Jessie Alkire

Book Review Essay

Navigating Identity
Jhumpa Lahiris The Namesake chronicles the lives and struggles of the Gangulis, a
family that immigrated to the United States from Calcutta. The novel shifts between the
perspectives of Ashima, a first generation immigrant; her son, Gogol, a second generation
immigrant, and Gogols wife, Moushumi. The shifting narrative structure illustrates the
unstable, shifting characteristics of identity. Throughout the novel, Ashima clings to her
Bengali culture and refuses to assimilate, leading to feelings of alienation and unhappiness.
The novel also follows Gogols live and feelings of being trapped in between two cultures.
Therefore, he uses his relationships with others to form his own unstable identity. Lastly,
Moshoumi fights the same sense of in-between by embracing an entirely different third
culture, majoring in French in college and later moving to Paris. At the end of the novel,
Ashima grows to call American home and is going to spend half the year in India and the
other half in America. Gogol still struggles to navigate his changing identity but is more
comfortable with his Indian heritage.
The majority of literary critics find that The Namesake deftly illustrates the hybridity
immigrants face through the struggles of its main characters. Immigrants, especially from
the second generation, feel in between cultures rather than belonging solely to one or the
other (Rana 418). Identity, however, is not fixed, and the immigrant must accept his
belonging to multiple cultures; if not, he will not have an identity of his own, leading to
alienation and isolation from others, himself, and his own cultures. The Namesake offers a
glimpse into the common ethnic experience, something many readers can identify with and
deem authentic. This is essential not only for popular success but acceptance to the ethnic
literary canon as well (Bhalla 108). Tamara Bhalla, however, argues that ethnic literature by
its very nature risks masking textual problems like cultural homogenization, stereotyping,
and the commodification of difference because of its tendency to make readers relate to its

story and characters on a deep level (109). The Namesake, specifically, obscures its reliance
on and perpetuation of stereotypes of ethnicity and gender. Bhalla argues that The
Namesake presents limiting, stereotypical representations of Indian women and objectifies
the tree main female characters as materialistic consumers, victims of brown male
oppression, and repositories of ethnic tradition (110). Therefore, The Namesake can be
seen as an example of ethnic literature moving backward rather than forward, perpetuating
ethnic generalizations and patriarchy rather than sharing any new insights.
One of the biggest issues Bhalla finds with The Namesake is its treatment of women.
She argues that every female character serves as an object for either Gogol, the male hero
of the novel, or a stereotypical representation of Indian culture. Gogols main love interests,
Moushumi and Maxine, are merely objects for Gogol to define himself and his cultural
identity against (Bhalla 113). Maxine is an extremely wealthy white woman and can be seen
as a way of Gogol constructing his identity as an American. She is also a way of exploring
the phenomenon of interracial sexuality common to ethnic literature. Moushumi, on the
other hand, is an Indian woman Gogol is set up with by his mother and quickly marries. She
is a return to Gogols Indian culture, safe and comfortable, after his fathers death as well as
a play on arranged marriage (Bhalla 116). Both of Gogols love interests serve as mere
objects for Gogols own development and do not grow as characters of their own. Ashima
functions as the stereotypical Indian female defined by motherhood and domesticity. Her
passages are constantly defined by traditional Indian foods, marking her has the keeper of
cultural traditional and national purity in the domestic space of the American household
(Bhalla 119). All three women are stereotypes of South Asian femininity and perpetuate
ethnic generalizations in literature rather than providing a new representation.
While Bhallas argument is compelling and demonstrates a unique view virtually
unexplored by other critics, it does not hold up when the text is examined more closely.
There are clearly some necessary generalizations which allow the text to provide a
communal look into the life of immigrants; however, the text does not portray gender or

