The Namesake Ch. 8-11

Hello, and welcome to the grand finale of my ‘The Namesake’ blog. These last few chapters are definitely the best part of the book, in my opinion. The main reason for this is that these chapters seemed to have some sort of focus. It felt like these chapters were finally leading to something bigger, rather than just needless descriptions of Gogol’s life. These chapters also had a more dominant theme of identity and family than previous chapters.

Ashoke’s death is the catalyst that causes Gogol and Maxine to break up. Maxine’s behaviour after Ashoke’s death comes of as very rude and unempathetic. Her expectations of Gogol to ignore his family and fall back into the life of the Ratcliffs seems rather unfair. Earlier, we had only seen Gogol and Maxine’s relationship through Gogol’s perspective. But now, looking from an outside perspective, the relationship didn’t seem as healthy as it did before. I was kind of relieved when they break up since it showed Gogol had finally began to appreciate his family, rather than ignoring them. Their ritual for Ashoke’s death anniversary where “they stand together in front of the photograph and drape a garland of rose petals around the frame”, was very relatable. I remember performing similar rituals on a photograph of my great grandparents, and also for other religious ceremonies. If you grew up in the religion I grew up in, you would decorate idols of gods with flowers and put sandalwood paste on them.

The family dynamics change in the Ganguli family after Ashoke’s death. Gogol and Sonia take upon the responsibilty of taking care of Ashima. Gogol has to take care of financial matters such as paying the bills, while Sonia has moved in with Ashima and often does household chores such as cooking. This makes me wonder how the death of my father would affect my family. I presume it would be quite similar to the Ganguli’s, since my father has been taking care of all financial matters since a long time.

We also see Gogol and Moushumi get married, in a pseudo-arranged marriage. They were set-up by their parents, but the decision to get married was made by Gogol and Moushumi themselves. This represents the American-Indian hybrid identity they both possess. Their actual wedding was a traditional Indian one. This reminded me of many Indian weddings I have attended. This is what pretty much all of them look like.

Moushumi’s past relationship with Graham came to an end because Graham called off the marriage. When Graham drunkenly admits he did not enjoy being immersed in Moushumi's culture, she gets pretty offended. This shows that although she has distanced herself from her culture so much, she is still protective of it.

Their marriage comes to a disappointing end, with Gogol being cheated on by Moushumi. Moushumi meets Dimitri, someone she loved when she was in high school. Dimitri and Moushumi have an affair. Their marriage has many problems.

Gogol comes to know about this affair on a train ride back home with Moushumi. It must have been extremely awkward for Gogol, to spend the weekend with Moushumi just after learning about the affair, and keep a facade of a normal relationship.

Ashima’s decision to move live in India and America for 6 months couldn’t be a clearer example of someone embracing their hybrid identity. This also reminded me of my mother, who has often stated her desire to move back to India later on in her life.

The book comes to a fitting end, with Gogol finally reading the book containing Nikolai Gogol’s stories during his mother’s farewell party. I was expecting Gogol to change his legal name back to Gogol in the end, but I’m glad the author chose a less cliched ending. The ending seemed stretched out to me, but it may have just been me impatient to get the book over with.

The last few chapters seem to give the message that one's identity is influenced by one's background, whether they like it or not. The ending of the book left me with a desire to reconnect with my culture.

Works Cited:

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. Mariner Books, 2004.

Jain Puja. http://www.mahavirfoundation.com/jain-puja.html Accessed on March 17, 2018.

What to expect at a traditional Indian wedding. https://strandofsilk.com/indian-fashion-blog/indian-weddings/what-expect-traditional-indian-wedding Accessed on March 17, 2018.

Tradishunned. https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/brown-paperbag/ep-27-tradishunned/viewer?title_no=32251&episode_no=28 Accessed on March 17, 2018.