The Namesake Character Analysis

Words: 1114
Pages: 5

In the novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, she introduces an Indian family which will explain each family member’s story about their journey to raise their own family. However, this essay will focus mainly on Gogol and Ashoke’s relationship with one another. Ashoke expresses throughout the novel, that he wants what is best for his son, Gogol and never get extremely angry with Gogol. Gogol and his father will constantly have disagreements and will misunderstand each other. Gogol tries to live an Americanized life and is not completely fond of his father's culture in the beginning and he thinks than he does not need to understand or get to know his father culture. As Gogol grows up, he becomes more rebellious of his parents and tries to fit …show more content…
They do a special traditions to mourn their father’s death, for example the son would shave their head to honor his father’s death. And will have feast after 11 days of mourning. This is when Gogol starts to grow up into a man and becoming the male figure of the family, and realized how much he took advantage of his father throughout his life. Gogol thinks back to the past with his father; “...they started back again, for a while trying not to make an extra set of footsteps, inserting their shoes into ones they had just made…’Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.’” (187) this really shows that no matter what has happened between Gogol and his father, it is never a bad experience but just an experience. Which they both learn together and not to make the same mistakes with their own family or other people around them. When Gogol goes to Europe for a vacation, he notices that he feels out of place, even though he has seen the similar type building in his textbook, but it just does not feel like home. And realizes that his parents must have felt the same way when moving out of India. The same feeling of being shocked by the drastically different culture and atmosphere the environment is giving