The Namesake
(Chapter 2) Their child is born and is a________________________ and its name is_____________________
Boy, Gogol (Nikhil) Ganguli
Setting
Cambridge Massachusetts
How long was Gogol and Moushumi dating before deciding to marry
1 year
What happens on the first day of regular school for Gogol
Ashoke in the car on the way to school tells Gogol that he will have a new name there "A good name" Nikhil. which also has a connection to Gogol, since the author's first name is Nikolai. Ashoke presents Gogol as Nikhil but the principal later finds out that the child would rather be preferred to as Gogol so they register his name as Gogol disregarding what Ashoke said.
How does Gogol meet Maxine Ratliff
At a party
Time
1968
How long was Gogol's trip in New Hampshire
2 weeks and Gogol falls in love again with the Ratliffs way of life
What does Moushumi's name mean
A damp southwesterly breeze
Where do Gogol and Moushumi go for their first wedding anniversary
A restaurant in Midtown that Donald and Astrid recommend
Clover and Amber are the children of whom
Alan and Judy
What happens after ten days of mourning with Ashima and Sonia eating plain meals and avoiding other people
Ashima holds a gathering to celebrate Ashoke's life in keeping with Bengali tradition. Maxine calls Gogol asks if he will be joining the Ratliff's in New Hampshire for the New Year but Gogol declines saying he wishes to be with his mom and sister.
What happens several hours after her phone call with Ashoke
Ashima tries to get ahold of her husband there is no answer, then she calls the hospital where she is put on hold, the hospital "official" tells her that her husband has "expired" which Ashima associates with library books and not with people, this leaves Ashima in shock.
Alan and Judy
Ashoke and Ashima's neighbors in Cambridge. Alan and Judy are free-spirits and liberals, and though Ashoke and Ashima find them nice and compassionate to live near, they are also confused by the informality of Alan and Judy's lives, and by the cavalier way in which Alan and Judy raise and keep track of their children.
Why does Ashoke wait nervously at the station for Gogol
Because of the train accident that Ashoke was once in
The Nandis and Dr.Gupa
Bengali friends of Ashoke's and Ashima's in Cambridge. These three visit the Gangulis in the hospital in Cambridge, after Gogol is born.
Gogol also graduated from
Columbia Architecture School
How often is Ashoke in the house now?
Every three weeks (Ashima is 48 and currently addressing Christmas cards)
Ashima finds the transition to the suburbs easy. True or False
False, she wishes she could walk around and talk to the neighbors as she used to
Why does Moushumi and Gogol go to Paris
For Moushumi's academic work
Who are Donald and Astrid
Friends of Moushumi, Astrid and Donald set up Moushumi with the banker Graham. Gogol does not like the group. Gogol becomes annoyed of Moushumi's smoking
Where was Ashoke's train ride from and heading to
From: Calcutta To: Jamshedpur
Gogol and Ruth Fall apart
Gogol and Ruth date for over a year, before she heads to Oxford, for a semester abroad. In quick succession, the narrator describes Gogol's internship, between junior and senior years, at an architecture firm in Cambridge, and Ruth's return from England. She and Gogol meet up in Cambridge and attempt to rekindle their relationship, but they acknowledge they have fallen out of love.
Gogol and Ruth's relationship
Gogol asks for her number, almost in a daze, and after the holiday, the two start dating, kissing and making love after class, touring the campus's museums together, and otherwise enjoying each other's company. Gogol eventually tells his parents, after many months, that he is dating someone. They refer to Ruth as an "American," and say that their son is "too young" for a relationship, although they do not explicitly critique Gogol for not choosing a Bengali woman.
Ashoke attributes his survival to who? And Why?
