The Namesake explores themes of isolation, identity, the clash of cultures and the immigration experience. Through the Ganguli Family Lahiri examines how the immigration experience is different for two generations of immigrants. Lahiri does this by first introducing us to Ashima's experience and her feeling 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 a lack of identity and feeling isolated from his two cultures. The book begins with Ashima's perspective, which gives us insight into her feelings of isolation, nostalgia, and alienation from her new home. Ashima has difficulty letting go of her Bengali culture, she tries to keep it as much as possible, while Gogol tries to disconnect from his roots as much as possible as he grew up seeing and accepting American culture, which he feels he cannot completely separate from if he accepts the his Bengali heritage, so to adapt to American society he does everything to forget everything about his Bengali roots. Lahiri takes us through the journeys of the Ganguli family members and shows us how parents slowly begin to accept American culture through their children, while the second generation tries to figure out what culture they belong to and discovers their true identity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay At the beginning of the novel we can tell that Ashima is very homesick, and Lahiri makes this clear when Ashima says “nothing seems normal” ” to her in this alien land. We learn that Ashima is "...terrified of raising a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so uncertain and thrifty.", this presents one of her greatest fears of raising Gogol in a place where there is a different culture and different people, who she doesn't understand and doesn't know anyone, which reinforces the theme of isolation and the immigrant experience. We also know that her night in the hospital is "...the first time in her life that she has slept alone, surrounded by strangers", which once again highlights the theme of Ashima's isolation, as it shows us how important it is family for her and now in this new land she doesn't have them with her by her side. Ashima tries to stay true to her beloved Bengali culture through the symbols of her home such as her "tattered copy of Desh magazine...", the watch she received as a leaving gift, her group of friends, Bengali books , letters from his family home. and traditional celebrations and practices. His group of friends “…all come from Calcutta, and for that reason alone they are friends.”, which shows us how much a strong bond and connection that shares the same values ​​and norms of Bengali culture can bring in first-generation immigrants, as they feel like they can relate to someone after a long time. Even after the culture shock, the Ganguli parents face many other difficulties as they are now isolated from their loved ones, and Lahiri tells us that “… Ashoke and Ashima live the life of extreme elders, those for whom everyone they once knew and loved is lost… Even those family members who continue to live seem dead somehow, always invisible, impossible to touch.”, and so all the loved ones they have loved behind are lost to them as they hardly communicate and even if they do the moment it is impossible to truly connect and feel their presence on the phone. “…Ashima is starting to realize thatit's a sort of pregnancy that lasts a lifetime: a perpetual wait, a constant weight, a constant feeling of being out of place. “, here Lahiri describes 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 “out of place”, and it is for this reason that he wants to return to his loved ones in Calcutta and raise Gogol there, but he does not do it for Ashoke's sake. Even when they go to visit India, the trip is "... left behind, quickly abandoned, quickly forgotten... irrelevant to their lives", which reinforces the theme of isolation from one's home country and of the immigration experience. shortly after in Ashima's journey, she began to feel more stable and in control of her new life, even though she hasn't fully assimilated into her new culture, she is learning to come to terms with it. We see that “Gradually she returns to herself, takes pride in raising the child, goes to the market alone with her child in the pram, communicates with passers-by who smile at her, and goes to meet her husband on campus, thus becoming confident about herself...", so she starts to become more confident and less intimidated by the new culture and people. Ashima and Ashoke make a very active effort to preserve their culture in their new home, they teach their children their language and teach them their traditions and beliefs. An example would 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 his American culture is also important to Gogol, but they don't 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 is really growing up and becoming more comfortable with American society and is breaking out of his isolation by diversifying his friend group into more than just Bengali. Lahiri tells us that she “learned to do things on her own,” and we can see this as she has her own job, a larger group of friends, and learns to do different tasks. Towards the end of the novel, when Ashima decides to stay in India for six months every year and is packing her home, we learn that “she feels overwhelmed by the thought of the move she is about to make, to the city that once it was her home and now she is foreign in her own way.", this shows us that she feels that her name suggests "...without borders", and she feels this because it has been India for so long which was once undoubtedly the his home, he begins to feel "foreign in his own way", this also highlights the themes of the importance of names and the immigrant experience Lahiri clarifies that "... he doesn't feel completely at home within the walls of Pemberton Road, he knows that this is home anyway…”, for Ashima this is also her home, which “… she is responsible for, showing us once again how much she has grown over the years, and tells us that she has put a lot of effort into making Pemberton Road home”. for herself and her family, and feels proud that Ashoke embraces their new life, while Ashima clings to her culture with all her might, and Gogol and Sonia feel that they belong to neither culture and. they do their best to adapt to their American environment. Ashoke is quite calm because he has a job 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 touched upon, as Ashoke is now by doing his dream job and living in America it was possible for him to find a jobso perfect. Ashima is unwilling to change herself and her culture, and "Although Ashima continues to wear only Bata saris and sandals, Ashoke, accustomed to wearing tailored trousers and shirts all his life, learns