ethnicity in a manner that creates or perpetuates stereotypical views of the culture or its
people. Instead, The Namesake uses its characters, especially women, to explore the
instability of identity for immigrants. The women in the novel are the only ones who
experience growth and construct their own identities. The male main character models his
life on women especially in an attempt to achieve the same independence and happiness
the female characters possess. Ultimately, it is the women who are able to navigate the
shifting waters of identity, giving them far more agency than the male main character.
One of the main struggles each character in the novel, especially Gogol, faces is
coming to terms with identity as an immigrant. Gogol does so by defining himself by his
relationships, most notably with both Maxine and Moushumi. He does not, however, limit this
to women. Gogol defines himself and constructs his identity through his relationships with
virtually everyone, including other males such as his father and friends from school. For
example, Gogol takes up smoking, experiments with alcohol, and grows a goatee to become
more like his friends at college (Lahiri 105). Gogols identity construction through
relationships does not serve the purpose of stereotypically treating women as objects for
male consumption, a trope common to ethnic literature. Instead, it further emphasizes the
instability of identity for second-generation immigrants (Caesar 106). In fact, it even casts
Gogol, the male, as somewhat inferior to the women in his life who are much more
comfortable with their own identities than he. When describing Maxine, for example, Gogol
says, She has the gift of accepting her life He realizes that she has never wished she were
anyone other than herself, raised in any other place, in any other way (Lahiri 138). He takes
Maxines comfort and confidence into his own identity, like he does with many others in his
life, regardless of race, gender, or class.
Moushumi is another example of a female character that shows far more agency than
Gogol. She, like Gogol, feels like a hybrid of Bengali and American culture, and she rebels
against them both. Moushumi abandons both cultures in favor of the entirely separate
French culture (Lahiri 214). She finds comfort in her constructed French identity: Immersing

herself in a third language, a third culture, had been her refuge It was easier to turn her
back on the two countries that could claim her in favor of one that had no claim whatsoever
(Lahiri 214). The French culture provides Moushumi with an identity that allows her to
reinvent herself into someone she was always meant to be. Gogol admires her ability to
adapt and embrace a new cultural identity, knowing he himself will never be able to reinvent
himself so fully (Lahiri 233). Like in the construction of her identity, Moushumi also shows
more agency than Gogol by ending their marriage. They both become extremely unhappy,
brought together and torn apart by their own cultural familiarity (Lahiri 250). Moushumi
makes the conscious choice to leave the marriage, albeit through an affair with a white man.
She, like Gogol, experiences hybridity. Unlike Gogol, however, Moushumi illustrates the
possibility of finding independence and creating an identity out of the chaos. In this sense,
Moushumi is the superior Gogol, even as a woman; she faces the same circumstances and
challenges but rises above them to become comfortable with herself and her cultural
identity.
In the beginning of the novel, Ashima illustrates the average first-generation
immigrants experience. She feels extreme alienation in America and clings to Bengali
culture, refusing to assimilate (Lahiri 6). Like Bhalla states, Ashima is defined by the
household and motherhood, the stereotypical portrayal of South Asian femininity; however,
Bhalla neglects to fully examine the latter half of the novel which demonstrates the
development Ashima has undergone throughout the novel. She begins as a Bengali wife and
mother afraid to leave her own house in America and becomes an independent woman who
has assimilated to American culture while maintaining intimate ties with her Bengali roots
and heritage. After her husbands death, Ashima continues to work and maintain the
household and family independently. She ends the novel planning to spend half the year in
India and the other half in America, the literal image of hybridity (Lahiri 275). Ashima does
not consider herself tied to any specific place or culture; instead, she is without borders,
without a home of her own, a resident everywhere and nowhere (Lahiri 276). Bengali and

American cultures will both always be a part of Ashima, but neither defines her exclusively.
This realization allows Ashima to accept her identity in a way Gogol never does. Ultimately,
it is the women who illustrate the meaning of the novel: identity is not fixed to a specific
place, race, or culture; it is unstable, constantly shifting as lives and circumstances change.
Jhumpa Lahiris The Namesake offers a glimpse into the South Asian immigrants
experience in the United States. Like other ethnic literature, the novel allows the reader to
identify with the story and its characters closely, something Tamara Bhalla believes masks
stereotypes and generalizations of ethnicity and gender. While her argument is insightful, it
neglects to take into account the main focus of the novel and ethnic literature as whole: the
immigrants struggle to find identity. Ultimately, Lahiris treatment of characters, especially
Ashima and Moushumi, illustrates the shifting character of identity, both in their own
struggles and Gogols attempt to define himself according to his relationships. Ultimately,
Ashima and Moushumi are the true heroes of the novel who construct and embrace their
own unstable, borderless identities.
Works Cited
Bhalla, Tamara. "Being (And Feeling) Gogol: Reading And Recognition In Jhumpa Lahiri's The
Namesake. Melus 37.1 (2012): 105-129.Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Caesar, Judith. Gogols Namesake: Identity and Relationship in Jhumpa Lahiris The
Namesake. Atenea. 17.1 (2007): 103-119. Web. 23 Feb. 2014
Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York, 2003.
Rana, Jyoti. The Diaspora: From Enculturation to Acculturation in Jhumpa Lahiris The
Namesake. Language in India. 13.12 (2013): 417-428.Web. 23 Feb. 2014.