Cultural Identity in “The Namesake” , Essay Example

In the novel “The Namesake” the author, Jhumpa Lahiri, tells the story of a young married couple from India who move to America in the 1970s and raise a child. The title of the book refers to the fact that they give their son an unusual name, Gogol, inspired by the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. The reason this is unusual is because it is not a traditional Indian name, and because it was not the name that was selected by the maternal grandmother, which was the expected and traditional way for this couple to name their child. As the boy grows up, the name Gogol eventually becomes embarrassing to him , and he ignores it and pretends it does not exist, and asks people to call him Nikhil instead. Over time, however, he does learn to appreciate the named his father gave him, and he returns to using it. In this way, his name comes to represent the new cultural traditions his family was creating as they made their lives in America. It was unusual for them to have chosen a non-Indian name, but it also had deep meaning for the father. When Gogol learns to embrace his name at the end of the story, it brings him closer to his traditional family roots and also gives him a personal connection to his father that transcends those traditions.

In “The Namesake” the issue of family and tradition is a significant part of the story from the start. The story begins with an introduction to the character of Ashima as she stands in her kitchen in a small apartment in America. She is making a snack that is a combination of rice krispies, peanuts, and spices, and is based on treats she used to eat at home in Calcutta. It immediately is clear to readers that she is close to giving birth to her first child and that she is in a situation and country that is still unfamiliar and strange to her. Ashima still feels a deep connection to her family and her cultural traditions back home in India. In fact, she thinks of India as “home,” and America is simply a place she is visiting or living in with her husband. She is making a home for herself, her husband, and her new baby in America, but it is clear that she is doing her best to maintain her cultural traditions. She does not seem to have much interest in American culture, at least not at first, and the live she builds is like a small bubble where things are as much like they are in India as she can make them.

Ashima’s husband Ashoke is a student in Boston, who is working towards his phD when they are set up by their parents for an arranged marriage. Ashoke is shown to be an intelligent young man who has always enjoyed reading, from the time he was very young. One of his favorite writers is Russian author Nikolai Gogol. This becomes a central part of the story because Ashoke’s life was saved by Gogol, at least in some way. Ashoke was involved in a serious train accident in which everyone but him was killed. He was injured very badly and could hardly move, but he had been reading Gogol’s “The Overcoat” whe the accident happened, and he had a page from the book gripped in his hand as he was lying in the rubble. He dropped the piece of paper, and the movement was seen by one of the workers who ended up rescuing him. In this manner, the name Gogol became very important to Ashoke, even more than it had already been when Gogol was one of his favorite writers.

It may be difficult for some Americans, or just for anyone with a different cultural background, to understand why Ashima and Ashoke were waiting to name their new baby until they heard from their family. But for them there was never any question that her grandmother would name the baby. That was just how things were done in their cultural tradition. As the days go by, however, and it is almost time for Ashima to be discharged from the hospital, they are told that they will have to choose a name soon so that it can be printed on the birth certificate. The doctor tells them that some name has to go on the birth certificate, and if they just choose “Baby Boy Ganguli” it will be difficult to change later, because they will have to fill out paperwork, go in front of a judge, and deal with other red tape. They keep checking the mail to see if the grandmother has written to give the bay a name, but no letter arrives. Finally, after feeling the pressure and anxiety of having to choose something, Ashoke decides to name the baby “Gogol.”

The decision tpo choose Gogol as their son’s name is significant for them, and for the story, because it represents a big life decision that would usually be done according to their cultural traditions. Because they are living in America, thousands of miles from their home in India, they are literally cut off from many of their traditions. If they had been in India they would have simply asked the grandmother to give the boy a name, but because they are in America they have to wait for a letter which takes too long to arrive. So they have to make a decision without relying on their cultural tradition, and they end up choosing a name that had deep meaning to the husband. They were, in some way, making up a new tradition of their own that fit with their new life in America and also honored and respected the important events of the husband’s younger life.

