After
reading Namesake for one week, I think that book is bragging about Gogol’s
childhood and knowledge. One of the example is that he have two party for his
birthday. I think that is little bit too much. I mean one for his friend and
other one for with parents? I mean I do
have a party with friends but not big with parents. Also, they go to trip to India
and visit many monuments, like a Taj Mahal. Except, they heard that passenger
in train was robbed and murdered. That is not good memory. After that he
graduates from the high school and goes to university. He parties there and he
gets to do a first kiss. After that, he earns his graduate degree in
architecture and goes to Yale.
The
paragraph up there briefly summarizes his early life and to be honest, I think
he have a great childhood. I think there are rare amount of people who had two
major party for his birthday. Also, going to a famous landmark in India and
having a good vacation. Except that part about knowing that Indian train system
is very dangerous. Also, he went to really good college, Yale. I mean I am
jealous of his intelligence. Not to forget, he also had some relationships with
girls. So far, the book explains about Gogol’s good life. But this fact annoys
me because I really don’t the reason of this book. Is it a biography or some
type of bragging story? I believe the book will explain more but for now
namesake is only telling me about Gogol’s wonderful childhood, except that
murder during his vacation.
Hey Tony, I see what you mean when he has multiple birthday parties for himself and goes to multiple college parties while still doing very well in school, and I agree with what you said. Lahiri, author of The Namesake, does seem to be portraying Gogol as an ostentatious character who looks like he lives a happy life by showing Gogol doing well in school and having tons of fun outside of school, but still showing how Gogol is very unhappy with his life. Gogol has been battling his name for his whole life and seems to be almost embarresed by his parents and culture. Lahiri does seem to be amplifying Gogol’s social life success to hide from all the other characters that Gogol is insecure and unhappy. It seems to me that Gogol’s trips and fun parties are going to soon catch up with his insecurity and unhappiness and result in him becoming even more insecure. Just as you do, I hope to see how the traveling to great monuments and parties catch up with Gogol.
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