What is Gogol like in Chapter 8?

Gogol still lives uptown, in New York City, and works for a large architecture firm. He studies for his licensure exam and rides the train most weekends to see his mother and sister near Boston. He has ended things with Maxine, having grown mentally apart from her in the months following Ashoke’s death.

What did the inscription say on Gogol’s book from his father?

He reads, inscribed in the front: “The man who gave you his name, from the man who gave you your name.” Gogol returns to the party, but as he is mingling among family and friends, he thinks on his life, on his new job at a smaller architectural firm, where he will have more responsibilities as a designer.

What chapter does Gogol’s name change in the namesake?

Chapter 5
He is aware that his parents, and their friends, and the children of their friends, and all his own friends from high school, will never call him anything but Gogol. These lines occur in Chapter 5, after Gogol officially changes his name in court.

How does Gogol feel about moushumi?

At first, Gogol follows Moushumi, feeling out of place because she is so comfortable in Paris and he is so uncomfortable. After Gogol tells Moushumi of his discomfort, she sends him out to explore on his own while she participates in her conference. They are happier apart than together.

What happens in Chapter 8 of the namesake?

A few months after Ashoke’s death, Gogol and Maxine break up. A year later, Maxine is engaged to be married. Gogol now visits home regularly; Sonia has moved in to take care of Ashima.

Why did Gogol and Maxine break up?

She and Gogol break up after the death of his father, when he is pulled back toward his family and begins to feel that she is an outsider, refusing to allow her to accompany them to India for Ashoke’s funeral.

Why is Gogol attracted to Maxine?

At first, she seems like the answer to all Gogol’s troubles, because Maxine fits the type that Gogol seems to be attracted to: she is all-American, she’s artistic and sexually uninhibited – in other words, she’s the complete opposite of the nice Bengali girl his parents would love him to marry.

What is the message of the namesake?

Gogol engages in a constant struggle to remain loyal to both worlds. Hence, the major theme portrayed in the novel is one of identity. This them is illustrated vividly by examining the importance of one’s culture and background, gender, and name as the definition of patriarchal lineage and destiny in life.

Does Gogol regret changing name?

His Father’s Son Gogol’s father, Ashoke, seems to help him the most. It’s only after his dad spills the story of Gogol’s name (the horrifying train accident that almost ended his life) that Gogol begins to regret the whole Nikhil thing. Gogol the name is not what makes Gogol the man who he is.

What name does moushumi use after they marry?

Gogol jokingly calls Moushumi Mrs. Ganguli—since they both know she will keep her maiden name, Mazoomdar. The two rent an apartment on Third Avenue in the Twenties, downtown. They furnish it with items from Ikea, and Gogol enjoys the patterns of their married life.

Why is Maxine no longer in Nikhil’s life?

Why is Maxine no longer in Nikhil’s life? They broke up because Maxine wanted to go with Gogol to wrap up his dads life but Maxine did not know his dad well. He learns that she in engaged to a new man.

What did Gogol say to Jhumpa Lahiri in namesake?

“Try to remember it always,” he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. “Remember that you and I made this journey together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.”

Why is Gogol the main character in the namesake?

Gogol is the center of the novel, and it is his journey from childhood into young adulthood that the narrator tracks most closely. Gogol’s transformation is marked in at least three ways. First, his name. Gogol is Gogol, of course, because his father and mother needed a name for him before leaving the hospital.

How is Ashoke related to Gogol in the namesake?

Ashoke also has traumatic connection to the train-wreck during which he was reading Gogol. When Gogol asks his father, when he is college, whether the name Gogol reminds Ashoke of nearly dying, Ashoke counters that “Gogol” is for him a name of hope, of joy—of life.

Why did Gogol change his name to Nikhil?

Gogol the child is the happy outcome of a terrible event in Ashoke’s younger days. Gogol’s decision to become Nikhil occurs before he knows his father’s story in detail. But the change to Nikhil also represents a maturation, an attempt to find a new self in college.