Gogol’s Definition of Home
Gogol Ganguli, the main character of The Namesake novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, changed many homes. He lived in his parent’s house in Boston during his childhood and teenage years. Then Gogol moved to New Haven when he became a Yale College freshman. His passion for architecture led Gogol to New York, where he studied at Columbia University and found his love twice, only to lose it quickly. Gogol’s definition of home changes throughout the story, but he remains homeless, a man who cannot indeed be himself.
Childhood
Gogol spent his childhood and teenage years in his parent’s house in Boston. As a child, Gogol was overwhelmed, distressed, and uncomfortable with his new home. He dreaded the thought of coming to an American elementary school. Gogol spent his preschool week in bed, “just like his mother, listless, without appetite, claiming to have a stomachache” (Lahiri 51). Gogol’s home was restricted to his parents’ house, and he feared going into the unknown.
Adolescence
However, while living in Boston, Gogol changed that attitude in his teenage years. He became “lazy, addressing his parents in English though they continue to speak to him in Bengali” (Lahiri 66). In particular, Gogol started to hate his name, disliking having “the weirdest namesake of all Russian writers (Lahiri 67). At this stage, Gogol tried to embrace America as his new cultural home and abandon his Bengali roots.
College
During his college years at Yale, Gogol became torn apart between his cultural homes. On the one hand, he found himself most comfortable in his room at Yale (Lahiri 92). On the other hand, Gogol felt as if “he’s cast himself in a play, acting the part of twins, indistinguishable to the naked eye yet fundamentally different” (Lahiri 91). He started feeling out of place by rejecting his Bengali roots.
Adulthood
This conflict culminated when Gogol moved to New York and fell in love with Maxine Ratliff. He spent much time with Maxine and her parents, but it was not a natural home. Gogol was “conscious that his immersion in Maxine’s family is a betrayal of his own” (Lahiri 120). Ultimately, he failed to find a meaningful definition of home in family life or culture. Gogol could not reconcile the Bengali and the American in him (Reinhoud, 34). Essentially, he remained homeless, which is sadly ironic for an architect who designs homes.
Works Cited
Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. First Mariner Books, 2004.
Reinhoud, Eline. “No Place Like Home: Cosmopolitanism and the Notion of Home in The Namesake and the Parable Series.” Junctions: Graduate Journal of the Humanities, vol. 3, no. 2, 2018, pp. 25-37.