How Does Feeling Out Of Place Affect An Individual's Life?

Everyone experiences an event in life of feeling out of place or uncomfortable with a specific surrounding or situation. This feeling occurs in Ashima, one of the main characters in the novel, The Namesake, multiple times. Feeling out of place is common among all people especially with Ashima feeling alone after the death of her husband, Ashoke, feeling out of place in the hospital while giving birth, and when Gogol feels alone with having a name so uncommon and unique. A dramatic change in life such as when Ashima lost her husband, Ashoke can have the biggest effect on ones life. After he passed from a heart attack, Ashima needed to learn how to live without him being around all the time like he had been before and needs to take up the responsibilities of doing things around the house that Ashoke handled before. "She begins to shiver violently, the house instantly feeling twenty degrees colder" (Lahiri 169). Ashima feels lonely after the death of her husband and makes the decision to move back to where she once called home. Living in America so
At first he did not realize that his name was out of the ordinary until after visiting the gravesite. Feeling out of place caused him to change his name to Nikhil and he was determined to have everyone refer to him as that especially entering college. Gogol realizes that even after changing his name, it does not change the fact of him still feeling out of place; "He is afraid to be Nikhil, someone he doesn't know. Who doesn't know him (...) It's a part of growing up, they tell him, of being a Bengali" (Lahiri 3). Gogal can not not escape the feeling of being out of place even after a name change which does not make the feeling vanish. Feeling out of place is a common occurrence in The Namesake. Whether it's because of a death, a certain environment, or being insecure about oneself they all come together in the theme of feeling out of