Identity

In Jumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, she writes of a Bengali-American boy, Gogol, and his journey of navigating the many challenges to retain his identity. As a human being, everybody tries to do things in an attempt to make themselves stand out, or identifiable, but Gogol does not like the way he is being identified. As Mr. Lawson talks about the history of Nikolai Gogol in Gogol's English class, Lahiri writes, "'He then pronounced a death sentence on himself, and proceeded to commit slow suicide by starvation.' 'Gross,' someone says from the back of the classroom"(91). Because of this "smart" person in the back of the room saying gross, Gogol feels a major insecurity from sharing the same name as this "gross" person. He feels that because the person who he is named after is seen as gross, he too will be seen as gross. In turn, he no longer wants to be called Gogol. This challenge that Gogol faces is extremely important to note while reading Lahiri's novel because later on in the novel we see that in these circumstances, he simply over-analyzes what other people might be thinking about him, when in reality people aren't thinking about him at all. This gives the reader another point to look at. It may be that the only person challenging Gogol's identity is himself. It is simply his own insecurity and his own hyper-consciousness that leads him to change his name. In the end, it is important for everyone to try and hold on to their identities and not let their own insecurities stop them.