Alien Nation

Alienation: the state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved.

In life, does anyone really “belong” to any group or activity? Sure, apples, bananas, and clementines go together where carrots, celery, and cucumbers go together. But when it comes to people, what determines who “should” or “should not” belong or be involved? Throughout Gogol’s life in The Namesake, he does his best to answer that question.

Starting first with the title, The Namesake itself stands out on a shelf. It’s no “Wizarding World of Harry Potter,” or “The Adventures of Frog and Toad,” which, where you should discourage yourself from judging a book by its cover, it emits an alluring essence. Upon the reader’s first glance at the book, the reader is instantly led to question “What about the namesake? And what namesake?” The title almost alienates itself, as it is left unable to fit into any traditional category or grouping. Through the title, readers are immediately encouraged to consider how the name Gogol will play into problems and connections and, in this case, alienation.

At a young age and at an old age, Gogol avoids alienation to an extent. He has connections with his heritage and with his American roots and his childish outlook keeps him content with himself. When he’s attending Bengali parties and studying Bengali heritage on every other Saturday to when he’s attending grade school and having American friends over for birthday parties, he always feels that he has a group that accepts him. A feeling that, like what happens with most kids-turned-teens, leaves.

Throughout the middle of his life represented in the book, he believes himself to be thoroughly alienated. He doesn’t feel like he deserves to be a part of his American friends and he doesn’t want to be a part of his Bengali friends (or should I say his parents’ friends). Though, where the pre-teen and teenage years prove awkward for everyone, Gogol allows his insecurities to take over his mind and forces alienation upon himself. He desires the idea of “fitting in” so badly that he is willing to sacrifice his family relationships as well as any safe haven he has come to know. He gladly puts his family’s needs last, dragging his feet at their Bengali parties and sneaking out of his house to smoke and party with his friends, and whether that be from the natural “rebellious teenage years” or his annoyance with the constant attention his family seems to seek is up for interpretation. He drives a wedge between himself and his family as soon as he leaves for college, visiting home as infrequent as possible and making up excuses as to why he can’t call back. 

However, through this alienation Gogol forces himself into in his “middle years” per se, he learns how to reconnect himself to a life of acceptance and refuse the impending isolation. He faces trial and error and grows from his failures. He learns, by the time he is 18, that he can be whoever he wants. He begins to battle the struggle he puts himself under regarding his pet name and takes his first step toward determining his grouping with the legal change.

And, though he takes plenty of small steps forward and large steps backwards, at the end of the novel, Gogol, in a sort of child-like eureka, determines that it isn’t up to anyone to tell him where he does or does not belong. It isn’t up to anyone to categorize him and isolate him. He realizes that it has been and will always be he who decides his fate. And where he used to heavily concern himself with what and where he fit in, he learns that he only opinion that matters is his own. And if he wants to connect with his heritage, so be it. And if he wants to connect with his birthplace, so be it. He realizes that every aspect that has affected his life up until now has made him who he is and has determined the group he belongs to. After all of the tribulations he had to combat, he realizes that he can’t escape himself and accepts who he wants to be.