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Jhumpa Lahiri The Namesake Analysis

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Tania Amador
Mr. Griffey
AP Literature and Composition
7 August 2017
The Namesake
A theme that the author, Jhumpa Lahiri, is communicating through text is identity the novel really revolves around the names that represent a person in the Bengali culture. The title is an choice that Lahiri automatically makes The Namesake the audiences understands the foreshadow that the book will be about names or identity before even reading the book. The author then chooses to reveal the importance of a “good name” and “pet name” in the Bengali culture of the Ganguli Family in order to inform the audience that the identity of the main character Gogol will be affected by his pet name later in the story. Later in the story the audience begins to see the effects …show more content…
In this novel the reason that Gogol had to keep the name Gogol was because of the fact that in America a person has to give a child a name before admitting them out of a hospital. Further in the story Gogol’s father, Ashoke, attempts to ask the principal for the school to call Gogol by his good name, Nikhil, instead of Gogol since that is his pet name. However the principal against his father’s wishes decides to register him as Gogol because as a child he see no reason for a name change. This interest me because once a person immigrates to another country they in a way have to adjust to that country’s way of life which as presented in the novel can clash with their own culture making them have to settle with leaving behind bits of traditions from a person’s culture. It becomes more of a problem once Gogol starts school since the teacher is american she does not realize the importance of the name change Ashoke has asked of her this is again where cultures and people from different places clashes it’s interesting because this was yet another thing that they had to accept happening because they had entered what feels like a completely different world in which they have to again let go of a piece of their tradition. Its mostly interesting to me because my parents can in a way relate they left their country and came to this one for a better life and they

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