Date: 31-03-2023 Name: Ciara Casey

“The Namesake” follow up questions

1) Lahiri has said, "The question of identity is always a difficult one, but especially
for those who are culturally displaced, as immigrants are . . . who grow up in
two worlds simultaneously. How can this be applied to Ashoke and Ashima.

Ashoke and Ashima are a Bengali couple who decides to immigrate to America, where they
start not only their family, but also a new life. Even though both of them were raised in a
similar way, by following the same culture, their personalities are completely different from
one another.

Firstly, we can take into consideration Ashima´s character, who suffers a lot during her first
years in America. In the beggininig of the novel, she doesnt´t feel completely comfortable with
the american culture, as everything seems so strange to her. She´s new in a country where
everyone´s actions and thoughts are completely different from her beleifs, so it´s easy to
comprehend why she misses her homeland and feels very out of place. A clear example of this
could be how she exploded after Gogol´s birth. ´I´m saying hurry up and finish your degree…. I
don´t want to raise Gogol alone in this country. It´s not right, I want to go back´. It must be
really challenging to move all the way from India to another country, without knowing how
things will turn out in the end. Throughout the novel, Ashima remains as a liminal character
because she´s in the middle of two worlds: India and America. She adopts practices from the
american culture as she grows older, but she will always consider herself as a true Bengali
woman. In fact, as the novel comes to an end, Ashima decides to spend six months in India and
six months in the States. However, this is a tremendous decision for her as she will miss
everything she had started to do in America, like having a job or even driving. These are all
insignificant and common practices for an american women, but not for a Bengali woman. ´She
will miss the country in which she had grown to know and love his husband´. This quotation
explains perfectly why she feels so fond towards America, a country which had first terrorized
her, but then welcomed her.

On the other hand, Ashoke is a Bengali immigrant who has another perspective of America.
Due to his unfortunate accident, he always thought about moving as a new way to start all over
again. He didn´t want to live in India, a country where he would be constantly reminded of his
past. His dream was to move far away from everything he had previously known. Nevertheless,
once he moves to The States and has his children, he wants them to participate in their culture.
Deep inside, he will always consider himself as a Bengali person, so he wants his children to
grow up following the same ideals. So it´s not that he resents the Bengali culture, but he just
seems to fit in perfectly in America. In addition to this, he is a well-educated person, and so is
Ashima, who worked really hard to achieve his goals. ´The job is everything Ashoke has ever
dreamed of´. He feels so grateful towards America that it´s easier for him to adopt to this new
country. He spends almost his entire life living in The States, feeling lucky enough to be able to
live the life he wants. As a matter of fact, he believes that he couldn´t ask for anything better.