How do place and culture determine one´s identity? To what extent is is fair or logical that
someone´s origin should determine their future outcome?
The novel begins with a recently married Bengali couple who immigrates to America. Even
though both of them, Ashoke and Ashima, were born and brought up in India, where they shared
the same culture, their perspective towards moving to another country in order to start a new
life, and the idea of adopting new american practices, is completely different.
Firstly, we can take into consideration Ashima´s character, who suffers a lot and feels very out
of place at the beggining of the novel. She finds it difficult to mantain true to her culture while
she tries to adapt to an unknown place for her, where everyone´s actions and thoughts are
certainly different from hers. The clash of cultures is tremendous, and Ashima seems to be the
one who senses this the most. A clear example of this could be when she goes to the hospital to
give birth, something common in The States, but ´she thinks it´s strange that her child will be
born in a place most people enter either to suffer or to die´. Despite saying this, she doesn´t
reject the culture and she doesn´t disrespect it. However, she finds it atypical because of her
own beleifs. In fact, there are many moments throughout the novel where due to her personal
ideas, she doesn´t feel comfortable with the american ways of doing things. Later on, she starts
to get used to some aspects of the american culture, as she starts to feel more american over
the time passes. Once she is older, she gets a new job and learns how to drive. Although these
activities are absolutely normal in America, doing this as a Bengali woman is unimaginable.
Secondly, we can think of Ashoke´s character and how he´s able to settle down so easily in
America, with almost no trouble. He just fits in with the american society. Of course that deep
inside he will always feel he´s a Bengali person, who still celebrates and commemorates the
culture. The difference is that he wanted to immigrate to America, that was his dream. Ever
since the train accident occured, where he almost lost his life, he was determined to move far
away from India. ´He imagined not only walking, but walking away, as far as he could from the
place in which he was born and in which he had nearly died´. This quotation might explain why
he is significantly open to a new culture, as ´He was born twice in India, and then a third time,
in America´.
Furthermore, Gogol is definetely a character who has an identity crisis for almost his entire life.
Being the first child to an immigrant couple who moved from India to America, a country which
is totally opposite to his parents´ homeland, musn´t be easy. The thing is that Gogol believes
that his life is already programmed because of a name or a country, which according to him,
defines who you are. It is true that being part of a culture influenciates on your identity in many
ways, but it doesn´t necessarily has to determine who you will be and what you will do with your
life. Gogol spent years worrying about his name. ´He hates that his name is both absurd and
obscure, that it has nothing to do with who he is, that it is neither Indian nor American but of all
things Russian´. In reality, the issue regarding his name is a representation of how he feels
towards being an American-Bengali person. He never feels comfortable because he can´t accept
himself and his heritage. It takes him a long time to process that he can live the life he wants,
and it doesn´t matter if he´s Bengali, American or both. He just has to find himself and come to
terms with his identity.