Gogol because he saved his life by attracting the rescuer's attention
What happens after the dinner
Gogol becomes more close with the Ratliff family and even closer to Maxine, Maxine was incredibly surprised that his parents marriage was an arranged one
Gogol's 14th Birthday Party
Gogol celebrates his fourteenth birthday twice. His first is an "American" celebration: watching a basketball game with school friends (of different backgrounds) at home, eating pizza and ice cream. The second is a large, formal, Bengali affair, for which his mother prepares lamb curry and other traditional foods for days. Dozens of Bengali friends from the greater Boston area arrive at the home, including one girl Moushumi, whose family has come to the region from England, where they lived previously. Moushumi, who has an English accent of which she's mildly embarrassed, says she does not like TV, and she reads instead of playing with the others. She has little to say to Gogol.
Gogol social life in the 11 Grade
Gogol goes with friends one night to a party at the local college (where Ashoke is a professor), and meets a college girl named Kim, whom he kisses. He introduces himself to Kim as "Nikhil," the first time he has done so.
Summer 1994
Gogol has been getting further away from his family distancing himself. Ashima calls to see if he would be coming home to see Ashoke before Ashoke leaves for his professorship at a college near Cleveland. Gogol agrees but also remembers that he is supposed to go on a trip with Maxine and her family to New Hampshire in August so he will introduce Maxine to his parents along the way to New Hampshire. Sonia cannot attend because she is in California.
Why does he want to change his name
Gogol is a strange name, not even a Bengali one, and that Nikolai Gogol was a flawed, miserable person for a namesake.
What happens when Gogol gets home from his field trip from New England in 6th grade
Gogol is surprised that his mother is upset, since she believes that, according to Bengali custom, it is morbid and sacrilegious to make art among the dead. Indeed, in Calcutta it is custom to burn, not bury, bodies. Ashima gives Gogol back the rubbing, refusing to hang it in the kitchen. Gogol keeps it upstairs, hidden.
Maxine Ratliff
Gogol's second serious girlfriend. Maxine and Gogol meet in New York, at a party. Maxine represents, for Gogol, a life very different from his own. She lives with her parents downtown, in a beautiful townhouse, and shares their intellectual, cosmopolitan life. Maxine does not always understand Gogol's family's traditions, but she tries to, and seems to care genuinely for him. After Ashoke's death, Gogol pulls away from Maxine, leaving her out of the mourning ceremonies. They soon separate.
Moushumi
Gogol's wife. Moushumi knew Gogol when he was a young boy, and the two are set up on a blind date, in New York, by their parents. Moushumi is a graduate student in French literature and adores Paris. She also adores, in part, the cosmopolitan life she lived there, with a banker named Graham, who left her and broke her heart. Moushumi marries Gogol but, after a time, becomes restless in the marriage, and enjoys more and more the company of her intellectual friends. Moushumi begins an affair with Dimitri, an old acquaintance, and later she and Gogol divorce. Moushumi's point of view is included, though not frequently, in the novel. We learn, for example, of the dissolution of Moushumi's first engagement, to the American banker, via access to her own thoughts, although the narrator retains the third person in these sections.
What do they do in New Hampshire
Hang out by the lake, learning to paddle a canoe, cooking meals
Thanksgiving of Gogol's senior year
On the way home to Boston Gogol think of the first time he met Ruth two years ago. The train is delayed because someone committed suicide on the tracks, Gogol is confused and saddened by the news and reaches Boston later than planned.
What happens when Gogol finds out about his father's passing?
He flies alone to Cleveland to tale care of his father's belongings. Maxine offers to join him but Gogol wants to go alone.
What happens when Gogol returns to Boston
He mourns with Sonia and Ashima (Without Maxine)
What does Gogol remember on the train
He remembers a trip he took with his father when they went to Cape Cod and his father told him to never forget that they went on the edge of the continent together.
What does Ashoke tell Ashima on the phone near Christmas
He says he checked into a hospital near Cleveland with an upset stomach but its only minor. Ashima worries for her husband but since its only minor she continues with her Christmas cards.
