MHS AP English discussion

What kind of ending did you expect? How did it live up to your expectations? What kind of comment on the human condition do you think Lahiri is making?

when i first read the title i assumed that the book's ending would be about the legacy of why Nikhil was given that specific name instead of something else. It lived up to my expectation in the fact that i thought sooner or later on in the novel that Nikhil would change his name from Gogol to his current name to better fit in in American society. It also lead to my expectation in knowing that with the death of Nikhil father he would come to appreciate his original name. I think that Lahiri views on the human condition is that its mainly complex and difficult to predict the future. That life is complex from Ashima basically being married to Ashoke by arranged marriage, and its not as simple as we make it seem today. It obvious to say that it is pretty much impossible to predict the future. Since Nikhil would be an example of this, i wouldn't have thought that he would be marrying a Bangui woman from his childhood, that just goes to show the unpredictability of the future.

I think that, throughout the novel, the author has been comparing Gogol/Nikhil's struggle with this name to his struggle to find his identity despite growing up with two different cultures. On one hand, as America is a free country, Gogol can change his name and be anything he wants to be. On the other, the culture of his parents, those who gave him his name, is anything but free, but instead filled with honor and respect toward one's elders and one's homeland. I think that the author is trying to tell us that finding one's true identity is an ongoing process, and that the aspects of said identity must come from what is inside of you and what surrounds you in equal measure.

Truth be told, I was expecting to hate this book in all of its entirety. The beginning of the book was quite uninteresting and it was an ordeal to get past the first couple of chapters. Going towards the end, however, the book picked up tempo and I began to relate and actually enjoyed the book. However, because of the fluxes between concepts in every chapter, it was quite hard to predict a stable ending in my mind. However, after reading that Moushumi and Dimitri had an affair that she couldn't stop, I knew that the story was going to end on a bad note in some way that included a divorce. The book had some great moments; there were chapters and points in the book that I could not find myself to put down the book. On the flip side, there were points where I questioned whether or not I should bother reading the rest of the book.

In relation to human conditions by Lahiri, she creates a general sense that life is what you make of it; the the past shapes you into who you are, but the past is what you can't control, yet the future is everything that has yet to be decided by you. Family, as it would appear, is something that was heavily reinforced within the book. Whenever anything took a turn for the worse for Gogol, his family would always be there for him. After his countless love mistakes, his family was always the people he could fall back on, something that he feigns to realize until the very end. As for the past and such, Lahiri uses Gogol's final actions in the book to show that the past is something that can't be fixed, but the future is what you shape of it. To Ashoke, his past made him who he was. The person that Ashoke was, both mentally and physically, was everything that his near-fatal train accident made him to be. The accident made him flee home and go to America, to name Gogol after the author who technically saved him, and to give Gogol the book for his birthday. For Gogol, it was his namesake that he could not change, but in the end, it was the namesake that he came to understand and cherish to no end. His name was everything of his past that he came to love - it was his father's eternal gift to him. When Gogol decides to finally pop open the book he received when he was younger, he's beginning to shape his future in a way he never thought he was going to; he had finally came to appreciate his name and was going to pursue life in a new light in where his past would come to follow, not haunt, him.

When I read "wrenching love affairs," on the back of the book, I was fully expecting Gogol to be the unfaithful one. But when it turned out to be Moushumi, I was devastated. Because at this point, I'm on Gogol's side. I see his relationship with her deteriorating and thought that he would find himself a mistress, but Moushumi beat him to it, and it just hurt so much more.

I believe through The Namesake, Lahiri is commenting on how the human condition is heavily influenced by culture and ones sense of identity. As Stanley, said above, life is what you make of it. We see how Moushumi lives her life due to her deep rooted desire to stray away from the path of a traditional Indian woman and be independent. As for Gogol's life, he spent so much of his early years resenting his name and in his middle age, he feels an irreversible connection to it. As for Ashima, her life turned out differently than she had thought, even without Ashoke. She did not think that leaving Pemberton Road would affect her, but in the 27 years living there, she became a part of it. She Americanized her life because for her kids and of course her husband.

Overall, i liked the book however, i could not shake the dark tone of the book off after Ashoke's death. Lahiri is very talented. However, it could have been a bit chipper.

