The Namesake Chapters 8-12: ...AND IT ENDS

WARNING: SPOILERS (duh)

Whhhaaasss gooood fellow readers??? We are back with the Namesake by author Jhumpa Lahiri and we are at the ending stages of the book. So sad to see this story eventually end 😭.... BUT, I locked myself in my room and got a box of tissues and a bowl for my tears. Without further ado: the last 5 chapters.

In this section, we see large developments in Gogol's life. Covering Gogol's early adulthood (up to Gogol's early 30's when the story ends), this section begins with his breakup with Maxine, due to Gogol's increase of time spent with his family. With Gogol split between his life as Gogol and his life as Nikhil, "Maxine...admit that she felt jealous of his mother and sister, an accusation that struck Gogol as so absurd that he had no energy to argue anymore. And so, a few months after his father's death, he stepped out of Maxine's life for good." (Lahiri, 188).

For me, this isn't a big surprise. Though theyare suuuupppppeeeeerrrr lovey-dovey and all, Gogol appears to be attracted more to what Maxine represents than her herself. With Nikhil's life associated with Maxine, Gogol forgets his past life as Gogol, which include his Indian roots and his family. When he is dating Maxine, he will often ignore his parents, fully immersing himself in her world and his identity as Nikhil. Ashoke's death (as bad as it might sound) is actually healthy for Gogol's development. He finally realizes the importance of his family and how their time should never be taken as granted (what I was ranting about in the last blog, but i digress).

As Maxine being engaged to another man about a year later (damn girl... isn't that a little fast???), Gogol is referred to Moushumi Mazoomdar, a Bengali family friend, by his mother, who is hoping for him to settle down soon. After having a fling with a married woman (I do not approve), Gogol goes on his first date with Moushumi- the first time he goes out with someone who knows him by his prior name. Going on several dates after that, the two pretty much hit it off and eventually get married.

Personally, I feel this is a good match (before I witnessed their breakdown). With both Gogol and Moushumi being similar in so many different ways, I "ship" the two.

I ship Gogol and Moushumi

I ship you guys so hard. Digital image. Whoseeswhatsyetunsees. Tumblr, 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

I felt like they are such a good match! I mean, they are similar in age (Moushumi only one year younger than Gogol). similar in stage of life (still studying in post-grad/early professional life), similar in past experience (as American Born Confused Deshi, recently failed relationships), similar in education and career choice (both majoring in humanities/social sciences), and similar in appearance (lol just my imagination and speculation, but they have been mistaken as siblings). Their parents already approve of the relationship and their families are already very acquainted with one another- unlike the families in the relationships Gogol and Moushumi had before. There are also more present and potential obstacles in their previous interracial relationships (some examples given in this article), as oppose to their relationship with one another now. I wouldn't be surprised if the two actually lived happily ever after.

Now does the book end? Do they lived happily ever after? Well... not quite.

Throughout their relationship, signs of their instability can be seen: both parties are still searching their their true identities. Yes, I said that right- both parties. It is revealed that Moushumi had her fair share of an identity crisis before meeting Gogol. In fact, Moushumi

"tells him that for most of her life he was exactly the sort of person she had sought to avoid...From earliest girlhood, she says, she had been determined not to allow her parents to have a hand in her marriage. She had always been admonished not to marry an American...By the time she was twelve she had made a pact, with two other Bengali girls she knew, never to marry a Bengali man." (Lahiri, 212-213)

Like Gogol, Moushumi repels herself from her Indian roots, flourishing a sense of rebellion as she secretly majors in French during university. Then, against her parents' protests, she moves to Paris where she has affairs after affairs with husbands and fathers. Attempting to use love as a method to severe the ties from her past, which she feels imprisoned by, Moushumi later becomes involved with her ex-fiance, Graham. But, similar to Gogol's and Maxine's relationship, that relationship ends swiftly as Moushumi throws his grandmother's ring onto the road and Graham slaps her across the face (ouch...that's gotta hurt). After taking a BUNCH of pills and going to the hospital (double ouch), she begins dating periodically, eventually meeting Gogol.

Married, their once so perfect relationship goes straight down south. Gogol constantly sees reminders of Moushimi's past with her ex-fiance through her friends Astrid and Donald:

"Gogol doesn't like to think about the fact that Moushumi's connection to Graham persists through Astrid and Donald... Through Astrid and Donald have welcomed Gogol heartily into their lives, sometimes he has the feeling they still think she's with Graham. Once Astrid even called him Graham by mistake" (Lahiri, 238-239).

