Alienation in The Namesake

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the psychiatric definition of alienation is "a state of depersonalization or loss of identity in which the self seems unreal, thought to be caused by difficulties in relating to society and the resulting prolonged inhibition of emotion". In The Namesake, every character is just at least a little lost. Practically every character struggles with his or her identity, because practically every character feels the influence of different cultures and traditions. Alienation is present in the way that the characters are developed and are able to discover themselves and their identities.

"Ashima has been consuming this concoction throughout her pregnancy, a humble approximation of the snack sold for pennies on Calcutta sidewalks and on railway platforms throughout India, spilling from newspaper cones." (Chapter 1 Paragraph 1)

The book begins any way a good book should with the beauty of child birth. Then the readers are presented with the first evidence of any sort of struggle, the name that will be put on the birth certificate. I could only imagine what was going through Ashoke's mind while thinking of Gogol's name: What if people judge my son? Is this name culturally inappropriate? Will he eventually change it? The ultimate question of acceptance or lack there of, which eventually leads to alienation and loneliness considering the significant 'difference' from everyone else.

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, cultural appropriation is defined as the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture. I believe that this goes hand-in-hand with cultural misappropriation, in which a more dominant 'originating' culture is able to exploit an inferior culture basically by implementing a ©opyright on their traditions, fashion, symbols, language, religion, and cultural songs and claim that they are being used without their permission. That in itself is wrong because of the expected 'roles' of the less privileged groups, as if there are rules set in place for what they are allowed to wear, how they are supposed to act, what they are supposed to say, where they are supposed to sit on the bus. I apologize for my rant, but I believe that it is necessary. I understand that Gogol was born and raised in America (dominant culture) but he has to decide for himself how much his Bengali heritage (inferior culture) means to him. The fact that his identification is determined by his surroundings and is monitored by everyone else is isolating in itself.

There are several occurrences of cultural alienation in the Namesake, such as:
• Ashima feeling alienated from her son simply because she does not completely understand the American culture that he is raised in
• Gogol's name change to Nikhil to create his own identity
• Sonia's ability to easily adapt to either culture which is the opposite of Gogol
• Gogol's schooling at Yale and Columbia and eventually getting a snooty job in NYC all by himself
• Gogol's many relationship struggles (Maxine) while finding himself including being cheated on
• Once Gogol finally feels comfortable with his Indian-American identity and marries Moushumi then is ultimately let down after being vulnerable

"But Gogol sounds ludicrous to his ears, lacking dignity or gravity. What dismays him most is the irrelevance of it all." (Chapter 4 Paragraph 10)