Identity Crisis in The Namesake

Identity Crisis in The Namesake

TYBA Indian Diaspora

Identity crisis

The novel The Namesake is a tale of identities, one that is doubly convoluted by the immigrant experience.

As mentioned in the previous theme, the second generation immigrants experience a deeper identity crisis.

Let us see why.

Home Culture

• Simply put, home culture refers to an individual's point of culture of origin

• The domestic sphere is a determinant of home culture

• It is one that is determined by the family

Poll

What is 'home' for Ashoke and Ashima?

• India

• America

Poll

What is home for Gogol, Sonia and Moushumi?

• India

• America

• Neither

Home culture v/s Foreign Culture

• Gogol's identity crisis: Indian heritage v/s American lifestyle.

• To Gogol, Sonia and Moushumi, India is foreign, and America is home.

• However, Americans see them as outsiders.

• Cultural displacement therefore, heightens their identity crisis

Multiple Choice

What is responsible for the cultural displacement in this text?

• immigration

• assimilation

• adaptation

Naming and Identity

• Gogol's true name gets lost

• His name becomes a symbol of the cultural clashes he experiences

Multiple Choice

Gogol is a __________ name.

• Indian

• Russian

• American

Naming and Identity

• Gogol's true name gets lost

• His family is Indian, his name is Russian, his citizenship is American

• His name becomes a symbol of the cultural clashes he experiences, and the space he occupies between his parents past and his present.

• Gogol attempts to resolve this internal conflict by legally changing his name before he leaves for college.

Multiple Choice

What does Gogol change his name to?

• Nihal

• Nick

• Nikhil

Gogol to Nikhil

• Represents his desire to take control over his own identity

• Gogol: literal confusion about his identity

• The name holds meaning for Ashoke, but not for him

• A change in name doesn't change his life

• He eventually learns that names and nicknames are symbols of the bonds between people

Multiple Select

Which of the following characters in the novel have a nickname, or more than one name?

• Gogol

• Moushumi

• Ashima

• Ashoke

• Maxine

Naming and Identity

• The Namesake illustrates the importance of one’s background name and culture to one's identity

• Only at the book's conclusion does Gogol display a willingness to reach back to his roots

• When Gogol sits to read the book his father had given him, it suggests a new acceptance of his past, and a willingness to allow his background to become a part of his identity

Multiple Choice

What book does Gogol start reading at the end of the novel?

• a collection of Tagore's poems

• a collection of Nikolai Gogol's short stories

• a collection of Jhumpa Lahiri's works