Summary Notes for 'The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri IGCSE Literature 0475
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IGCSE Literature 0475
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The Namesake
Character analysis and chapter-by-chapter summary for 'The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri, one of the set novels for examination in 2023-25 for CIE IGCSE Literature in English 0475.
For each chapter there is: key plot points, impressions of characters, setting/landscape & mood/tone, key themes, and l...
THE NAMESAKE- "'Gogol does not act like a good son to his parents'. How far do you agree with this view of The Namesake?"
THE NAMESAKE- "How does Lahiri present the Ganguli's arrival in India in this extract?"
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LITERATURE IN ENGLISH (0475)
Paper 1: Poetry & Prose (50%)
1 hour 30 minutes, 50 marks
Candidates answer two questions: one from Section A (Poetry) and one from Section B
(Prose). All questions carry equal marks (25 marks each).
There is a choice of two questions on each text. (either passage-based or whole text for
prose section B)
Relevant passages/poems are printed on the question paper.
Set texts for this component are listed in Section 3 of this syllabus.
Candidates may not take their set texts into the exam room.
Set novel: The Namesake
Background info: Jhumpa Lahiri
● Lahiri’s life and background
○ Full name: Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri
○ Born in London in 1967; raised in Rhode Island
○ Daughter of Indian immigrants; family moved to US when she was three
○ Lives in Brooklyn, New York
○ In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush; Has two kids
○ In 2012, her family moved to Rome so she could pursue Italian language
○ professor of creative writing at Princeton University since 2015
○ the recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship
● other literary works and their themes: historical, family, love, life, death,
contemporary
○ Indian-immigrant experience in America and their navigation between cultural
values of their homeland and their new adopted home; autobiographical
fiction
○ Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
■ collection of 9 short stories
■ historical ; Indian-American; romanticism
■ was awarded: the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award and The
New Yorker Debut of the Year.
○ The Namesake (2003)
■ First novel
■ Largely inspired by her own personal life and childhood
■ Indian immigrants in America; family; tradition; growing up;
independence; identity; love
■ a New York Times Notable Book & a Los Angeles Times Book Prize
finalist
■ adapted as a film
○ Unaccustomed Earth (2008)
■ Indian immigrants in America; historical; family
■ collection of short stories
■ won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
○ The Lowlands (2013)
■ tragedy, family, suspense, historical, political
, ■ finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for
Fiction.
○ Whereabouts (2018)
■ Italian culture; contemporary; longing; loneliness;
■ written in Italian, translated by Lahiri to English
● the experience of Indian immigrants to North America.
○ Racism; not widely accepted; limit to amount of immigrants per year
Nikolai Gogol: ‘The Overcoat’
● Background info:
○ Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) born in Ukraine
○ Russian realism
○ Works include themes of romanticism; uses of surrealism and grotesque
● The Overcoat
○ In The Namesake, an overcoat is one's identity, a burden that
everyone possesses, and it can reveal or conceal a character's
true colours. Each name is an overcoat. Gogol Ganguli, the main
protagonist, was named after Nikolai Gogol, the author of the story that
saved his father's life in a massive train wreck.
○ http://www.fountainheadpress.com/expandingthearc/assets/gogolovercoat.pdf
○ https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-overcoat/summary-and-analysis
The Namesake
● Themes
○ Family
○ Historical
○ Childhood
○ Society
○ Growing up
○ Coming-of-age
○ Racism
○ Foreign country
● Characters
○ Gogol Ganguli
○ Ashima Ganguli
○ Ashoke Ganguli
○ Sonali ‘Sonia’ Ganguli
○ Moushumi (73)
○ Maxine
○ Ruth
○ Dimitri
○ Other side characters:
■ Maya and Dilip Nandi (24)
■ Dr Gupta (24)
■ The Montgomerys: Alan, Judy, Amber and Clover (30)
Character analysis:
,● Gogol Ganguli
○ Appearance
■ Birth: “twenty inches long weighs seven pounds nine ounces’ (22)
■ Dark hair and eyes (24)
■ “He is a sturdily built child, with full cheeks but already pensive
features’- age 4 (51)
■ 98- “just shy of six feet tall, his body slender, his thick brown-black hair
slightly in need of a cut. His face is lean, intelligent, suddenly
handsome, the bones more prominent, the pale gold skin clean-
shaven and clear. ”
○ Personal characteristics
■ Close to mother and sister (55)
■ Was scared to be someone he's not (57)
○ Not at odds with society
■ Apart from his ‘absurd, obscure’ name
○ Distinctive voice
■ Knows uniqueness of his name (69,70)
■ Despises his name (76)
■ Ashamed of his name (89, 95)
○ Some clear contrasts with other characters
■ Father; Gogol’s present 14th birthday (74-78)
○ Admirable? Or not?