What does Ashoke do when he finds out that some kids are bullying Gogol because of his name
His father, one night in the house, tells Gogol that their last name, Ganguli, is itself a shortened version, supplied by the occupying British, of their full Bengali name, Gangopadhyay.
What happened to Gogol and Maxine's relationship
She is a girl with an English accent who used to read at the Ganguli family party years ago. Moushumi is a PhD student in French literature at NYU, and when she lived in Paris, several years ago, she was engaged to an American banker named Graham. Ashima set Moushumi and Gogol up on a blind date.
Who is Moushumi and how did she come to meet Gogol
She is a girl with an English accent who used to read at the Ganguli family party years ago. Moushumi is a PhD student in French literature at NYU, and when she lived in Paris, several years ago, she was engaged to an American banker named Graham. Ashima set Moushumi and Gogol up on a blind date.
Where does Gogol store the book
In the corner of his room and he forgets about it
What does Maxine do after the party
Invites Gogol alone to dinner next week at her parents home in Chelsea where she lives
Author
Juhumpa Lahiri
The 2nd Child
She is a girl. Her birth name is Sonali "she who is golden" but the family refers to her nickname which is Sonia. At her rice ceremony, when she is seven, Sonia eats nothing and misbehaves, causing the Bengalis to recognize that she is "the true American" in the family, more comfortable in the less formal culture of their adopted home.
Why is Moushumi upset when they leave Paris
She said she doesn't want to be just a tourist in Paris
Ashoke was accepted to what college with a scholarship
MIT
At the dinner with Maxine
Maxine learns more about Ashoke's professorship and about their family. Ashoke and Ashima give Gogol a sweater for his birthday. Maxine catches Ashoke calling his son Gogol instead of Nikhil, Maxine asks Gogol about the name Gogol says he will explain it some other time.
Who are Lydia and Gerald
Maxine's parents
Gerald and Laydia Ratliff
Maxine's parents. Wealthy and intellectually inclined, Gerald and Lydia open their home to Nikhil, whom they seem to admire. They are comfortable in their world of New York society, and though they are kind to Gogol, he never quite feels a part of their circle.
What Bengali friends visit the child in the hospital?
Maya and Dilip Nandi, and Dr. Gupta
What happens later that night at the dinner party
Moushumi reveals that Gogol's name isn't Nikhil but it's actually Gogol and he changed it when he was in high school.
Graham
Moushumi's ex-fiancé. A banker in Paris, Graham, an American, moves back to America with Moushumi, and they plan a life together. But Moushumi realizes that Graham has reservations about the traditions that come with marrying a Bengali-American, and they break up.
Donald and Astrid
Moushumi's intellectual friends in Brooklyn. Donald and Astrid are, in Nikhil's mind, the kind of people who find their own choices to be the only correct ones. Although Donald and Astrid seem open and liberal, they are in fact quite set in their ways. Nikhil is frustrated by what he views as their selfishness.
What does Gogol do after he graduates from Yale
Moves to New York
What happens in the 11th Grade when Gogol is introduced to his English teacher
Mr.Lawson introduces the book Nikolai Gogol. Gogol cringes when he first mentions the book, then later becomes shameful because he hears how depressing the book is but the other students don't seem to notice how weirdly Gogol is acting during this.
Where does the marriage take place
New Jersey suburbs
Ruth
Nikhil's first serious girlfriend. Gogol and Ruth meet on the train, from New Haven to Boston, heading back to their respective homes for a Thanksgiving break in college. They both attend Yale. They fall in love and spend about a year together, but Ruth then goes away to Oxford to study for a semester. After this, their relationship becomes strained, and they part.
What present does Ashoke give Gogol
Nikolai Gogol's short stories.
How did Gogol meet Ruth
On a busy train back to Boston, the day before Thanksgiving
What is Ashoke's 3 lives?
One in India before the Crash, One of the Recuperation, One as a student in the US living and working in English
How much money did they make at their wedding
Over 7,000 dollars
what does Sonia decide to do after her father's death
Stay in Boston permanently instead of returning to California
Ashima and Ashoke sent what to Calcutta announcing the birth of the baby?
