The Immigration Experience

In The Namesake, we see the immigration experience through Gogol, a first generation immigrant, and his mother, Ashima, an immigrant. Ashima has to learn to adapt to life in America. Gogol on the other hand struggles with leaving his indian culture to adapt to his new American way of life.

Ashima has an arranged marriage to Ashoke, and they move to America. She has never left home and now is going around the world away from her family to start a new life. You can sense how awkward the first days of having an arrange marriage are. On top of having a new husband, Ashima has to learn to adapt to life in America. Her biggest surprise was that the stove has gas 24 hours a day 7 days a week. A simple concept as having constant gas is a new radical change in her way of life. Ashoke leaves Ashima at home to go to work, and he tells her when he gets back he will teach her how to do laundry and common household chores. She is completely dependent on her new husband that she barely knows. When she gives birth to Gogol, the doctor tells her that she must name her child before leaving the hospital. In India the child is not named until they are five years old. A child does not have a name for the beginning of their life. The value of names are stressed in America. They determine how the child will grow up, their values, and essentially determines how their futures will play out. Ashima's culture and American culture were clashing head on. 

Ashima and Ashoke had decided to change Gogol's name to Nikhil, to which Ashima says will be pronounced Nick by the Americans. One day when Gogol comes back from school, he hands a note to his mom stating that he would prefer to be called Gogol in school. When he decided to keep his name he was accepting to keep his indian culture. Sweet innocence. As we see Gogol grow up, he slowly realizes that his culture and life are not like everyone else's. He listens to heavy rock music in his room and does not want to speak to his parents. He starts to detach himself from his parents and his culture. Ashima had to learn to live life in America as an immigrant, but Gogol had to learn to assimilate into the American culture as a first generation immigrant.

As an adult, Gogol managed to completely detach himself from his indian culture. His parents tried to set up an arranged marriage for Gogol, which is normal and a right of passage in India. When the girl had came to Gogol's house she expressed how she detested American television. Gogol and his sister, Sonia, make fun of her. She represented how Gogol and Sonia would have turned out had they kept their culture alive. She was everything that they did not want to be. He later has a white, blonde, American girlfriend and was already spending time with her family. Gogol spent more time with her family than his own. When Maxine first meets Gogol's parents the clash of two cultures is truly seen. It was an awkward meeting for both his parents and Maxine. Gogol's double life was becoming harder to keep separate. When his father dies Gogol does not answer his mother phone calls while he is on vacation with Maxine's parents. After hours of trying to reach him, Sonia is able to get a hold of Gogol. He was trying so hard to erase his past that he ignored his family and tried to become part of another one. At his father's funeral, Maxine had showed up in a black skimpy dress. Even the librarian had made an attempt to show respect and research what happens at an Indian funeral. No one wears black to celebrate a passing, but white to celebrate their life. Gogol feels remorse for not speaking to his parents for the majority of his teen and adult life. He submerses himself into his culture; he becomes closer to his sister and his mother. Gogol learned that he cannot change where he is from, but sadly it took the death of his father for him to realize it.