She feels out of place at his father's funeral celebration; for once, she is alienated, not Gogol. [15][16], Gogol was born in the Ukrainian Cossack town of Sorochyntsi,[17] in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire. He also feels this way when his family visits India. Gogol's relationships in The Namesake A namesake is someone or something that has the same name as another person or thing. 1703 Words. 20 March]1809[1] 4 March[O.S. when he is with maxine, gogol fully integrates himself into maxine's familyliving with her parents, dining the way they dine, befriending the types of people they befriend, and reading what they read. The protagonist's son studies at school and . Early life. He met his future wife during the student protests of 1990 in favor of Ukraine's independence. At times he is conscious of the fact that his immersion in Maxines family is a betrayal of his own. With the death of his father and the reevaluation of his behavior, his family plays a role in his identity as he spends more time with them, even entertaining the idea of marrying the Bengalese girls, Moushumi. [40] Nevertheless, subsequent generations of radical critics celebrated Gogol (the author in whose world a nose roams the streets of the Russian capital) as a great realist, a reputation decried by the Encyclopdia Britannica as "the triumph of Gogolesque irony". As a whole Gogol's name and he himself was in doubtful situation whether he will consider him as an Indian or as an American. These stories, and others such as "Diary of a Madman", have also been noted for their proto-surrealist qualities. Through these romantic relationships, then, Gogol tests out different identities, different ways of relating to himself and his family, over time. Ruth was Gogol's first real girlfriend who he went to . The most of Gogol's life, he removes himself from both of his parents. Gogol is unable to return to Maxine's world "in which nothing had changed" after his father's death, showing a sense of hidden anger and blame. Nikhil/Gogol Ganguli Timeline in The Namesake The sudden death of Ashima's husband and Gogol and Sonia's father, Ashoke Ganguli, is a drastic turning point in their life. In The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the main character Gogol is not very good at communicating . At Yale, Nikhil is able to pursue his love of architecture most directly, and this leads him to graduate study in New York, and a job at a firm there. Despite having clear instruction from his father that Gogol would be addressed by his good name "Nikhil", an incident during Gogol's first year in school forced the hands of Ashima and Ashoke to abolish their standard of culture and abide by the rules of the American education system. His father wrote poetry in Ukrainian as well as Russian, and was an amateur playwright in his own theatre. They break up after about a year together after realizing that they no longer love each other. Throughout his life, Gogol struggles with his identity. What does Gogol's relationship with Maxine and her family illustrate about his relationship with his parents How do pages 125-127 highlight how Gogol avoids "remain[ing] unquestionably" (p. 126 . How does the loss of Gogol's father turn him back toward his . Gogols decision to become Nikhil occurs before he knows his fathers story in detail. The name Gogol was an important one to Ashoke, who adored Nikolai Gogols work. [28], In 1931, Moscow authorities decided to demolish the monastery and had Gogol's remains transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery. It will make sense to you one day," and Nikhil aims to learn why. Gogol had three serious relationships with Ruth, Maxine and Moushumi one of which he ended up marrying. He has two serious relationships with non-Bengali womenthe first in college, the second after finishing a master's degree at Columbia University in New York City. Ashimas father was a painter, and so visual art runs in the family. She began to date again, intermittentlyand then she met. But the change to Nikhil also represents a maturation, an attempt to find a new self in college. However, after the death of Ashoke, Gogol starts to appreciate his family and his background more. [67], Russian writer of Ukrainian origin (18091852), "Gogol" redirects here. His father tells him the story behind his name. Gogol learns a lot from this connection, and his outlook on life, alters. He wonders how his parents had done it, leaving their respective families behind, seeing them so seldom, dwelling unconnected, in a perpetual state of expectation, of longing. He has merged his identity with theirs. Vladim Joseph Rossman, Vadim Rossman, Vidal Sassoon. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The story's main protagonist, Gogol is the son of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli. Gogol tells the hospital to send his father's ashes home, and is shown the bed where he died. [citation needed] The first part represented the Inferno; the second part would depict the gradual purification and transformation of the rogue Chichikov under the influence of virtuous publicans and governors Purgatory.