'
and 'bicultural' children are more likely to experience social
difficulties and uprooting. In any event, Lahiri also suggests
that every immigrant changes their own 'courses' through time
and that it is best for them to live in the kingdom where their
cause is supported.
 CONCLUSION
• In the Novel The Namesake, the characters of Jhumpa Lahiri
finds it hard to identify themselves with one culture and
constantly struggles between their root and the host culture
while being pained by dislocation, feeling of alienation, identity
crisis etc.
• Second Generation immigrants as shown in Gogol’s character
and as well as in his wife and his sister show the emergence of a
hybrid identity and they have tried to assimilate with the host
culture adopting the ways and lifestyles of the Americans.
 Question

• What do you think why did the writer choose Nikolai

Gogol?
• Why do the herself would like to promote the writer
from Russia? And not from Bengal or any other part of
India?
 Resources

INDIAN DIASPORA: A CRITICAL STUDY OF JHUMPA LAHIRI’S NAMESAKE

1Kaberi Sonowal, 2Sikmi Borah, 3Manab Jyoti Bora, 4Bhagyasree Talukdar

A REVIEW ON 'IDENTITY REDEFINING' IN THE NOVEL THE NAMESAKE BY JHUMPA LAHIRI

S. Ashok Abstract
Research Scholar Dr. Lokesh Singh
Research Scholar Research Guide
Department of English Department of English NIILM University,
Kaithal.
NIILM University, Kaithal