The Namesake

The Namesake  – Jhumpa Lahiri’s first novel, The Namesake, portrays both the immigrant experience in America, and the complexity of family loyalties that underlie all human experience. Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, after an arranged marriage in India, emigrate to America where Ashoke achieves his dream of an engineering degree and a tenured position in a New England college. Their son, Gogol, named after the celebrated Russian author, rejects both his unique name and his Bengali heritage. The present critical study is an attempt to explore and analyse the text as well as to discuss the critical and textual problems arising therefrom.