The end of the book was what seemed to be the wrapping together of everything. Gogol finally begins to read the book his father gave him as a graduation present. And I completely agree with Xuan,that I believe through The Namesake, Lahiri is commenting on how the human condition is heavily influenced by culture and ones sense of identity. I think that Gogol, even though single, by the end of this book is very happy, and has found who he is. He found his identity.

Granted this book wasn't one I'd probably chose to read on my own, I enjoyed it for what it was worth. Lahiri is indeed a talented writer.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect for the conclusion. From the previous portion of the book, I really detested some of Gogol’s actions, like his abandoning of his parents for New York. I would’ve never expected him to reconnect with Moushumi, get married, and then find out that she was having an affair, and divorce her. It seems like too much to process at one time. It all happened so promptly, like he was trying to fill the void that Maxine had left. I’m kind of glad I didn’t know what to expect, because the ending was completely and utterly unexpected. I sort of had this sense that his father’s death provided Gogol with a revelation and more of an appreciation for his name. Ashoke’s death seems to relate to the idea that “you never really know what you’ve got until it’s gone”. Gogol really began to appreciate his father, and realize his love for him after he died. He even referred to the book that was given to him as a graduation gift. The conclusion was touching, and definitely left a lasting impression. I liked the way Lahiri was so descriptive in illustrating Gogol’s reminiscing of his father and childhood. I really enjoyed Gogol’s discovery of his father’s message in The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol. That paragraph sums up much of what Ashoke did for Gogol, the checks he gave him throughout college, “to help him along” (289). The paragraph ends by stating that the name “Gogol” was “the first thing his father had given him” (289). All in all, I really liked this book. Lahiri wrote in such a manner, that it didn’t feel like I was reading a book, but more like someone was whispering a story in my ear.

As for Lahiri’s comment on human condition, I agree with Stanley, in that Lahiri is talking about the shaping of identity. I think Lahiri is commenting on how identity can be shaped by one’s personal experiences. Throughout the book, we definitely see the implications of Gogol’s identity. As a child starting school, he preferred to be called “Gogol,” but in his adolescent years, this would be a decision that haunts him for the latter half of his life; so much that he opted to change it to “Nikhil”. Growing up in America, Gogol was prone to assimilation, as exhibited by his desire to rebel and change his name. This can also be seen by his non-Bengali girlfriends, and his the lack of appreciation for his parents (abandoning his family for Maxine’s). His identity was sort-of reshaped by his father’s death, when he seemingly had a revelation and remembered the death of his grandfather and his father’s head shaving as a sign of respect. He honored this and shaved his head, as well. Ashoke’s death triggered something in Gogol, and made him appreciate family more, and even enough to prompt him to read the book that his father gave him.

I read a book called White Oleander, by Janet Fitch. I highly reccomend reading it, it is very rich in language and has a great story. In this book, one of the characters declares that "Loneliness is the human condition." It was one of those lines in a book that just gets stuck in your head. Lahiri's writing style, when specifically developing her charcters, made me think of this line. She follows their trains of thought with such detail that I didn't even realize how detatched these passages were until I was finished reading them. In each character's perspective in which she chooses to tell the story from, the character is completely engrossed in their own perspective of the world. Other people exist, but they exist as a part of this character's world. I began to realize how lonely her characters are, and why they were so lonely.

Ashima felt alone in a new country. Ashoke felt alone in his struggle with overcoming his injuries from the train accident. He even chose a lonely path, trying to distance himself from the life in which he grew up-much like Gogol does. Gogol feels alone, singled out and embarassed by his name that is neither American or Bengali. Then later in life, when he becomes involved with different women, they never come to full understanding of his lifelong struggle with his namesake, and eventually they leave him. Moushumi feels alone and discontent constantly. She feels rejected after her first attempt at marriage fails, and perhaps begins her relationship with Gogol to fill these lonely feelings. She is still discontent and therefore begins her affair with Dimitri to fill this void she feels inside her.

This common struggle with loneliness, misunderstanding, and discontent creates an issue with self-identity for each character. After all, how can they be known if they don't truly know themselves? THey are lonely because they are being isolated in their struggles with self-identity. Ashima struggles to be the right kind of wife and mother, torn between the expectations of two cultures. Ashoke runs to America, to create a self that is alive instead of dormant and wishing in his homeland. Gogol consistently struggles with his self-identity, always running away from his true self to be his ideal self, "Nikhil." Moushumi defied her parents and moved to France, where she created an interesting and appealing self image.

