Belonging to more than one nation

Most people want to belong somewhere. The need for community is not as strong as the one for food, but it is essential for a person’s quality of life. The longing to belong is the topic of the novel “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri, who was born in London to Bengali parents, grew up in the USA and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Like Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Amitav Ghosh and Salman Rushdie, she belongs to the small group of international bestselling authors of Indian origin who write in English.

Wild mood swings 

The novel is about the Gangulis who live on the East Coast of the USA and regularly travel back to Calcutta. The parents, Ashima and Ashoke, migrated to America from the Indian state of West Bengal. They still feel a strong affinity to their old home. The children Sonia and Gogol were born in the States.

From the late 1960s to the year 2000, all four of them are constantly in search of true belonging. They struggle with what it means to identify with more than one culture. Not only in the USA do they often feel as outsiders. On a trip to another Indian state, the entire family suddenly feels alien. The novel considers all four family members, but mostly focuses on Gogol, who is named after the Russian author Nikolai Gogol.

His given name is one reason why Gogol feels outcast at an early age. He later chooses a different one, but never entirely breaks free. Initially, Gogol does his best to keep a distance from his Indian roots. Like his sister, for example, he insists on eating hotdogs at home. To comfort the kids, the parents even start celebrating Christmas.

On the trips to Calcutta, brother and sister feel uncomfortable. American friends never ask about their experiences there. While Gogol feels accepted, liked and even loved, he never feels ever fully understood or entirely known.

Surprising return to the roots

Gogol’s first intimate relationships are with American women whose parents are not foreigners. He studies architecture and seems determined not to accept an arranged marriage as his parents did. His girlfriends are interested in his experiences and heritage, but a certain kind of distance always feels unbridgeable.

A traumatic event changes the course of the story. Gogol suddenly finds his Indian roots important, wants to focus on them and ends the relationship with his girlfriend who has become jealous because he is suddenly spending so much time with his family. The next surprising twist is that he marries an American woman with Indian roots, who, like him, has grown up experiencing two different cultures. Marrying her was actually his mother‘s proposal and wish.

Gogol and his wife, however, keep asking themselves where they ultimately belong. Is a shared feeling of being outsiders and not properly belonging to either this or that culture a solid foundation for the relationship? Have they really chosen one another? Or have they merely caved into social pressures?

Lahiri’s plot leaves no stone unturned. Mixed feelings, wild mood swings, ambivalences of many degrees and the riddles that go along with life result in the protagonists often not only struggling to understand the motives of those who are close to them. They often are not even aware of their own motives. Shortly before the ending, however, a certain sense of inner calm seems to settle in. But will it last when the protagonists must rise to the next challenges?

This novel is worth reading. It elegantly depicts life in its many nuances and its permanently transitional nature. Most people will probably know feelings of not belonging in some way, and that makes it easy to relate to the protagonists’ emotions. Apart from conveying universal truths, however, the book also offers a beautiful opportunity to learn about an immigrant family and gain some knowledge of Bengali traditions and culture.

Reference
Lahiri, J., 2003: The Namesake. Boston, Houghton Mifflin.

Maren van Treel is D+C/E+Z’s social-media editor.
maren.van-treel@fazit.de