Essay on "The Namesake"

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Namesake
Immigrants have for many centuries integrated into the American society and consequently strengthening the culture and economy of the country. Nevertheless voices against immigration which mostly come from the conservatives argue that assimilation is not good for the country as immigrants really are a burden to the society. Immigrants today in the shores of the U.S are following the paths of their predecessors, as they rapidly assimilate. Immigrants in the U.S since 1900 are advancing at a high rate their social and economic status notwithstanding.(Gibney, 24) Integration is most evident in the areas of citizenship and homeownership. High school completion and wages are also rising. The figure of foreigners earning above the low income level now stand at 68 percent up from 35 percent in 1990. As for homeownership, the Latinos have for the past 18 years gradually attained the this important hallmark of the “American Dream” with 58 percent of them now being homeowners. Homeownership for non residents rises as their stay in the U.S lengthens. The latest immigrants into the country are surely following in the footsteps of their ancestors spreading across the country and assimilating in communities.
Curiously in America, immigrants from developed countries are less assimilated. Korean immigrants for instance which is a high-income country according to the World Bank, have an assimilation value index that is lower than immigrants from such low-income countries as Cuba or the Philippines. Immigrants from developed countries do not become naturalized citizen as rapidly as those from the developing world. Immigrants from Cuba, Vietnam, and Philippines have the highest assimilation rates. Nonetheless, these groups assimilate more in some respects than others. For instance, with them, assimilation happens more economically than it happens culturally. Note that all these countries have experienced U.S military occupation one time or another. On their part, Mexican immigrants experience very law rates of civic and economic assimilation. This slow rate of assimilation on their part sets them apart from other immigrants and the assimilation rate is a reflection of the fact that many Mexicans living in the US illegally have limited opportunities to advance themselves along those lines. However, Mexican immigrants experience normal rates of cultural assimilation, as that of immigrants born in other counties (Stacy, 62).
The novel Namesake by Jhumpa Lahari paints the perfect picture of people who have mmigrated to the United States in a quest for a better life and the challenges that they unexpectedly experience in the process. The challenges that the American immigrants experience are feeling alienated, the cultural differences and the desperate desire of the second generation to identify themselves. The encounters that foreigners is evident throughout the novel. During her pregnancy, Ashima becomes afraid of her baby and cannot fathom raising a baby in a foreign country, one that she has no relative, knows very little of, and where life is tentative and sphere. However, by virtue of the fact that her son Gogol will go to school in the United States and integrate with the people and the culture there, he will predictably feel at home in the country more than Ashima ever felt.
When Gogol is born, Ashima is not comfortable with the fact that he is not surrounded by his other kin. This is too American; she is not accustomed to that, back home the whole family would have been there. She is quoted as complaining to Ashoke that, “I don’t want to raise Gogol alone in this country. It is not right, I want to go back.” Such are the kind of apprehensions that immigrants go through in a foreign country. Despite being in a foreign country, Gogol and his parents continue to maintain their Bengali culture. They cooked their native cuisine and spoke their dialect at their American home.
Whenever Gogol parents were going to visit their friend for parties, Gogol would accompany them and miss to attend school. His parents marriage was as a result of the arrangement marriage customs that is practiced in the Bengali culture. Culture shock is also evident when they were required to give the name of their son as soon as he was born before they could be discharged. I America this is typically a simple process. In their culture however, naming of children is accessioned by some ceremonies.
India is the oldest melting point of the world where the population can be broken down or classified by religion, caste, sex and language. Due to these divisions, Indians therefore belong to a minority group. From the day the Indian is born, they have to assimilate and thrive in this kind of environment. When the Indian goes to the US, it becomes an extension of being in a position to effectively assimilate and thrive in a different world. But in India, a typical native will just need to enter into the masses, easily, because the native looks like anybody else. (Alexander, 59)
In a North American white environment, an Indian immigrant loses that capacity and finds themselves in a position where they have to constantly prove themselves, more so in areas where Indians are a rare sight. Preserving their culture while in America and maintaining ties with their native country means a lot to them. The first generation parents migrated to the north America mainly to seek economic opportunities, and they often disregard the unbridled individualism of the west as well as the privilege familistic values that they subscribe to as per their culture (Alexander, 61). Another element of assimilation is intermarriage, from the novel we see how compounded and intricate this issue is. In his struggle to assimilate himself in the American culture, Gogol falls in love with a white girl named Ruth who is his college mate. Their friendship does not last long. Next enters another girl in his life Maxine, also white. However at that time he is undergoing emotional strain occasioned by the death of his father, which affects the relationship. Then his mother counsels him to befriend Maushumi, who is a daughter of a family friend. She advises him to take her instead due to their shared background and culture. However their marriage breaks up because Maushumi is in love with Dimitri, a German!
Gogol is obsessed with what his name means. He registers his dislike for the name thus; “For by now, he has come to hate the question pertaining to his name, hates having to constantly explain.” What comes out clearly from this is that names also have some bearing on the assimilation process of the immigrants. The perception among Indians is that a good name represents respectability and enlightened qualities. To them pet names are silly and meaningless. So the book takes us through the struggles of Gogol to identify himself with his native name. The children of immigrants have two names because of this very predicament one native and the other that would not raise some eyebrows to the locals. President Obama referred to his experiences growing up in the U.S as a young boy as having been referred to as “the skinny boy with a strange name.” Cultural dislocation is another challenge that immigrants experience in a foreign land. The second ...