Gogol, sitting down to read "The Overcoat" is symbolic for him being finally ready to meet and accept his true self. As for Lahiri's comment on the human condition, she is saying that one will never be known by others or truly intimate with others until they know themselves. Internal conflicts isolate us.

I honestly didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. It took me quite a while to get into it and once I did, I felt like I couldn't put it down. I also didn't expect that kind of ending. I was so upset when I found out that Moushumi was having an affair with Dimitri because after all of Gogol's failed relationships, I finally thought that maybe he had gotten it right.

I really like what Jessica had to say about Gogol finally sitting down and reading "The Overcoat" after all these years. I completely agree with her when she says that it is symbolic for Gogol to finally accept who he is as a person. Throughout this entire book, Gogol struggled with his identity. As a child, he was embarrassed by his name and wanted nothing more than to live like any other young American man. For him, this meant putting his Bengali roots behind him and, at times, making more time for his friends than for his family. Also as a child, he was not mature enough and not ready to hear why his parents named him Gogol because, like Xuan had said earlier, he simply could not appreciate it. I think that by him finally reading "The Overcoat", he is ready to accept himself.

Like Stanley, I believe that Lahiri's comment on the human condition has to do with experiences from the past turning us into who we are today. Gogol's life was full of events, both exciting and tragic, that definitely shaped him into the person that he is at the end of the book. He struggled with finding himself and I think that the death of his father and the book that he gave Gogol on his fourteenth birthday opened his eyes and made him realize what kind of man he wanted to be.

I was struck by how blatantly Lahiri spells out one of the motifs or themes of The Namesake - fate and destiny. As she says right at the conclusion, the Gangulis' lives have been marked by chance encounters, and miraculous occurrences. The train accident, the salvage of the Gogol book, the father's death, the discovery of the resume, of the affair itself even - all unexpected. One could argue that this takes away from the realism of the novel, but I think Lahiri used so many fateful experiences for a higher purpose. Ultimately, the book is about the ways culture, tradition, and family shape us, no matter how much we resist. Destiny is very much a part of that.

Lahiri, to me, is saying that anything can happen - crazy, unexpected things. People die, spouses cheat, past ghosts return, and sometimes your parents name you something inexplicably strange. But these twists of fate, and our responses to them, in the end, make us who we are. And in the midst of these events, family and a sense of duty keeps pulling us back, keeps grounding us.

As I finished reading this, I realized something. When I first started reading, I assumed that the marriage of Ashoke and Ashima would not work out, due to the fact that they had never met each other before that point. Flash forward to the end of the novel, and it is their marriage that is still strong. It had survived years of hardship, and even at the end, Ashima still cared for Ashoke.

Now, contrast with Gogol's relationships. Every one ended in failure in some way of form. At the end of the novel Gogol has no one. I feel like Lahiri is making a comment about how it takes time to love someone, and to not just rush into things like marriage.

I had the same prediction as Sam, that Ashoke and Ashima's marriage would be the one to plunder mid-way through the novel. Once I heard the term arrange-marriage, I was fast to assume that it wouldn't last and nothing good would/could come out of it. I was clearly mistaken as Gogol and all of his relationships and his one marriage were the ones that resulted in failure.

Moushumi's unfaithfulness to Gogol devastated me. Once she started seeing Dimitri, I realized that during the entire course of this book I have been siding with Gogol and rooting for him to fall into a healthy and happy relationship. Like Xuan, I too believed he'd be the unfaithful one once he realized something was wrong within his marriage. Because of how he acted during his teenage years and early 20s, I didn't expect him to be, in a way, like Ashoke. He grew up, became a working man and married a Bengali woman--it reminded me of Ashoke in the beginning of the book.

Although I did not see many of the contents of the book coming, I did think that the book would end with Gogol in the place that was always his home, much to his dismay. Gogol grew up there, constantly resenting his name and the traditional Indian ways his parents were trying to raise him by. All in all, I think Lahiri was trying to say that your culture, identity, and life is all what you choose to make out of it.