■ No
○ Sorry for them? Or not?
■ Very lost to who he is relating to his name, ethnicity and the place he
lives/birth
● Ashima Ganguli
○ Appearance
■ ‘Tall for a Bengali woman’ (9)
■ ‘Complexion was n the dark side of fair’ (9)
○ Personal characteristics
■ Tied to Indian customs/traditions
■ Family oriented person; needs familial reassurance (24)
■ Can't stand uncleanliness (32)
○ At odds with society
■ Foreigner (49)
■ Exceptions/ rules of new country (43)
○ No clear contrasts with other characters
○ Distinctive voice
■ ‘Kept her disappointment to herself’ (30); meek
■ Speaks her discomfort about “raising Gogol alone in this country. It’s
not right. I want to go back” (33)
■ Needs purpose
○ Admirable? Or not?
○ Sorry for them? Or not?
■ ‘Motherhood in a foreign land’ (6)
, ■“Ashima is despondent, unaccustomed, all over again, to being on her
own” (50)
● Ashoke Ganguli
○ Husband to Ashima; father to Ganguli. An electrical engineering PhD student
at MIT
○ Appearance
■ ‘slightly plump, scholarly looking but still youthful’ (8)
■ Slight limp in right foot (12)
■ 30 yo when Gogol born (21)
○ Personal characteristics
■ ‘He is fastidious about his clothing’ (10)
■ Loves reading (12)
○ Distinctive voice
■ Not religious/ doesn’t believe in god (21)
○ Not so much at odds with society
■ Adapts (65)
○ Some contrasts with other characters
■ Gogol; present given on 14th birthday (74-78)
○ Admirable? Or not?
○ Sorry for them? Or not?
■ Train accident serves as dominant traumatic event (13-18)
■ Ran away from the place he nearly died (20)
■ Still haunts him ‘seven years later (20)
Chapter summaries and impressions
● Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Page 1-21 Page numbers/ quotes
Key plot points ● 1- ‘On a sticky August evening, two
● Novel begins in 1968, set in weeks before her due date, Ashima
Cambridge, Massachusetts Ganguli..”
● Introduction of Ashima, her ● 6- ‘It’s not so much the pain, which
pregnancy, and Ashoke Ganguli, an she knows, somehow, she will
electrical engineering PhD student survive. It’s the consequence:
at MIT motherhood in a foreign land’
● Ashima contractions; thoughts of ● 8- ‘Ashima, unable to resist..stepped
family and home into the shoes at her feet’
● Ashima’s feelings of motherhood ● 12- ‘A slight limp causes Ashoke’s
● Ashima’s past: used to be an right foot to drag almost
English teacher ‘working toward a imperceptibly with each step’
college degree’ ● 13- “That he would be reading the
● Ashima meeting Ashoke. Tries on moment he died”
his shoes ● 14- “just as Akaky’s soul haunted
● Descriptions of both Ashima and the final pages, so did it haunt a
Ashoke place deep in Ashoke’s soul’
● Ashima-Ashoke wedding ● 17- ‘the sound was like a bomb
● Ashima getting to know Ashoke exploding’; ‘telescoped into each
other’
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