The Namesake explores themes of isolation, identity, culture clash, and the immigration experience. Through the Ganguli family, Lahiri examines how the immigration experience is different for the two generations of immigrants. Lahiri does this by first introducing us to Ashima's experience and his sense of alienation that is representative of most first-generation immigrants. Lahiri contrasts Ashima's experience with Gogol's experience as a second-generation immigrant when the perspective changes to Gogol's. Lahiri illustrates the problems he faces, such as the lack of identity and feeling isolated from his two cultures. The book begins with Ashima's point of view, which gives us insight into his feelings of isolation, homesickness, and alienation from his new home. Ashima has a hard time letting go of her Bengali culture, she tries to hold on to it as much as possible, while Gogol tries to disconnect from his roots as much as possible because he grew up seeing and accepting American culture, which he believes that he cannot be completely separate if he accepts his Bengali heritage, so in order to fit into American society, he goes out of his way to forget his Bengali roots. Lahiri shows us the journeys of the Ganguli family members and how the parents slowly begin to accept American culture through their children, while the second generation tries to understand which culture they belong to and discover their true identity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay At the very beginning of the novel, we can tell that Ashima is homesick, and Lahiri makes this clear when Ashima says: “nothing seems normal.” » for her in this foreign country. We discover that Ashima is "...terrified of raising a child in a country where she is not related to anyone, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and so spare.", this presents one of her greatest fears when raising Gogol. a place where there is a different culture and different people, which she doesn't understand and where she doesn't know anyone here, which reinforces the theme of isolation and the immigration experience. We also know that her night in the hospital is "...the first time in her life that she sleeps alone, surrounded by strangers", which again emphasizes the theme of Ashima's isolation, because it us shows how important family is to her and now in this new land she doesn't have them with her by her side. Ashima tries to hold on to her beloved Bengali culture through symbols of her home such as her "tattered copy of Desh magazine...", the watch she received as a parting gift, her group of friends , Bengali books, letters from his family back home. and traditional celebrations and practices. His group of friends “…are all from Kolkata, and for that reason alone, they are friends.”, which shows us how strong a bond and connection sharing the same values ​​and norms of Bengali culture can create among first generation immigrants, as they feel like after a long time they can relate to someone. Even after the culture shock, the Ganguli parents have to go through many more trials as they are now isolated from their loved ones, and Lahiri tells us that “…Ashoke and Ashima live the lives of old people, those for whom everyone they have known and loved ones are lost… Even those family members who continue to live seem dead in one way or another, always invisible, impossible to touch. they do it while it'simpossible to truly connect and feel their presence over the phone. “…Ashima begins to realize that this is a kind of lifelong pregnancy – a perpetual waiting, a constant burden, a continuous feeling of bad mood. ", Lahiri describes here how Ashima feels a lack of belonging and is constantly waiting for a connection to form, she tells us. Assimilation is a "constant burden" and living in this environment surrounded by a foreign culture, she feels "in a bad mood", and it is for this reason that she wants to return to her relatives in Calcutta and raise Gogol there, but It is not for Ashoke's sake Even when they go to visit. India, the journey is "…left behind, quickly abandoned, quickly forgotten…irrelevant to their lives", which reinforces the theme of isolation from their home country and the immigration experience A little later in Ashima's journey, she began to feel more settled and in control of her new life, although she does not fully assimilate into her new culture, she learns to adapt to it. sees that “little by little she takes ownership, is proud to raise the child, goes to the market alone with her baby in the pram, communicates with passers-by who smile at her and goes to meet her husband. on campus, thus becoming confident…”, so she begins to become more confident and less intimidated by the new culture and new people. Ashima and Ashoke make a very active effort to preserve their culture in their new home, teaching their children their language and talking to them about their traditions and beliefs. An example could be the rice ceremony they held for Gogol and when they asked him to memorize a four-line poem by Tagore. However, Ashima and Ashoke realize that for Gogol, his American culture is also important to him, but they do not realize how much until later. Ashima gets her first job at the library, "...she is friendly with the other women who work at the library...They are the first American friends she has made in her life.", so we can say that Ashima really grows up and becomes more comfortable with American society and comes out of his isolation by diversifying his group of friends beyond just the Bengalis. Lahiri tells us “she learned to do things on her own,” and we can see that as she has her own job, a larger group of friends, and learns how to do different tasks. Towards the end of the novel, when Ashima decides to stay in India for six months every year and packs up her house, we learn that "she feels overwhelmed by the idea of ​​the move she is about to make, to the city that was once home and is now, in its own way, foreign. ", this shows us that she feels like her name suggests "...without borders", and she feels this because it has been so long since India was once her home without question. , also begins to feel “in its own way foreign,” which also highlights themes of the importance of names and the immigration experience. Lahiri makes us understand that “… she does not really feel at home within the walls of Pemberton Road, she nevertheless knows that it is her house…”, for Ashima, it is also her house, for which “… she is responsible ". showing us once again how much she has grown over the years, and it tells us that she has put a lot of effort into making Pemberton Road her home for her and her family, and that she is proud to have achieved this. Ashoke embraces his new life, while Ashima clings to his culture with all his might, and Gogol and Sonia feel like they don't belong to either culture and do their best to fit into their American environment. . Ashoke is rather settled because he has awork he is proud of, "what a sense of accomplishment it gives him to see his name printed under "Faculty" in the university directory", here the theme of the American