As I reached the ending of the novel, I expected Gogol to finally accept his given name and change it back from Nikhil. I thought this was going to happen because although Gogol felt relieved after he changed his name so that the outside world would see him as "normal", he never felt satisfied. He had tried so hard to fit into the American culture by pulling away from his parents' Indian culture, that throughout the book we saw him realize maybe he didn't want to completely shut out his Indian background, but just mesh the two. When Gogol reflects on his life while waiting at the train station, he realizes he "spent years maintaining distance from his origins"(281) and yet he "always hovered close to this quiet, ordinary town"(281). I think there was always a part of him that wanted to remain in an Indian culture, but he didn't realize it until his father passed away because then he saw he had wasted so much time pulling away from it.

In the end though, I still really enjoyed the story. I never appreciated the adjustments a foreigner or exchange student had to go through until stepping into Ashima and Gogol's world.

I agree with Tamisha and Patti in that Lahiri is trying to say that in order to find out who we are and how we fit into society, we need to get knocked down a few times in order to get back up. Those are the experiences that shape who we are and what we learn to value.

I really never expected what happened at the end. I really thought that they would be a happy couple like their parents, but I guess that explains what happened. They're not like their parents. I wanted to kill Moushumi for cheating on Gogol, but I guess what happens happens. Especially when these two are trying so hard not to be a part of their Indian background. Lahiri, I think, is trying to say that what we do in the past and our experiences make us who we are today, and you can't run from that, no matter how hard you try

Like Jaclyn and Tamisha, as soon as Gogol had changed his name to "Nikhil" I had immediately predicted him to come to terms with himself and realize that Gogol is part of his true identity. At first, I was extremely disappointed to read that he didn't legally change his name back to Gogol, especially after knowing what it meant to his late father. I had become excited when Gogol had sat down to read "The Overcoat" because I felt like reading that book wouldn't finally be the moment where he would accept his "true" identity as Gogol.

After I gave this situation some thought I realized that "Nikhil" was a huge part of Gogol's life. Aside from Nikhil being Gogol's legal name, I had realized that Gogol had gone through a lot in his life with this name, especially 3 of his most meaningful relationships in life. After going through so much as "Nikhil" it was understandable that Gogol didn't change his name back.

As soon as Gogol met Moushumi I was so sure that she was the one for him. This was mainly because they had the same thought process when it came to living in America with a family who had strict Indian customs. As soon as Moushumi had told Gogol about her promise to herself about only marrying an American man, I felt like Gogol had finally met his match. Gogol and Moushumi seemed to have so much in common and I was heart broken to see that she cheated on him. I wasn't as surprised as I normally would be, only because of her mention of her wild past with men. I was sad to see this story end on such a gloomy note.

Overall, The Namesake has been a book that I would definitely read again. I had no idea I would connect and love this story and Gogol as much as I did. Lahiri is a very talented writer that kept me interested the entire time. I like how I never knew what was going to happen. Whether it was a new girlfriend for Gogol or a family loss, I was always on my toes.

I feel as though Lahiri wrote to have Gogol grow up right in front of us to teach us that people are shaped from the events and things they go through in their life. Everything that happened in Gogol's life shaped him to be the man he was at the end of the book. One of the best and most memorable examples of this is when Gogol connected with his family after Ashoke's death. I felt like Ashoke's death woke Gogol up and made him realize that family is very important to keep close. Gogol learned many lesson right before our eyes, and it was interesting to see him grow as a person.

After all else had failed, Mouse and Graham, and Maxine and Nikhil, they both resort to their parent’s methods. I didn’t expect Nikhil to fall backwards into the society he tried so hard to avoid. And Mouse as well. They both didn’t seem like the type to become a Bengali family, marrying with Saris instead of white gowns. I didn’t expect it at all. I don’t think it’s a sign of defeat though, much rather it shows that they both had something to fall back on. Something that would stay with them no matter where they are, or who they became. They had their family, their ancestry, something that should have been lost when they both left their household and moved into an American household. In the end though, I didn’t expect it too fall apart. I wanted Mouse and Nikhil to live a life that worked out, and have a family and have their own son and give that son a namesake. I didn’t want the family to end, Gogol’s story to end without a legacy. It was disappointing that Mouse had gone with another man, Dimitri. It was sad that such a woman, who should have been a Bengali and obeyed the tradition their family set forth would go and cheat on her husband for someone she always longed for. I think what Lahiri is pointing at is that we as humans always try to change ourselves for the better, that we sometimes don’t see what we are destroying.

