Nikolai Gogol

Jhumpa Lahiri uses sex as a pathway for Gogol to attempt to break through the cultural rules places upon him by his family. Foster offers that sex is a “symbolic action claiming for the individual freedom from convention” in which Gogol has been held to his whole life (Foster 155). As Gogol recollects on his first sexual encounter he “recalled nothing from that episode [except] only being thankful” that he had done it (Lahiri 114). This shows that Gogol is not fully interested in the sexual act…

The objective of this essay is to explore the origins of conflicts in Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow. Although, both works differ drastically in tone and structure, the settings are comprised of similar elements. Still, the external effects of these tumultuous settings pale in comparison to the internal conflicts which ensue. As the reader accompanies the protagonists through their lives made of crucial decisions, the philosophical depth in both…

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, born in St. Petersburg, Russia on 22 April 1899, was a Russian-American novelist who was also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin. Nabokov originally began writing in Russian and wrote his first nine novels in Russian. However, Nabokov achieved international prominence after he started writing in English. Vladimir's finest novel Lolita is also considered his most controversial work because of the criticism it received due to its deep and warped erotic theme.…

main character Gogol Ganguli internally struggles to accept himself. Instead, he searches for a new identity. With his parents, he leaves India along with his culture, emigrating to the United States.The author, Jhumpa Lahiri, is very alike in comparison to Gogol Ganguli. They both have immigrated to the United States from India, and have a pet name and a preferred nick name. Gogol’s father, Ashoke, attempted to persuade Gogol into adopting “Nikhil” as his good name. Initially, Gogol rejected…

Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli moved to a small town in America shortly after they became husband and wife. Not only was the move a culture shock to Ashima but the idea of assimilating into the American culture was about as foreign as she was. Throughout her novel Lahiri paints the picture of what it was like for a Bengali foreigner to try and hold onto their culture in America. Along with trying to raise a Bengali family surrounded by ever pressing American influence. In the novel The Namesake by…

be Mira Nair’s The Namesake. Based on the titular book by Jhumpa Lahiri, the story focuses on the difficulties of a Bengali family after migrating to America, and the conflicts their son faces throughout his life after receiving an uncommon name, Gogol, at birth. Despite having such a simple premise, The Namesake shows the significance a name holds in both Indian and foreign, specifically American societies, and the varying impacts it has on both communities. Unlike names in American culture,…

‘On the one hand, man is a body. On the other hand, man has a body. That is, man experiences himself as an entity that is not identical with his body, but that, on the contrary, has a body at its disposal' (Berger and Luckmann). With reference to TWO works studied on this course, discuss the body as the source of identity, and also as a source of confusion about identity. Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' and Gogol's 'The Nose' are both novellas that centre on a bodily catastrophe. The protagonists'…

Ajima, also known as “The honorable potter’s wife, has always been very compassionate to Tree-ear since the beginning. She nourished Tree-ear at the midday meal along with her husband. In addition, she provided him with clothing. Ajima used to be known as, “The honorable potter’s wife”. More frequently, she is known as Ajima. On page 91 in A Single Shard, it says “The second is that from now on, you will call me Ajima”. Ajima was closed off at the beginning. She was mainly in the home, or…

each relationship that a person engages in, they begin to understand their self worth and identity. The Namesake, written by Jhumpa Lahiri, accounts the life of an Indian boy from his teens to middle age and how he handles these feelings of “love”. Gogol Ganguli, firstborn of a recently immigrated family, chooses to rely on his own devices as he rebels from his parent’s aspirations. Throughout a few decades of his life, we learn of his changes in ideology and beliefs at the hands of the many…

The Namesake is another immigration story, which was adapted a book titled the same name. It is about a middle class immigrant Asian Indian family living in New York. Although the movie tells the story of an Indian family’s struggle in the US, essentially their adjustment problems could be true for all the immigrant families regardless of ethnicity. For example, yearning, adaptation process of the new culture while protecting your own culture and generation gap might be universal fact for all…