Namesake

Throughout the novel the characters all struggle with feeling isolated. Ashima feels the effect and impact of a distant family perhaps the most of any other character. In a passage, Ashoke describes his wife's unhappiness. She presses, "'I'm saying I don't want to raise Gogol alone in this country. It's not right. I want to go back'"(Lahiri 33). Ashima desires to go back to India so that she is surrounded by her family, especially at a time when the family should be the liveliest, upon the birth of a new member. She is struggling to remain Indian and hold on to her traditions, but in this case it seems impossible since her family cannot come to her support in America. Gogol won't be surrounded by his grandmother, he wasn't even named by her. Ashoke's experiences are described, "On more than one occasion he has come home from university to find her morose, in bed, rereading her parents' letters. Early mornings, when he senses that she is quietly crying, he puts an arm around her but can think of nothing to say" (33). Ashima's connection with India is becoming more noticeable as she tries to assimilate into a new, foreign world. She isn't ready to let go of anything she has left behind in India, parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, cousins, and siblings. This often times leads her to weep in her bedroom reminiscing to times when she didn't need to start over in a new world. Ashima's struggles are both personal, as she misses her family, and cultural for her heritage is slowly diminishing as the family starts to adopt a more American lifestyle.