Telegram
What does Gogol realize later that night
That his life with Moushumi has left him angered and lonely
Ashima's grandmother was supposed to send a letter with the name of the baby but what happened instead?
The Doctor asks them for a name they cannot give a name because they still have not received the letter so the doctor explains it will be a difficult process if they don't give the baby a name, they come up with the name Gogol because that is basically Ashoke's idol.
Who are their neighbors?
The Montgomerys a family of free spirits who live in the second floor apartment. The parents Alan and Judy stop by to see how they are doing every now and then.
Gogol's 27th birthday
The Ratliff's throw a big party for Gogol. They invited their friends from the cabins around the lake. Lydia tells the other neighbors that Gogol was born in America. Gogol is unhurt by the conversation and quickly moves on. Later that night when Gogol was sleeping he suddenly wakes up thinking he heard something, he thought it was his mom calling but remembers she does not have their vacation number so he just goes to sleep.
What does Moushumi recall about her past before Gogol
The harsh banker that did not respect her culture and how instead of falling in love with medicine what her parents wanted she fell in love with literature.
Ashoke Ganguli
The husband of Ashima and the father of Gogol and Sonia, Ashoke earns his doctorate from MIT and works as a professor in the Boston area while his children grow up. He was in a horrible train accident as a young man while he was reading a work by the Russian author Gogol, and names his son after that author. Dies of heart failure. Ashoke is a quiet, sensitive man, and although the narrator does not have access to many of his thoughts, he is nevertheless devoted to his wife and children. Ashoke is also deeply affected by the train accident that nearly killed him in his youth. He gives his son the name Gogol as an acknowledgment of what that writer means to him. Nikolai Gogol and the other Russian writers are also emblems of "foreignness," of a life lived in exile. This is the life Ashoke has chosen for himself, as a PhD student and then professor in the US, far from his family in Calcutta. Ashoke chose to set out for himself, in a place of his choosing, after the train accident solidified his resolve to see the world.
Sonia Ganguli
The little sister of Gogol and the daughter of Ashima and Ashoke. As a teenager, she fights with her parents about her hair style, parties, and pierced ears. The fourth member of the Ganguli family in Boston. Although the reader very rarely has access to Sonia's thoughts, she is a constant, calming presence for the family. She goes to school and lives for a time in California, but after Ashoke's death, Sonia returns to the Boston area, where she practices law and becomes engaged to a man named Ben. Sonia is a steadying presence for Ashima after Ashoke's passing.
When does Gogol officially change his name to Nikhil
The summer before he heads to Yale
When Ashoke holds the baby for the first time what does he think of?
The train accident that almost killed him
Ashima Ganguli
The wife of Ashoke and the mother of Gogol and Sonia, Ashima was raised in Calcutta and married Ashoke having only met him briefly. She moves with him to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and stays in a suburb of Boston to raise her family. She misses her family in Calcutta. She has an arranged marriage with Ashoke who she eventually grows to love. Ashima figures out her husband's name only after they are married. She followed Ashoke to Boston. Only after many years and her husband's death while away in Ohio does she realize that Boston is her home. She was a student and English teacher in India.
What happens when Gogol is in the 10th Grade
Their parents announce that the whole family will be going to Calcutta for 8 months but the children are upset as they will miss school, their American friends, and the comforts of their life in Massachusetts.
How is the wedding
Their parents plan the wedding according to Bengali tradition it is a lot of standing and sitting that Gogol and Moushumi don't like but go with it and later they have sex in their hotel room after the wedding.
How do Ashoke and Ashima feel about the trip to Calcutta
They are thrilled to see their families again
After 10 years in America what happens
They begin following more and more American customs, like buying a barbeque and celebrating secular versions of Christian holidays. The Gangulis begin to eat American food, wear ready-made American clothes, and buy other American products, like disposable razors and pens.