[27]. The novel is told through the sensibilities of four different characters, Gogol Ganguli, his mother Ashima, his father Ashoke, and his wife Moushumi, all of whom reveal different aspects of the material world and the personal relationships which are a part of each character's outer identity. Gogol is Gogol, of course, because his father and mother needed a name for him before leaving the hospital. Ashoke once told him, "We all came out of Gogol's overcoat. The book established his reputation as one of the greatest prose writers in the language. This is what upsets her most to admit: that the affair causes her to feel strangely at peace, the complication of it calming her, structuring her day. In the book The Namesake, Gogol was named after a Russian author, Nikolai Gogol. Gogol's romantic encounters are very different from what his parents experienced or expected for their son. Alov." They allow Sonia and. For Sonia and, buys packs of six Bic razors, and even removes his wristwatch. He also learned from Gogol to soften this danger through laughter, and he often rewrites Gogol's Jewish characters, correcting anti-Semitic stereotypes and narrating history from a Jewish perspective. Ashoke and Ashima don't approve when they finally learn about Ruth, and Gogol suspects they are secretly pleased when she leaves for a semester to study abroad in England. The leading novelists of the period notably Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov also admired Gogol and followed in his footsteps. Gogol and Moushumi's relationship moves quickly. Gogol's relationship with his family, as previously mentioned, was a rocky one. Relationship between Gogol and the father, A major part of the novel "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri is the portrayal of each, character's goals and their progress via the use of relationships. [32], D. S. Mirsky characterizes Gogol's universe as "one of the most marvellous, unexpected in the strictest sense, original[33] worlds ever created by an artist of words". [41], The period of literary modernism saw a revival of interest in and a change of attitude towards Gogol's work. [45] Felix Dreizin and David Guaspari, for example, in their The Russian Soul and the Jew: Essays in Literary Ethnocentrism, discuss "the significance of the Jewish characters and the negative image of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Gogol's novel Taras Bulba, pointing out Gogol's attachment to anti-Jewish prejudices prevalent in Russian and Ukrainian culture. After an introductory lecture made up of brilliant generalizations which the 'historian' had prudently prepared and memorized, he gave up all pretence at erudition and teaching, missed two lectures out of three, and when he did appear, muttered unintelligibly through his teeth. The novel spends relatively little time discussing Gogols friendships, although he is presumed to have some friends. Gogol doesn't understand his father's love for Russian writers or way of seeing life, and Ashoke doesn't expect him to. The notes start in an ironic . He cannot imagine them contributing to one of their dinner party conversations. Gogol makes with his classmates. . From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Still, he wonders how hes arrived at all this His time with her seems like a permanent part of him that no longer has any relevance, or currency. When Gogol's father dies he is reminded of his family's culture. He was not popular among his schoolmates, who called him their "mysterious dwarf", but with two or three of them he formed lasting friendships. For this reason, he, is ignorant of their Indian heritage and culture, having been reared in the United States whereas, they were raised in India from birth. He was trapped in the rubble, but was able to signal for help by dropping a page from the book onto the ground, and the movement caught the attention of his rescuer. In particular, Gogol seems not to recognize that Maxine truly loves him, and wishes to know his familys practices in detail. The family shifts into action, all of their lives now changed forever. The novel Taras Bulba (1835), the play Marriage (1842), and the short stories "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", "The Portrait" and "The Carriage", are also among his best-known works. on 50-99 accounts. In 2009, in connection with the bicentennial of Gogol's birth, the bust was moved to the museum at Novodevichy Cemetery, and the original Golgotha stone was returned, along with a copy of the original Orthodox cross. Well, it is quite a remarkable story. And yet here he is, night after night, a welcome addition to the Ratliffs universe, doing just that. His first serious relationship is with a girl named Ruth. Yet the thought of this eventual demise provides no sense of victory, no solace. It stunned Gogol when critics interpreted The Government Inspector as an indictment of tsarism despite Nicholas I's patronage of the play. But once his father shares the story of the train accident, it opens the door to see his old man in a new light. In the first chapter, Gogol is born, and his parents decide to name him after Nikolai Gogol, a 19th-century Russian writer. Jhumpa Lahiri and The Namesake Background. Renew your subscription to regain access to all of our exclusive, ad-free study tools. