Hello, Learners, This presentation is collaborating work of third year BA students of English literature. We have tried to explain this novel with depth and using various concepts.

1. “The Namesake”
By
Jhumpa Lahiri

2. Hello! This is T.Y B.A
English (2019-20)
Presentation Prepaid By:
▪ Kanala Ridhdhi
▪ Gohil Manishaba
▪ Dholiya Madhavi
▪ Nimavat Gayatri
▪ Khunt Bhakti
▪ Solanki Riddhi
▪ Makavana Arati
▪ Chauhan Riddhi
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3. “
“The reader should realize himself that it
could not have happened otherwise , and
that to give him any other name was
quite out of the question.”
-Nikolai Gogol, “The Overcoat”
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4. About
author
Jhumpa Lahiri

5. Jhumpa Lahiri
▪ Nilanjana Sudheshna Jhumpa Lahiri
▪ Born : 11 July , 1967
▪ Occupation :Author
▪ Nationality :American
▪ Alma mater : Barnard College, Columbia University, Boston University
▪ Jhumpa Lahiri is an American author known for her short stories ,
Novels and essays in English and more recently ,in Italian . Lahiri’s work
explores the Indian- immigrant experience in America . Her debut short
fiction collection “ Interpreter Of Meladies “ (1999) won the Pulitzer Prize
for fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first novel “ The
Namesake “(2003),was adapted into the popular film of the same name
. Her second story collection “ Unaccustomed Earth “ (2008) won the
Frank O’Connor International Short story award . In 2011 , Lahiri moved
to Rome , Italy and has since then published two books of Essays ,and
has a forthcoming novel written in Italian .
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6. ▪ Genre :Novel, short story, postcolonial
▪ Notable Works :
□ Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
□ The Namesake (2003)
□ Unaccustomed Earth (2008)
□ The Lowland (2013)
▪ Notable awards :
□ 1999 O. Henry Award
□ 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
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7. Title “The
Namesake”
Question of “what is in the
name” or “everything in the
name”

8. Title “The Namesake”
▪ What is in the Name ?
▪ The question of identity always be the subject in the
literature . So here is an extraordinary example given
by this novel . The dilemma because of the name ,
dual identity by the name and so on .Pet names
,jhumpa Lahiri herself goes by her Indian ‘ Pet Name’
after feeling embarrassed in kindergarten when her
teacher had difficulty pronouncing her true name she
has said that this was one inspiration for the story of
Gogol/ Nikhil .
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9. Theme:
Theme means fundamental
ideas and background ideas
of any literary work, which
shows major concept of the
work.

10. Theme of “The Namesake”
 Change, and Dependence on stability
Lahiri tracks, through “The
Namesake”, The changes that occur to the
Ganguli family. In fact, It is through change
that characters learn who they are, and
what parts of themselves remain constant.
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11.  The Universality of “foreignness”
At first, it appears that “The Namesake” is
a novel about the Bengali-American experience. It is
not that Bengali experience a feeling of “outsider-
ness” when they come to America. It is that America
is a country of “being outside” , of different groups
and communities, some overlapping, others quite
removed from one another. 11

12.  The formation of Identity
As its title indicates, “The Namesake” is a
novel of identities. Gogol grows up perplexed by his pet
name. He feels it is not his own, and it is not until college,
after he has legally changed it to Nikhil, that his father
tells him the story that lies behind it. Gogol realizes that it
is one thing to change one’s name officially, but another
thing to become a different person.
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13.  The Indian Immigrant Experience
The experiences of the Ganguli family in
America a country that for some of them is an
intensely foreign environment offer a glimpse of life
as an Indian immigrant to the United States.
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14.  Family, Tradition, and Ritual
The importance of family in “The
Namesake” cannot be overstated. The novel is
centered around the Ganguli family, and the ways in
which two very different generation interact with
one another.
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15.  Independence, Rebellion, and Growing
Up
Gogol’s struggle for independence from
the family that he sometimes finds embarrassing is
a major feature of the novel. “The Namesake” fits
some definitions of a “Bildungsroman” , a coming of
age novel, with Gogol as the protagonist who grows
up over the course of the story.
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16.  Identity and Naming
As its title suggests, Gogol’s decision to
change his name to Nikhil before leaving home for
college demonstrates his desire to take control over
his own identity. The name Gogol, which “Nikhil”
finds so distasteful, is a direct result of the literal
identity confusion at his birth, when the later sent
from India that contained his “true name” was lost
in the mail. 16

17.  Love and marriage
The novel examines the nature of love and
marriage by providing an intimate view into a series
of Gogol’s romantic relationships, which are seen
alongside the enduring, arranged marriage of his
parents.
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18. Characterization:
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Ashoke
Ganguli
Ashima
Ganguli
Gogol
GanguliwifeMoushumi
Mazoomdar
Sonia
Ganguli

