In Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, Gogol is still trying to
fight his name in chapter five and six and find out the reasons why his parents
named him Gogol. After living with the name Gogol for about 18 years of his
life, Gogol finally convinces his parents to allow him to change his named
offically to Nikhil. As he enters college at Yale, he is determined to known as
Nikhil and leave Gogol behind forever. He makes sure all of his offical papers
that go to Yale say that his name is Nikhil and all of his classmates know him
as Nikhil.
After
college, Gogol moves to New York to work as an architect and begins to date a
girl named Maxine who he falls in love with. He is at her house all the time
when he’s not a work and she calls him by his new name Nikhil because she is in
his new life. But, when Gogol decides to visit his parents with Maxine for
lunch on his way to Maxine’s grandparents’ house, Ashoke calls Gogol “Gogol”
instead of “Nikhil”. This mistake angers Gogol but he doesn’t show it and
avoids the topic. When Maxine comments on it on the ride to the grandparents’
house, he changes the topic and avoids talking about his old name and avoids
telling her that he changed his name from “Gogol” to “Nikhil”. She drops it
quickly.
I
find Lahiri’s style of writing interesting in regards to chapters five and six
because even though she writes that Gogol changed his name, she still refers to
him as Gogol when she is narrating his life. Even though Gogol has officially changed
his name to Nikhil, Lahiri refers to him as Gogol. Reading this shows me that
Lahiri will always remember him as Gogol and that the name Nikhil will not
stick in Gogol’s life. I sense that when she refers to him as Gogol instead of
Nikhil, she is foreshadowing him changing his name back to Gogol and liking
Gogol more than Nikhil.
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I honestly find the whole name change thing ridiculous. I mean who would go through so much trouble? Anyways i loved reading your predictions on what you believe is going to happen next in the book. I really hope that happens and he starts liking his name again! Its cool how you picked up on some of the authors word choice on how she still calls him Gogol after the name change. Awesome post and Great job!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point. Gogol hated his name and one of the reason was because it sounded like a pet name. But, Gogol cannot throw away his name because the name "Gogol" contains his past. Nikhil doesn't have the memory of actual Gogol. Maybe, people are calling him Gogol because it comforts them since it is the name that people will always remember as it is. I also think that Gogol is not comfortable with his new name because there is something that is stuck in the name "Gogol" that Gogol misses.
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