America is a country that is known for being the home of people from many different races and cultures.  Some people, like Ashima and Ashoke, do their best to maintain their cultural traditions when they go to live in America. But for some people the opposite is true, and they do not feel a deep connection to their cultural or national background. In the essay “Cultural Baggage,” author Barbara Ehrenreich writes about her life and her family, and how she grew up without feeling any strong sense of national or cultural identity that was based on her family lineage. Her family tree came from Scotland, England, and Ireland, but she did not feel any particular connection to the cultures of any of the countries. As a young woman she saw people from many other ethnic and national backgrounds, such as “African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans” who would “stand up and proudly reclaim their roots (Ehrenreich, 1992)” The author sometimes wondered if these people were interested in reclaiming their roots because they felt those roots had been “trampled on” by her white ancestors (Ehrenreich, 1992).. In many ways the white, Anglo-Saxon cultural identity that dominated America was something that other cultures had forced onto them.

The author of “Cultural Baggage” goes on to write about her upbringing, and how having a strong sense of cultural identity was not something that was very important in her family. As she writes, “my mother never introduced a procedure for cooking or cleaning by telling me, ‘Grandma did it this way’” (Ehrenreich, 1992).  In her way of seeing things, her family did not need to maintain the cultural traditions of their homelands, they just needed to survive the hardships of life. For the author, not embracing her cultural roots is, in a roundabout way, an expression of the new cultural identity that her family created over generations of living in America.

It may seem at first that Ashima and Ashoke are completely different from Ehrenreich in their views on culture. After all, they did follow Indian custom in getting married, in the way the dress, the way they eat, and other ways. At the same time, though, they had to find a new way to name their child when they could not count on Indian cultural tradition. It is possible that over many generations of living in America their future great grandchildren will not feel any connection to the culture of India. From the beginning of their lives in America, their son, Gogol, is like a symbol of the new tradition they are making for themselves and their family. As Gogol grows up in America, he is raised in a way that combines the Indian traditions that Ashima and Ashoke brought with them and the new and different cultural rules of living in America. In India, large families of several generations all crowded into a single house, and life was always busy with the members of families coming and going, sharing meals together, and simply being around each at all times. In America, Ashima and Ashoke did not have their family members around. Instead of a small house with a lot of people, they had a large house with only a few people.

So Gogol grew up being raised by parents who still felt a strong sense of pride and connection with their cultural heritage, but were also raising their children in an environment that was completely different from the environment they knew in their home in India. This presented an enormous challenge for Gogol, who in many ways felt torn between the culture of his parents and the culture of the country he was living in. It was difficult for Gogol to develop a sense of personal identity, because he did not feel completely at home in either Indian or American culture.  In the essay “Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education,” author Bell Hooks discusses something similar. She is from America, but when she goes off to college at Stanford, her economic background makes her feel out of place, and makes it clear that she is not from the same social class as many of the other students. (Hooks, n.d.).  Her essay also demonstrates how significant money and economic status is in America, and how class distinctions are based more on income and money than on cultural differences.

As Gogol begins to grow up, he starts to dislike his name. He fits in with American culture in most ways. His family is financially comfortable, and he grows up in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. But he always feels out of place because of his name. It is interesting that his name is not Indian, so the feeling of being out of place is not based on his cultural background, or at least not entirely. It is just that his name just calls attention to the ways that he is different, or at least the ways that he feels different. He eventually petitions a judge to have his name changed to something that he likes better, and he thinks that will solve the problems he has in terms of how he feels about himself and his place in the world.

In the end, though, Gogol comes to see his name as “the first thing his father gave him” (Lahiri, 2003), and he gives up the name Nikhil and goes back to using the name Gogol. As the book ends, Gogol is starting to read “The Overcoat,” and realizing how deeply the story, and his name, connects him to his father. This connection is different from the connection he or his parents have to Indian culture or tradition, because it is so personal. For the first time, Gogol is becoming comfortable with his identity, and recognizes that it is a mix of things. He is not completely Indian, he is not completely American. And having a Russian name give to him by his Indian father is like a symbol of the fact that he is unique. That is his identity, and he finally starts to appreciate it after his farther is gone and he is now a man.

Works cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. ‘HERS; Cultural Baggage’. Nytimes.com. N. p., 1992. Web. 2 May. 2014.

Hooks, Bell. ‘Keeping Close To Home: Class And Education’. http://boblyman.net/engwr482/handouts/hooks.pdf. Print.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. 1st ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. Print.