Forming a Life Outside of Everything You Know: Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake"

The Namesake is a novel that describes the life of a Bengali couple who immigrate to the United States to form a life outside everything they know. The novel provides a detailed account of the family’s hardships and struggles that they face as they seek to belong in their new country. The story follows the life of their son, Gogol Ganguli and his struggle to belong in his family, culture and society. In the novel his name, Gogol begins to shape many aspects within his life and is central theme to the concept of belonging in the novel. The novel is open to ages 15 and provides an insight into the troubles that people may whilst trying to belong to a new society.

Within the novel there are many techniques which the author uses to emphasise the concept of belonging, the setting being just one of these techniques. The setting is ordinary and everyday, there are no adventurous themes and life is portrayed as nothing unusual. This type of setting is something people can identify themselves with and relate to whether that be the home, country, university or the neighborhood. The use of this setting focuses all the ideas of the novel on belonging, family and cultural conflict represented within the individual.

The sense of time within the novel enhances the focus on detail. The novel spreads over 32 years of the family’s life. The author speeds up or slows down time when it suits the purpose of the narrative thus emphasising the theme of belonging. The narrative jumps to certain points in Gogol’s life to expand on the theme of belonging in greater detail. This technique is effective as the narrator has time to describe events, emotions and images in detail. An example of this is in chapter 1 when the author flashbacks to Ashoke’s ...

... middle of paper ...

... a frequent theme that represents the concept of belonging. One symbol is trains, train journeys and travel. Important and life changing events to the characters happen on trains; Ashoke’s accident, Gogol meeting Ruth, Moushumi’s revelation of her infidelity. The train is a metaphor symbolic of the tension between belonging and not belonging. The train represents something that travels between two places but doesn’t belong to neither, therefore symbolising Gogol’s and Ashoke’s search to belong and being dividing between places. An example of the family being divided between places is when the move to the US, they are still living or trying to live an Indian lifestyle, the culture they grew up with. As the book continues we see their struggle to accept the US culture, much of it being forced upon them, they see themselves as Indians but find their kids being Americans.