Yao Ren
Mid-term Essay
March 4, 2013
The Namesake
This story is about an America family and spans over two generations. They were
subjected to two cultures and two completely different lifestyles and with this collision, it
eventually evolved into a love entanglement. The film revolves around the story of the
heroine, Ashima, and her son Gogol’s expansion into the next generation.
The movie shows by a narrative way to the audience, the root of the story mainly
consists of several important plot points. It starts with Ashima with her first time leaving
India, she moves to America with her husband. She doesn’t know what to do as an Indian
immigrant’s wife who finds her self living in America. She feels lonely and bored when
her husband goes to work. Also, it is so hard for her to tolerate her new American
neighbor’s behaviors and diet. She would rather choose to stay at home in India, and
avoids this strange new environment. According to this plot, it is easy to imagine that
being an immigrant family, it is difficult to begin to accept their new life in a strange
country, and also have the courage to face challenges.
The second important part is when Ashima decides to live her life more
independent by herself rather than relying on her husband as a traditional Indian woman.
She tries to start a new job, learns to drive, and makes new friends with some American
women and whom she chats with. When she begins to works in a library, she feels
satisfied and she begins to enjoy her American surroundings. She began to feel that life
could bring her happiness. From this part, the audience can tell that Ashima has no
conflict with American culture, and she start to accept this environment and integrate into
America society.
Another main character in this film is their son Gogol, this name comes from his
father when he was young and in India he had an accident with a train. Because of his
rebirth and in order to commemorate the literary giant Gogol, he gave the same name for
his son. However, the father didn’t think this name would bring any trouble for his son,
but for Gogol, life was not easy and did not meet his parent’s expectations. In the United
States he grew up in a house of first generation Indian immigrants, a mix between Indian
blood and United States society, Gogol treads his life very carefully. He has an Indian
human face, but Gogol has been transformed by the reality of living in the United States.
When he was a child he had a chance to change his name, because he was young and
ignorant he missed that chance. When he was in high school and the University, he
realized his name brings him distance from the others. He decided to change his name,
and he began to introduce himself as “Nikhil”. He planned to date an American girl
whose name was Maxine; he entered Yale University architecture Department. However,
his parents insisted on him living some Indian traditions, hoping that he could find an
India girl to marry and had children with. The conflicts inevitably arise; their run-ins of
the road also go unusually hard and painful. Until one day, his father passes away
suddenly; and he has to once again realize his responsibility for his father. He chose to
live in the dead father's empty house and distance himself from Maxine, and then he
began to live his life in the Bengali life style. Later, Gogol met Moushumi, a Western
educated Indian woman, and they were married. This seems not only to meet the
expectations of the family, it also seems to meet his needs, but the final result turns out to
be just another misguided marriage.
In my opinion, throughout Gogol’s lifetime, he always wanted to jump out of his
Bengali’s life style. He wanted to jump out of his cage at home, and allow himself to
become a reckless American like Maxine, but the reality remained in him again and again,
“You are Gogol, you have a very meaningful name that comes from your father, you
should live your life based on the Gogol’s way, rather than as Nikhil. This is your fate,
you cannot escape”.
The movie is trying, through a name of a character, to explore an immigrant’s life
and the meaning surrounding it. In this film, the previous generations, in order to pursue
their dreams, to explore the infinite possibilities of future immigrated to the United States.
They miss their homelands but also adapt to the vagaries of the New World. As the
second generation arises, the American Indian immigrants fuel their own growth rates
within the United States; the second generation feels a strange and curious connection to
their Indian culture, eventually this leads into another cultural tug-of-war.
The film reflects the internal struggles between two generations of immigrants of
Indian descent, who are impacted by the intersection of two cultures and lifestyles. Even
though their cultures are different, the two generation still need to strive to overcome an
environment of challenges.