Ashima and Ashoke tried to change their life by moving to America, but in the end destroyed their own health. Ashima lost her family, her friends, her son. Ashoke to, lost his son, his daughter, and ultimately his life by moving to Cleveland. Gogol lost his past and family as he changed his name to Nikhil, he lost a lot just as we will lose a lot. By allowing his parents to arrange a traditional marriage, Nikhil lost what he tried to accomplish by being an American boy. Mouse to has changed. By moving the America and learning the American customs and trying so hard to be something that her parents never were, she became a cheater, someone without inhibitions and self restraint (yes I’m furious at the actions of Mouse).

Since the start of this book, I always expected it to be as HTRLLAP has pointed out, a story of growing up into the world of sex and death, a child struggling to become themselves in a place where there is tremendous pressure from their parent’s customs. It has turned out to be that, and more. To me, this story by Lahiri has showed a family’s journey through immigration, love, and death. And tells me that although we all try to change ourselves, sometimes we need to pay attention to that which can destroy us.

I feel that Moushumi's characterization as "desperately lonely"(p.213) to the point of considering " placing a personal ad"(p. makes her cuckolding of Gogol all the more incomprehensible. Gogol was obviously deeply in love with Moushumi, lavishing her with expensive gifts, being very accommodating with her needs (both when she essentially ignored him for the sake of her job and enjoys entertaining her friends whom make him feel alienated), and essentially catering to her ever whim. Yet despite the fact she is in a loving relationship, Moushumi cheats on Gogol with Dimitri, a unemployed,overweight, and rather crude man who once courted her, only to tell her that she wasn't good enough and that she'd "break hearts"(p.259) one day, as well as numerous other events which "humiliated her;(because)[he] treated her like a child". Is it possible that through Gogol's constant affection towards her, Moushumi got bored and felt he was smothering her with love? That it was Gogol's very devotion which cemented her boredom and subsequent betrayal? Why does it seem that women in literature have such a contrived, absurd fascination with men who treat them badly? This is reminiscent of the Family Guy episode "Chick Cancer" in which young Stewie Griffin wins the love of the aspiring hollywood starlet Olivia based on advice from his foil, the snarky dog Brian, which Stewie interprets as women enjoying being mistreated. After the marriage, Stewie and Olivia bicker like a stereotypical old married couple, and only when Stewie finally wants to make amends and plans an elaborate romantic gesture, does he discovers Olivia's cuckolding, a clear similarity to Gogol's situation with Moushumi.

I must say I rather expected Gogol and Moushumi to break up by the end of the novel, but it is rather nice that it finally puts Gogol back on terra firma and lets him accept himself. Through his obfuscating hatred of Dimitri (to the point that Gogol hates Dimitri more than he hates his name), Gogol is driven to the one true grounding force in his life... his family.It shows hope for the future that Gogol finally bothered to read the collection of Nikolai Gogol's work left to him by Ashoke, a rather touching and relatively good ending in terms of emotional resolution. However, it leaves too many plot threads unanswered to really be a good ending and I dislike that the reader is just supposed to accept that it was Moushumi's betrayal (of ALL the things which cause significant emotional pain to Gogol) which finally made Gogol pick up his Namesake (the book).

As for Ashima's characterization in the final chapter , it is nice to see her given a bit more fleshing out, even if her struggle to overcome Ashoke's death was given relatively little importance in terms of relevance to the plot. I consider this bad storytelling, being that her major conflict was overcoming loneliness and isolation, her sudden acceptance of Pemberton Road as her true home and immersion in American culture as she is planning to move away feels slipshod and extremely rushed, especially considering Ashima's increased introversion bordering on depression after losing Ashoke. In all honesty, it feels as though Lahiri simply had Ashima do this so she could work in some more etymology symbolism, without thinking of the implications this would have for the character and simply hoping the audience would be willing to suspend their disbelief at this turn of events.