What happens before they depart to Calcutta when Gogol is one year old
They get a phone call from Rana (Ashima's brother), Rana tells Ashoke they Ashima's father has passed of a heart attack. Ashoke is left crying on the bed and tells Ashima what has happened. They begin the long flight to Calcutta
What happens to Maxine and Gogol months after Gogol's death
They grow apart and Gogol breaks up with Maxine
What happens on Gogol's third date with Moushumi
They have sex
Point of View
Third Person (Limited Omniscient)
What does Ashima tell Gogol to do with Ashoke's stuff
Throw everything away she says keeping the belongings of the dead is not the way
Ashima in the first few months struggles with taking care of the baby. True or False
True
Ashima's grandmother is very sick, nearly unconscious in Calcutta; her letter with Gogol's bhalonam still has not arrived, and because she told no one else her choice, the Gangulis realize they may never know her wishes. True or Flase
True
Ashoke is not very religious and views his train wreck as bad luck. True or False
True
Lahiri's narrator implies that, without this accident, and his near-death experience, Ashoke would not have traveled to the US, and therefore would not have returned to Calcutta to meet Ashima, would not have gotten married, and would not now be awaiting the birth of a child. True or False
True
The ceremony, held at their apartment on a cold February day, has Gogol eat small portions of different foods and pick up different objects—soil, a pen, or a dollar bill—in a tradition once believed to hint at a child's eventual profession and interests. Gogol begins to cry when forced to choose what to pick up and the author never reveals what he picked up. Did this happen true or false?
True
When does Ashima become pregnant
When Gogol is five and begins kindergarten
When does Sonia start to act out
When she is a teenager
What is Gogol"s job
Works for a firm in Manhattan
Ghosh
a businessman Ashoke meets on his ill-fated train ride. Ghost tells Ashoke that living abroad is important for any young man. Ghosh himself lived in England until his wife made him return to India. Ghosh tells Ashoke to visit him at his home during the train ride, but Ashoke never has the chance, as Ghosh is killed in the wreck.
Dimitri Desjardins
an aimless academic, and Moushumi's illicit lover. Dimitri met Moushumi when she was in high school and he was applying to PhD programs. Moushumi finds Dimitri's information by change, and they begin an affair. Moushumi knows that her tryst with Dimitri is wrong, and that he is something of a slob and a dilettante. But this does not keep her from the affair.
Ashima's father
an illustrator in Calcutta. Ashima's father dies in Chapter 2, as the family is preparing to return to India to visit. His death is very difficult for Ashima, who feels distant from her family.
What happens in Calcutta
for months they travel to different aunts' and uncles' houses in Calcutta, eating long meals and catching up. Gogol and Sonia feel out of place, "foreign" in the city, but Ashoke and Ashima, Gogol notices, are far more confident in their native tongue, and among their friends and relatives. By the time summer arrives, after several months in Calcutta without sightseeing, Ashoke decides that the family will travel to Delhi and to Agra and the Taj Mahal. Gogol is surprised that his own parents are "foreigners" in non-Bengali regions of India, and though he and Sonia get sick to their stomachs on the trip, Gogol is taken by the majestic architecture of the palace in Agra.
Ashima's grandmother
given the ceremonial job of naming Gogol. Ashima's grandmother suffers a stroke early in the novel, in Calcutta, and though she mails a letter with Gogol's "official" name in it, the letter never arrives. She dies soon after.
What does Gogol do his freshman year at Yale
he gets a fake ID (for "Nikhil," not Gogol), begins smoking and drinking, and goes to parties. But he remains a disciplined son
Gogol (Nikhil) Ganguli
main character, struggles to find his identity, separates himself from his culture. Obedient and sensitive child. He is very close to his parents and his sister. The story tracks him from the growth of a child to a young man.
After Many years in Cambridge where does the family move to
the suburbs, to a college town where Ashoke has accepted a job as an assistant professor
