The Internal Conflict of Gogol Ganguli
An Essay on how a person´s name can affect one´s internal life
The story of Gogol Ganguli, the main protagonist in the novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, shows the importance of the names and it also speaks to every person, me included, who ever felt unhappy with his or her given name. In Bengali culture “individual names are sacred, inviolable. They are not meant to be inherited or shared” (Lahiri, 28). According to Bengali tradition two names are given to a person; a “pet” name which is usually used by family and friends and other “good” name which is official. Gogol is given a pet name at birth which becomes his official name. This essay will argue that Gogol Ganguli has an internal conflict with his name throughout his life until he is in his 30ties when he begins to embrace it at last.
With regard to his internal conflict the first time we get a glimpse of his future turmoil is when Gogol starts kindergarten and he is told by his parents who finally decided on a good name, that he is to be called “Nikhil” by teachers and other children. Gogol rejects his new name because he is “afraid to be Nikhil, someone he doesn´t know. Who doesn´t know him” (Lahiri, 57). Thus he begins his school years as Gogol, a decision that comes to hunt him internally for many years.
Consequently by the time Gogol reaches puberty he starts to feel ashamed of his unusual name. He is used to be the only Indian in a group of his peers however he feels that his name causes him to stand out in a crowd even more. For his fourteenth birthday he gets a book from his father as a gift. The book is called “The Short Stories” by Nikolai Gogol. There and then he realizes that the writer´s name he is named after is Nikolai and not Gogol and “not only does Gogol Ganguli have a pet name turned good name but a last name turned first name” (Lahiri, 78). As a consequence of this realization throughout high school Gogol begins to hate his name even more to the point that when he is eighteen years old he decides to legally change his name to Nikhil. The fact that he is “Nikhil” now enables him in his mind not only to have a fresh start but also a distance from his past as “Gogol”.
The sudden death of his father presents a turning point for Gogol and a chance for him to resolve his inner conflict. He begins to rediscover his Bengali cultural roots and he finally learns the whole truth behind his name, namely that a copy of “The Short Stories” by Nikolai Gogol saved his father life in a train wreck when he was a young man. In addition he realizes that running away from his roots and his name is not really satisfying because “without people in the world to call him Gogol no matter how long he himself lives, Gogol Ganguli will, once and for all, vanish from the lips of loved ones, and so, cease to exit. Yet the thought of this eventual demise provides no sense of victory, no solace. It provides no solace at all" (Lahiri, 289).
In the end we see Gogol browsing through the pages of the book by Nikolai Gogol which was given to him by his father as a birthday present many years ago and it appears that his inner turmoil about his name is at last fading away and he is finally embracing “Gogol”.
Work cited
Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. London: Flamingo, 2004.