It is interesting to note that The Namesake is based off Lahiri's own experience as a daughter of two Bengali immigrants. making Gogol an avatar of her in this near-autobiographical work of fiction. According to an interview, Lahiri wanted "to force the two worlds [she] inhabited to mingle on the page, as [she] was not brave or mature enough to allow them to (in real life)." Thus,based on the autobiographical nature of the book I believe that Lahiri was trying to point out that self-acceptance, emotional maturity and a balanced life are the key to happiness and success (to answer Ms. Clapp's question). Throughout the novel, Gogol(and to some extent, Moushumi) struggles with his Bengali heritage and his identity. Gogol's main emotional resolution (and the entire main point of the ending) was self-acceptance and coming to terms with his past, a process which does not phase(or become a plot point for) the more emotionally secure characters like Ashima (to some extent, Ashoke as well) and as a result, they end up relatively better off, and more easily able to deal with any suffering that they had to endure.

As a closing thought, I feel this new information begs the question, why would Lahiri not simply write an autobiography, rather than going through all these elaborate deceptions and creating a fictional account of what essentially amounts to her own life?

In my last post in the middle of this book, I predicted that Gogol would come to terms with his name (especially after the death of his father) and change it back to Gogol. I was shocked and almost a little bit angry that he did not do this, but he did finally give the book his father left him for his birthday in his earlier years a chance and finally cracked it open.

Like Vivian, I was so angry with Moushumi and her cheating on Gogol. When Moushumi and Gogol met at the bar and things hit off, I was hoping that things would work out for the two of them, since they both had previous failed relationships (Gogol with Ruth and Maxine and Moushumi with Graham), and I believed they both deserved each other. However, when we read of her affair I thought Moushumi didn't deserve someone as sincere and loving as Gogol. When Moushumi was keeping her affair a secret, I wanted it to stay that way. I was worried of what Gogol would do if and when he found out about the affair, but he did find out on the train when Moushumi carelessly mentioned Graham. At first I felt bad, but now, I thought obviously it was for the best. He deserved better than her.

I think Gogol needed to change his name back in order for things to start working out for him. For years he was playing a character, this idealized fantasy of Nikhil. But, Nikhil is not Gogol. They are two seperate people fighting within one mind. Nikhil is what Gogol wants to be, but it's not who he has to be and needs to be.

The ending of the book was pretty much what I anticipated. Although like Jaclyn, I hoped Nikhil would honor his father by making the decision to change his name back to Gogol. Like I had hoped, nonetheless, Gogol came around in the end, in his full appreciation of his parents, and their desire to get him to accept and respect his Indian culture. This respect for his Indian culture is especially apparent in the end, when he reminisces the trips to Culcutta, as he develops a sudden regret for having resented them when he was younger, concluding that "they were not enough" (p.281). He develops a sense of guilt, for all those years that he acted out and went against his parents rules and customs. By developing this deeper appreciation for his parents, his culture, and his parents' numerous attempts to get him to accept it, Gogol it seems, turns over a new leaf in the end. Like everyone mentions, he discovers his identity. He was destined to experience all the tears, the joy, the laughter, the pain, the struggle, and all the other unexplainable twists of fate to get to where he ends up in the end, which is at peace with his loved ones, and himself. Therefore, i think author Jhumpa Lahiri makes the statement that life's unexpected struggles, heart-aches, joyful moments, laughter, and so much more, are are part of what molds us into the people we are, and later become, like several people mentioned. How we decide to react to those twists and turns is entirely up to us.

My experience with this book has been interesting. I couldn't expect much really. With each chapter throwing a new struggle at me it was hard to tell what was going to happen next. In its entirety between the death of Nikhil's father and the affairs, I just gave up predicting. However, I guess I can comfortably admit, as I'm sure most can, that the "at peace" ending was pretty much Nikhil's fate. I knew in the end he'd realize what was really important to him.

What I got from Lahiri, is that, Human beings have to learn through own self thought and experience. For ex. to learn to ride a bike properly, when most get up on there, possibly fall, and fix what they did wrong the first time, till their riding solo, making turns for their own. The training wheels have to come off at some point, and hey if you want a basket and tassels don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I see Nikhils life struggles and experiences as just this big moral story on the human condition. Going through phases, and learning through first hand ordeals, and making the decisions to mold your own life. And like many above have said, even in reading this book we have to make decisions just as Nikhil does. We choose to react and relate, and we choose to judge his decisions, on what we perceive as the right or wrong thing. It's only human.