In the story the namesake, Gogol finds that he cannot be comfortable as an individual with a stable and

an acceptable identity while living “in between” cultures, with a Russian first name, with a Bengali family
outside of Boston, and with a sense of always being an outsider. He makes great attempts to define and
to redefine himself, and then changing his name and also moving away from home.

He withstands all of the pressures to obey too many of the expectations that his parents place on him,
and then making a home for himself in New York, where then he entertains the ideas of living a worldly
life, that is protected from the awkward transitory instabilities of his identity issues. I think that his

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sense of home changes with his girlfriends, in large part, as these relationships are a correct reflection of

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the degree to which Gogol accepts or either rejects an identity that is defined by his family history.

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Gogol is not at home with his name and so seeks a new home in a new name. Ultimately, despite his

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various efforts, Gogol grows into a point of view that recognizes his family as the root of his identity. This
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recognition is bittersweet and bought at a cost. It does not work as a suggestion of failure and does not
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serve to paint Gogol’s quest as a quixotic folly. Instead, Gogol’s mature identity is shown to require all
the costs he pays, because home for him is essentially definitive of his personhood. The home he finally
claims is roughly equivalent to an answer to the question of what it means to be a person in the world.
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Lahiri’s novel is very much a book about redefinitions of home. Undertaking a tremendous change,
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Gogol’s parents leave their home in Calcutta and move to the United States. Their position as outsiders
is intensely felt by their children, mainly Gogol. "The mother and father are traditional Bengalese from
Calcutta, and they are not particularly interested in assimilating into the United States, their adopted
home. Gogol, their son, however, was born in the United States and is also somewhat embarrassed by
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his parents’ Bengalese practices.” For Gogol, as for his parents, the idea of home becomes closely
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associated with the idea of belonging. Gogol goes to great lengths to find a solid sense of belonging
(because he cannot find it in his parents’ home).

Growing up, Gogol feels too much in between cultures. When the family visits India, Gogol and his
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sister feel like Americans. In America, Gogol feels like an outsider. Even within the ex-patriot Bengalese
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community, Gogol feels that he is not fully a part of things. "Gogol wants to fit in with the culture
around him and he also fears that if he takes hold of the Indian culture, then the Americans will decline
him. In his mind, in order to be considered fully American, he has to cut his ties with his family."
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His name really bothers him. It comes from a Russian writer. When he is ready to start college, Gogol
chooses to change his name and attend Yale, leaving Massachusetts to go to Connecticut. He begins to
assert himself as a self-defined individual at Yale and tries to leave “Gogol” behind. “It is as Nikhil, that
first semester, that he grows a goatee, starts smoking Camel Lights at parties and writing papers and
before exams, discovers Brian Eno and Elvis Costello and Charlie Parker. It is as Nikhil that he takes the

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 metro into Manhattan one weekend with Jonathan and gets himself a fake ID that allows him to be
served liquor in New Haven bars.”

For a long time, Gogol makes an identity for himself that is cut off from his parents' cultural identity.
He then moves back to New York and then becomes comfortable with Maxine and her family in a
cultural niche, and can perhaps be best described as an elite level of insulated privilege. His home for a
time is not New York, per se, but Maxine. When his father dies and Gogol drifts back to his family, he
begins to embrace his family’s particular cultural name in America reluctantly at first. Soon, with
Moushumi, he lets go of his unwillingness and then the two of them can marry. His definition of home is
shifted to include a vision of a domestic life, and is socially connected to aspiring young New Yorkers that
are both living cosmopolitan and intellectual lives.

At the end of the story, when the marriage ends, Gogol is facing with the idea that he is now only
connected to his family and also his home is again is only defined by that family. Late in the novel, Gogol
recalls a conversation with his father. His father said to him, “Remember that you and I made this
journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.”

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