dream is addressed, how Ashoke now has his dream job and, living in America, it was possible for him to find such perfect employment. Ashima is unwilling to change herself and her culture, and "Although Ashima continues to wear only Bata saris and sandals, Ashoke, accustomed all her life to wearing tailored pants and shirts, learns to buy ready-to-wear.", and so we can say that Ashoke quickly assimilates into American culture and makes small changes that make him feel more apart from American culture.culture. He is also informed about politics in the United States, as "he reads about American planes bombing Vietcong supply routes into Cambodia...", and is now more exposed to the outside world and the United States itself. Although the Ganguli parents attempt to raise their children in the Bengali way, both Gogol and Sonia are very influenced by American culture outside their home. Sonia and Gogol are trying to discover themselves and what culture they fit into, and because they are exposed to American culture and grow up surrounded by it, they consider it their best partner. When “Nikhil” lives in his inn in New Haven, Ashima does not approve and does not understand this need for distance nor Gogol's very American behavior. Ashima does not impose his future on his children, but teaches it to them in the hope that they will learn to accept it and eventually follow it. We know that children face an identity crisis and Lahiri sums this up when she says: "The question of identity is always difficult, but especially for those who are culturally displaced, as are immigrants who are growing up simultaneously in two worlds. The children of migrants face their own problems, different from those of their parents, because they do not feel that they fully belong to either culture, and Lahiri shows us this mainly through Gogol and Sonia in some case. It is through their children that Ashoke and Ashima reluctantly begin to embrace American traditions and culture, and "For the sake of Gogol and Sonia, they celebrated with gradually increasing fanfare, the birth of Christ, an event that children look forward to much more than worship. of Durga and Saraswati. Lahiri also tells us that children prefer American culture over Indian culture because they are more familiar with that culture. The children help their parents assimilate into American culture, and here the theme of culture clash also returns. Even when Gogol falls in love with various American girls, even though his parents don't approve of him, they are almost forced to accept him for the sake of their children. This also clearly shows that there is a big cultural gap between the first and second generation of immigrants. Food is an important symbol of Bengali culture, and soon they make sacrifices when it comes to Bengali food since “At the supermarket, they let Gogol fill the cart with items that he and Sonia, but not they, consume. ", which focuses on the clash of cultures and the cultural gap between parents and children. Thus, we can say that children bring their two parents closer together and help them assimilate into their American culture. Gogol wants to change his name in order to be more like his American classmates and people outside his household, but to do so he tries to shed his past and he does this by avoiding any reminders of the past like his family. Finally, he gets rid of the nameGogol and tries to become someone else. Lahiri always calls him Gogol so we know Gogol is his real self, but Gogol doesn't know this at the time. Gogol feels like his name alienates him from both of his cultures. “Because now he has come to hate questions about his name, he hates having to constantly explain and tell people that it doesn’t mean anything in Indian…” Lahiri tries to say. show us that Gogol feels like his name prevents him from being a part of American and Bengali culture. Gogol begins to think about changing his name, and "In history class, Gogol learned that European immigrants changed their names... Although Gogol did not know this, even Nikolai Gogol renamed himself...". Lahiri also points out the similarity between Gogol and his namesake, since even his namesake had changed his name. Gogol does not understand the point of having two names, Ashima responds by saying "It is our way", this almost implies that Gogol does not know how to understand the Bengali way and does not want to follow it, however it is still the "way" of his parents. He copes by entering university far from his parents to separate himself geographically from his family. So now he can create his own world and personal identity in a place where everyone would know him as Nikhil. In his new world, he discovers that Gogol is using their relationship to escape the discovery of his own identity and past. He begins to live with Maxine in the parental home and begins to move away from his own family as much as possible. He no longer answers his mother's phone calls, partly because he doesn't want to remember his past, who he was before and how different he is from who he has become or is trying to be . "He is aware that his immersion in Maxine's family is a betrayal on his part", he knows that he is moving away from his family and that by spending a lot of time with Maxine's family where he feels at home place, but he knows his parents wouldn't do it; “He can't imagine his parents sitting at Lydia and Gerald's table...And yet here he is night after night...doing just that. ". By spending so much time with Maxine's family who are so different from his and who he prefers to spend time with, he feels like he is being disloyal to his own family. The word "betrayal" and the fact that he thinks he is being disloyal to his family suggests that he feels guilty and knows he is doing something wrong. However, “he feels free from all expectations, from all responsibility, in voluntary exile from his own life”, this relationship is an escape for him. This life he creates is nothing other than an escape from the old one, and with Maxine and his family he celebrates his twenty-seventh birthday, "the first anniversary of his life that he has not spent with his parents neither in Calcutta nor in Calcutta”. Pemberton Road.”, which shows how far he has become estranged from his family and almost completely replaced by this relationship that serves as an escape from his parents and the culture they shared. On his birthday, “…he remembers that his parents cannot reach him…That here alongside Maxine, in this cloistered desert, he is free. ", this confirms that Gogol sees their relationship as a withdrawal from his old life and in the process he feels "free". Everything changes for Gogol after the death of his father, his attitude towards his family changes completely, as do his priorities. Maxine doesn't understand what Gogol is going through and doesn't realize how much it affects him. She asks him to move away from his family for a while, but he responds by saying "I don't want to run away." His priorities shift from Maxine to his family and "he doesn't want to be with someone who barely knows his father, who only met him once." He begins to., 13(4), 365-375.