Clarke Murphy
The Namesake
Jhumpa Lahiri
Realistic Fiction
Challenge
111

1.Right now Gogol has just changed his name to Nikhil. This is weird because all of his family members still call him Gogol but all the people in college call him Nikhil. Gogol (Nikhil) thought it was very anticlimactic when the judge officially changed his name forever but i dont really know what he was expecting. Now that he has changed his name he is a lot more confident in everything he does and he feels like more of an American now. But with all of this he still feels slightly guilty for changing his name.

2.I think this is a very good book so far. The book is pretty hard to read but i like a good challenge every now and again. The author has done a very good job showing her heritage because she is not american and all of the names arent either. I think that the book is indirectly about how she felt when she came here which seems pretty cool to me.

3.A theme I have noticed in the book so far is being a standout. Gogol is the standout indian in all the crowds he is in and he never has quite fitted in yet. His Russian namesake doesnt even have the same name that he does which has really put him in the dumps about his name that he doesnt like which is why he changed it.

4. My favorite character so far is Gogol because he is a very strong individual. He is always the standout but he didnt just whine about it, he changed his name and put all of that behind him. After the name change he becomes a lot more outgoing and confident and he doesnt quite feel the way he did even though he still kind of is the outcast he was.

5. My least favorite character in the book is Gogols sister. I say this because to me she is just kind of snotty and she doesnt do very well with change. She didnt take gogol's name change very well because she really wants him to keep the indian culture going and she likes being different. Overall i just dont think she has been very accepting and fair to him recently and that his hard when a kid like Gogol is already not doing so well.

6. I think that with the new name change Gogol is going to somehow get into trouble with his father and his namesake. I dont really know what I mean by this but I feel like later in the book this whole name change thing is going to come back and haunt him because he was born to have this name and it is very special to his father.