19. Ashoke Ganguli:
▪ In the beginning of the novel, the use of his
character established major detail of the novel in
different ways. Ashoke was a representation of
people actively seeking out better lives for
themselves and their families. In India as
someone who moved out, in America as and
immigrant and as a father to Gogol.
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20. Ashima Ganguli:
▪ Ashima is mother to Gogol and Sonia, and
wife to Ashoke. Ashima is the family member
most attached to the traditions of India, and who
is most homesick for her family. After her
arranged marriage to Ashoke, she moves with
him to Cambridge. But Ashima’s story is one of
increasing independence. By the end of the
novel, the cycles of change and return that
characterize all human life.
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21. Gogol(Nikhil) Ganguli:
▪ Gogol is the center of the novel, and it is his
journey from childhood into young adulthood
that the narrator tracks most closely. Gogol’s
decision to become Nikhil occurs before he
knows his father’s story in detail. Instead, Lahiri’s
narrator focuses on Gogol’s life with three
women: Ruth in college, Maxine in New York,
and, finally, Moushumi, his wife.
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22. Sonia(Sonali) Ganguli:
▪ Gogol’s younger sister, who feels in
affectionelly “Gugeless”. She too struggles with
the divide between her American friends and
Indian background and moves to Calafornia for
college. after their father dies, though Sonia
moves in with Ashima to take care of her, she
becomes engaged to Ben.
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23. Moushumi Mazoomdar:
▪ The Bengali woman, who marries Gogol.
Moushumi was one of the children present at the
many gathering of Bengali friends in their
childhood. She grew up in London. She is a Ph.D
student at NYU during her brief marriage to
Gogol. Moushumi is very intelligent and a hard
worker. Moushumi’s affair with Dimitri and speak
lie to Gogol, then the couples separates and,
eventually, divorces. After their relationship ends,
Moushumi drifts out of the novel.
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24. Minor Character:
 Maxine Ratliff
 Ruth
 Ben
 Dimitri Desjardins
 Gerald and Lydia Ratliff
 Donald and Astrid
 Graham
 Ghosh
 Candace Lapidus
 Mr. Lawson
 Petty
 Mr. Wilcox
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25. Symbolism:
▪ Food In Indian Culture:
In “The Namesake” Indian Food symbolizes the whole
of Indian culture and the closeness of a Bengali family and
community. In the case of Ashima to her new husband. She
gets to know him by getting to know his favorite foods and
flavors
.
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26. ▪ The Stories Of Nikolai Gogol:
Gogol’s stories are fraught with
meaning. They are imbued with the trauma of
Ashok’s Accident , which nearly took his life.
They are strange and marvelous tales of
adventures beyond Ashok’s immediate
experience, and they therefore are enticements
for him to see other parts of the world.
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27. ▪ The House At Pemberton Road:
Similarly, the house on Pemberton
Road is a space in which the Ganguli
Family comes together. It was not,
perhaps, the home Ashima envisioned
when she was a girl in Calcutta.
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28. ▪ The Spit of Land on Cape Cod:
This spit of land, which Gogol
recalls after his father’s death, exists for
him only in memory. He and his father
went out there together, during a family
trip.
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29. ▪ Trains:
Trains appear again and again in
Lahiri’s novel, and twice a train accident plays a
significant role in the story. The first is the
devastating accident in Ashoke’s past, which he
barely survives, and the second is when an
unknown person commits suicide on the tracks
of a train that is carrying Gogol home from Yale.
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30. ▪ Books:
Books play an important role in many key scenes in the
novel, beginning in the first chapter with the young Ashok’s
all-consuming love for them a love that saves his life, and
gives Gogol his name and ending with Gogol’s chance
discovery of the book his father had given him for his birthday
more than a decade before.
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31. ▪ Graves And Graveyards:
In a few moments in the
novel , Gogol thinks with longing of the
idea of a grave a place that will bear his
legacy into the future, and give him or
his family a permanent physical anchor
in space.
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32. Literary
concepts of
the novel
There are many concepts one
can observe so let us analyse
it.

33. Bildungsroman
▪ In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman is a literary
genre that focuses on the psychological and
moral growth of the protagonist from youth to
adulthood, in which character change is
important.
▪ Here Gogal is the person used with this kind of
cencept who grow up with later age and
understand the death of his and his family life. 33

34. Feminine tone in
the novel
▪ Jhumpa Lahiri gives this concept with
Ashima’s character, which is explored with her
feelings, dilemma, remembrance etc And the
novel shows the widest part with her
character and her thought as suggest.
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35. 35
Thanks!
Any questions?