The Namesake Essay

In Juhmpa Lahiri's novel, The Namesake, the reader is thrust into the daily life of Gogol Ganguli. Gogol is a promising young man from a Bengali family, which the reader gets the pleasure of knowing since his birth. Ever since Gogol's childhood all he ever wanted was to find a place where he could truly fit in, whether it be in his own culture, or in the American one in which he lives. During his life, Gogol searches everywhere to find out who he is and where he belongs. During his long search, young Gogol meets a beautiful, New York Intellectual named Maxine Ratliff. Gogol and Maxine share an eye-opening and carefree relationship which is misconstrued as true love. During this "Maxine chapter", it becomes quite apparent that Gogol and Maxine's relationship is solely based on the superficialities of American culture. The beginning of Gogol and Maxine's history begins during Gogol's time working at an architecture firm. Gogol is invited to a dinner party hosted by one of his coworkers. Gogol arrives at this gathering, and is greeted by an environment which he never has encountered before; a party of intellectuals, eating grapes and discussing the latest films. At this party, Gogol has his first encounter with "the New York woman", and her name is
Gogol has tried to avoid "finding" himself for many years, and now is forced to deal with it in full force. During the time after Ashoke's death, Gogol seems to realize that he himself is Bengali, it is in his blood. He was not borne to the New York socialites that Maxine was. Gogol finally seems to come to terms with the fact that there is no place like home. Gogol see's that there is only one place where he is complete and that is in the arms of his imperfect Bengali family. At this time, Gogol realizes that what drew him to Maxine was her life as a New York socialite. He loved and was intrigued by how different she was from