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. When Gogol asks his father, when he is college, whether the name Gogol reminds Ashoke of nearly dying, Ashoke counters that "Gogol" is for him a name of hope, of joyof life. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. After resisting his parents' company for so long in favor of Maxine and her parents, Gogol now finds himself lingering in his father's empty apartment in Cleveland, spending weeks with his mother and sister in the house on Pemberton Road. They date for a while in college, while Gogol is. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. [21] His fictional story Taras Bulba, based on the history of Zaporozhian ossacks, was the result of this phase in his interests. And shed assured him that it was understandable, that anyone in his place would have done the same. Nothing to signify the years his family has lived here, no evidence of the effort, the achievement it had been. Read More Subscribe now. What are the themes of "The Namesake" and explain how they are significant to the title. They wonder why a Bengali-American is named after a Russian man. He studied art, read Italian literature and developed a passion for opera. Gogol is mentioned several times in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Poor Folk and Crime and Punishment and Chekhov's The Seagull. The closest intimacy they share before their wedding is when Ashima steps briefly, secretly, into Ashoke's shoes. Nikolai Gogol. 21 February]1852) was a Russian novelist, short story writer and playwright of Ukrainian origin.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. By contrast, Moushumi, who is of Gogols world, wants constantly to leave that world, to make a new, more intellectually rich life for herself among her cosmopolitan New York friends. In the 1920s a group of Russian short-story writers, known as the Serapion Brothers, placed Gogol among their precursors and consciously sought to imitate his techniques. Living a relatively protected life in the United States, Gogol cannot begin to fathom where his father is coming from, and has thought of his father as a symbol of old fashioned cultural tradition. Gogol Ganguli, the son of Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli, struggles with his dual identity due to two different cultures in his life and, more importantly, his name. More than 135 films[51] have been based on Gogol's work, the most recent being The Girl in the White Coat (2011). In January. He returns to bed, squeezing in beside Maxines warm, sleeping body, and drapes his arm around her narrow waist, fits his knees behind hers. say goodbye to Ashoke before he leaves for a prestigious nine-month teaching fellowship in Ohio. This cultural disorientation is actually realized when Moushumi breaks off her relationship with the American Graham. They start dating, and it's serious. The death of Gogol's father causes him to reevaluate his relationship with his family and to reconsider the part his parents and their culture have in shaping his identity. His relationship with Maxine was . ", "Le nom de Nikola Gogol est immortalis la place de la Bourse Paris". As they both unwind in their hotel room afterward, craving Indian food they trek out to Jackson Diner in Queens. White describes his childhood summertime experiences. Father Son Relationship. They had both acted on the same impulse, that was their mistake. Some sources indicate he was born 19/31 March 1809. The Beginning in August 2017. In 1926 Vsevolod Meyerhold staged The Government Inspector as a "comedy of the absurd situation", revealing to his fascinated spectators a corrupt world of endless self-deception. [49] More recently, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Gogol's birth in 1809, Vienna's renowned Theater an der Wien commissioned music and libretto for a full-length opera on the life of Gogol from Russian composer and writer Lera Auerbach.[50]. The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks has been in production for about fifty years. [29] His body was discovered lying face down, which gave rise to the story that Gogol had been buried alive. During this time, he also developed a close and lifelong friendship with the historian and naturalist Mykhaylo Maksymovych.[22]. He desired literary fame, and brought with him a Romantic poem of German idyllic life Hans Kchelgarten, and had it published at his own expense, under the pseudonym "V. Dont have an account? Explain the significance of cultural aspects of identity in The Namesake. But Gogol is attached to them. Their contact until tonight has been artificial, imposed, something like his relationship to his cousins in India but lacking even the justification of blood ties. He is also seeing his mother without contempt. Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, which was originally published in The New Yorker, follows the life and transformation of Gogol Ganguli. She is a family acquaintance but she is not family. parents invite close to 300 people, taking control of the planning of the wedding themselves. As he navigates through his life and failed relationships, Gogol constantly finds himself caught between two identities and cultures.