Feeling resentment towards Donald's and Astrid's house where Moushumi sought refuge after her devastation with Graham, Gogol soon reaches a point where every mention of the name "Graham" hurts him. He increasingly experiences detachment from his wife as he becomes more and more involved in her life and as her past becomes more and more apparent. Thank God for Gogol that the four of them (Astrid, Donald, Gogol, and Moushumi) didn't go through with the plan of renting a house on the coast of Brittany together... if they did, Gogol will probably have to be the 4th wheel.

Gogol might as well try to learn from this video and practice being a 4th wheel to Astrid's, Donald's, and Moushumi's friendship.

The Best Third Wheel in the World. Dir. Wong Fu Productions. Perf. Cathy Nguyen, Ki Hong Lee, David Choi, Emanuel Borria, Meghan, and Wong Fu Productions. Youtube. Youtube, 25 June 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

Then someone dies... I hate to break it to you, but... Moushumi dies of a heart attack...

JUST KIDDING

Newscaster - Just Kidding. N.p.: Tenor, n.d. GIF.

But in all seriousness, Alice, a secretary at Moushumi's work place, dies. How is a seemingly random character in the novel dying significant? Well, because of her death, Moushumi begins sorting various letters into their respective mailing inboxes (the secretary's job) and finds a resume/cover letter belonging to Dimitri Desjardins- someone who she was infatuated in when she was a senior in high school and he was...wait for it… 27!!??? I can go on and on about how weird it is for a 27 year old to be involved with a 17 year old, but I’ll save you the burden of reading more walls of text...

And so, she messes up. She messes up HARD. Dimitri representing her rebellious past to Europe and the clandestine divide between her and Gogol, Moushumi begins cheating on Gogol.

I can understand why the marriage is falling apart. From my perspective, it seems that they are each other's "rebound" person- they both need someone close to them to mend the intimate void they felt when broke up with their respective partners:

"They acted on the same impulse, that was their mistake. They had both sought comfort in each other, and in their shared world, perhaps for the sake of novelty, or out of the fear that that world was slowly dying." (Lahiri, 284)

Furthermore, it just seems that there is just next-to-no communication between them. As said by rapper Drake in Kendrick Lamar's song "Poetic Justice," "communication saves relations." If I am in Gogol’s or Moushumi's position, I will straightforwardly voice my concerns to the other; only after voicing their concerns can the two grow and develop their relationship (like number 8 in this relationship article).

Do you think they will ever work out? How do you think they can save their relationship?

At the end, I have mixed feelings. At one side, I am happy that Gogol has a divorce with Moushumi- their relationship is, in a sense, really closed off. Both parties (for a lack of a better term) suck at communication and their intimacy reveals to be shallow. On the other side, I am kinda saddened at the book's story. The lives of the Gangulis appear to be so melancholic:

1. the sadness of Ashoke and Ashima leaving Calcutta

2. the sadness of Gogol's indifference towards his family

3. the sadness of Ashoke's death, Ashoke's and Ashima's relatives' deaths

4. the sadness of Gogol's various breakups and divorce

5. the sadness of Gogol's future as Ashima lives for Calcutta in the end

The melancholic qualities are shown even more when we observe just Gogol's life. All in all, his life is like a man blindly walking in the Asphodel Meadows.

The Asphodel Meadows- a flat plain found in the Underworld in Greek Mythology where normal dead souls go in afterlife. It is described as being a never ending field of nothing- just flat plains for dead souls to wander around aimlessly.

Picture of the Asphodel Meadows. Digital image. DFiles. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

Like a lost soul, he never finds a healthy balance between his Bengali roots and his American identity; he never bridges the gap in between his Gogol and Nikhil identities, walking aimlessly in between one and the other. When he tries to run towards the far away, but attractive sun of the American dream and his identity as Nikhil, he forgets to watch his path and trips on the holes that he digs when he dismisses his family (Eg. when he dates Maxine and Ashoke dies). When he tries to run towards the cool distant moon of his comfortable family and his identity of Gogol, he losses himself in the darkness, falling apart in his American life (Eg when he breaks up with Maxine). He starts to realize his mistakes and his needs to simultaneously accept both identities and cultures.

So, do you think Gogol has a good life in the book? Do you think he finds his identity? How do you think Gogol should have approached his life differently?

And here we are at the end of a spectacular (but kinda depressing) journey given by Lahiri and the Namesake. It has been my pleasure to guide you along and share all my thoughts and my memes with you. I hope that it is fun reading through the WALLS OF TEXT and that my writing isn't toooooo boring or anything...

The brilliant story now leaves me letting my mind run loose...Will Gogol ever find the perfect ending?

I'll just keep imagining... and I hope you do too. 😉