to buy ready-made.", and so we can say that Ashoke is rapidly assimilating into American culture and is making small changes that make him feel more separate from American culture. He is also knowledgeable about politics in the United States, as he “reads of US planes bombing Viet Cong supply routes in Cambodia…”, and now has greater exposure to the outside world and to the United States itself. Although the Ganguli parents try to raise their children in the Bengali way, Gogol and Sonia are both greatly influenced by American culture outside the home. Sonia and Gogol try to find themselves and the culture they fit into, and because they are exposed to American culture and grow up surrounded by it, they consider it their best match. When "Nikhil" calls his New Haven hostel his home, Ashima does not approve or understand this need for distance or Gogol's very American behavior. Ashima does not impose her future on her children, but teaches it to them, hoping that they will learn to accept it and eventually follow it. We know that children face an identity crisis, and Lahiri sums it up by saying, “The question of identity is always difficult, but especially for those who are culturally displaced, as are immigrants growing up in two worlds at once.” The children of migrants face different problems than their parents, as they do not feel they fully belong to either culture, and Lahiri shows us this mainly through Gogol and Sonia in some cases. It is thanks to their children that Ashoke and Ashima reluctantly begin to embrace American traditions and culture, and "For the sake of Gogol and Sonia celebrated with progressively increasing fanfare, the birth of Christ, an event that the children eagerly await more than adoration." of Durga and Saraswati.”. Lahiri also tells us that children prefer American culture to Indian culture because they are more familiar with this culture. The children help their parents assimilate into American culture, and the theme of culture clash also comes into play here. Even when Gogol falls in love with various American girls, although his parents do not approve, they are almost forced to accept it for the sake of their children. This also makes it clear that there is a large cultural gap between first and second generation immigrants. Food is an important symbol of Bengali culture, and they soon make sacrifices when it comes to Bengali food as "At the supermarket they let Gogol fill the cart with items that he and Sonia, but not they, consume", which highlights the clash of cultures and the cultural gap between parents and children. So, it can be said that children bring both parents closer and help assimilate them into their American culture. Gogol wants to change his name to become more like his American classmates and people outside his home, but to do so he must try to get rid of his past and he does this by avoiding any reminders of the past like his family. He eventually gets rid of the name Gogol and tries to become someone else. Lahiri still calls him Gogol, so we know that Gogol is his true self, but Gogol doesn't know this at the time. Gogol feels like his name distances him from both of his cultures "Because he's come to hate being asked about his name, he hates having to constantly explain and tell people that it doesn't mean anything in Indian...", he's trying to say Lahiri shows us that Gogol feels that his name prevents him from belonging to both American and Bengali culture. Gogol begins to think aboutchange his name and "In history class, Gogol learned that European immigrants changed their names... Although Gogol doesn't know it, Nikolai Gogol also renamed himself...". Lahiri also points out the similarity between Gogol and his namesake, as his namesake had also changed his name. Gogol doesn't understand the point of having two names, Ashima responds by saying "It's our way", almost implying that Gogol doesn't understand the Bengali way and doesn't want to follow it, however it is still the "way" of his parents. He manages to enter 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 her new world she discovers that Gogol uses their relationship as an escape from discovering his identity and his past. He begins to live with Maxine in his parents' house and begins to distance himself from his own family as much as possible. He stops answering his mother's phone calls, partly because he doesn't want to be reminded of his past, of 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 of him,” he knows that he is away from his family and that he spends so much time with Maxine's family that he feels comfortable, but he doesn't know he knows his parents wouldn't do it; "He can't imagine his parents sitting at Lydia and Gerald's table... 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 own and who he prefers to spend time with, he feels that in doing so he is being disloyal to his own family. The word “betrayal” and the fact that he is thinking of being disloyal to his family suggests that he feels guilty about it and knows he is doing something wrong. However, "he feels free from expectations, from responsibilities, in voluntary exile from his own life", this relationship is an escape route for him. This life he creates becomes nothing more than an escape from the old one, and with Maxine and her family he celebrates his twenty-seventh birthday, “the first birthday of his life which he did not spend with his parents either in Calcutta or Pemberton Road. ,” which shows how much he has distanced himself from his family, replacing them almost completely with this relationship that serves as an escape from his parents and the culture they shared. On his birthday "...he remembers that his parents absolutely cannot reach him... That here next to Maxine, in this secluded desert, he is free.", this confirms that Gogol sees their relationship as a retreat from his old life and in this process he feels “free”. Everything changes for Gogol after his father's death, his attitude towards his family changes completely and so do his priorities. Maxine can't understand what Gogol is going through and doesn't realize how much it affects him, she asks him to get 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 knew his father, who only met him once." He begins to reflect on his relationship with his parents and realizes that he shouldn't have tried to escape them. Her father is gone now and she knows it's too late to know him better now, so she begins searching for him finding whatever is left of him, so she can find a sense of connection with her father. Now he wants to connect with his family and embrace the Bengali part of him. He does this by joining Moushumi, spending time with her family, and trying to understand her parents and their culture.”., 13(4), 365-375.