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At Yale, Nikhil is able to pursue his love of architecture most directly, and this leads him to graduate study in New York, and a job at a firm there. Gogol’slife in New York, in turn, leads to his third set of transformations—within romantic relationships.
- Ashima Ganguli
Her father’s death, early in her marriage to Ashoke,...
- Ashoke Ganguli
The reader learns less about Ashoke’s interior life than she...
- Moushumi
Their affair also provides an element of danger and intrigue...
- Full Book Summary
Gogol begins school, and although his parents have settled...
- Ashima Ganguli
Summary. Gogol decides to change his name, officially, to Nikhil, the summer before he heads to Yale. He announces this to his parents, saying that Gogol is a strange name, not even a Bengali one, and that Nikolai Gogol was a flawed, miserable person for a namesake.
He comes to hate the name Gogol, embarrassed by its unique oddity. When he turns eighteen, before leaving for Yale, he legally changes his name to Nikhil – the ‘good name’ his parents had initially intended for him to be called after he began school as a kindergartener.
Summary. The summer before he leaves for college at Yale, Gogol goes to probate court and legally changes his name to Nikhil. When he brought up the idea to his parents, they react negatively but not aggressively, saying that Gogol has become his good name and that it will be too complicated to change it now.
His relationship to the name Nikhil is in some ways forced, an inorganic shift in his identity that feels strange when placed in the context of his family. Although Nikhil is the more Bengali of his two names, it comes to represent his American identity.
Analysis. Gogol’s legal name change to “Nikhil” marks an important turning point in his identity. Changing his name is his first open act of rebellion against the Bengali American identity he grew up with.
People also ask
Does Gogol have a relationship with Nikhil?
Why does Gogol hate the name Nikhil?
Does being 'Nikhil' mean losing 'Gogol'?
Why does Nikhil avoid spending time with other Bengalis?
The name Gogol, which “Nikhil” finds so distasteful, is a direct result of the literal identity confusion at his birth, when the letter sent from India that contained his “true name” was lost in the mail.
