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“There is something appealing to her about this prospect, to make a clean start in a place where no one knows her, as she had done in Paris. It’s the one thing about her parent’s lives she truly admires - their ability, for better or for worse, to turn their back on their homes.” (Lahiri 271)

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“There is something appealing to her about this prospect, to make a clean start in a place where no one knows her, as she had done in Paris. It’s the one thing about her parent’s lives she truly admires - their ability, for better or for worse, to turn their back on their homes.” (Lahiri 271)

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As Ashima prepares for her last party in her house in America, we learn how she has changed over the years. "The prospect no longer terrifies her. She has learned to do things on her own, and though she still wears saris. still puts her hair in a bun, she is not the same Ashima who had once lived in Calcutta" (Lahiri 294).

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Ashima says to Gogol during the celebration, “Take some pictures tonight,i want to remember this Christmas” (Lahiri 306)

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"He remembers the page crumpled tightly in his fingers, the sudden shock of the lantern’s glare in his eyes. But for the first time he thinks of that moment not with terror, but with gratitude." When Ashoke names Gogol, he is reminded of the most traumatic moment in his life that he likely has PTSD from. However, he is no longer afraid, but rather grateful. This is a huge breakthrough for Ashoke psychologically.

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In the final chapter, at his mother's party, Gogol goes up to his old room. He takes a moment for himself and reads the book he is named after. "In a few minutes he will go downstairs, join the party, his family. But for now his mother is distracted, laughing at a story a friend is telling her, unaware of her son’s absence. For now, he starts to read."

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“The spine cracks slightly when he opens it to the title page. The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol. For Gogol Ganguli, it says on the front endpaper in his fathers tranquil hand...” (Lahiri pg 307).

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“The spine cracks slightly when he opens it to the title page. The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol. For Gogol Ganguli, it says on the front endpaper in his fathers tranquil hand...” (Lahiri pg 307).

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Ch 11: “He no longer looks forward to the holiday; he wants only to be on the other side of the season.  His impatience makes him feel that he is, incontrovertibly, finally, an adult.”  (Lahiri 289-90)

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When preparing to go to dinner with Nikhil, Moushumi reflects about her Marriage, “He was not who she saw herself ending up with…falling in love with him, doing precisely what had been expected of her for her entire life, had felt forbidden, wildly transgressive, a breach of her own instinctive will.” (Lahiri 266).

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Gogol is going Christmas shopping for Moushumi and thinks about how Christmas has changed for him. The narrator says, "“The thought of Christmas overwhelms him. Last year they went to Moushumi’s parents’ house. This year they’ll go to Pemberton Road. He no longer looks forward to the holiday; he wants only to be on the other side of the season. His impatience makes him feel that he is, incontrovertibly, finally, an adult” (Lahiri 289 - 290).

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At the end of the book Gogol is back home for a Christmas party thrown by his mom, he observes, “People talk of how much they've come to love Ashima’s Christmas Eve parties, that it won't be the same without her. They have come to rely on her, Gogol realizes, to collect them together, to organize the holiday, to convert it, to introduce the tradition to those who are now” (Lahiri 305).

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Gogol finally decides to read the book his father gave him. And realizes how important it is. "But for now his mother is distracted, laughing at a story a friend is telling her, unaware of her son's absence. For now, he starts to read." (Lahiri 310)

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Now that Moushumi has reconnected to her Bengali culture through Gogol, she wishes to return to Paris life. She wants Astrid and Donald, and she wants someone like Graham again. Dimitri’s love for French literature and his unorganized life is a perfect separation for Moushumi. “On Mondays and Wednesdays no one knows where she is. There are no Bengali fruit sellers to greet her on the walk from Dimitri’s subway stop, no neighbors to recognize her once she turns onto Dimitri’s block.” (Lahiri 281)

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Moushumi reflects on her affair with Dimitri, "She wonders if she is the only woman in her family ever to have betrayed her husband, to have been unfaithful. This is what upsets her most to admit: that the affair causes her to feel strangely at peace, the complication of it calming her, structuring her day” (Lahiri 283-4).

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“He looked at Moushmi and wondered what was wrong. They didn't argue, they still had anger, and yet he wondered Did he stil lmake her happy? She accused him of nothing, but more and more he sensed her distance, her dissatisfaction, her distraction.” (Lahiri 289)

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Before Moushumi had met Gogol, she was frightened because all of her friends were married, and she felt alone, “by the time she’d met him she’d begun to fear that she was retreating into her former self, before Paris-untouched, bookish, alone. She recalled the panic she’d felt, all her friends married”(Lahiri 266).

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Gogol and Moushumi host their first holiday together, “Last weekend was Thanksgiving. His mother and Sonia and Sonia’s new boyfriend, Ben, had come, along with Moushumi’s parents and brother, and they had all celebrated the holiday together in New York, crowded together in Gogol and Moushumi’s apartment” (Lahiri 288).

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The narrator states, “That her husband dwells discreetly, silently, patiently, within its pages”(Lahiri 309).

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While at his mom's Christmas party, Gogol realizes, “It has always felt adopted for him… And yet it was for him, for Sonia, that his parents that his parents had gone through the trouble of learning these customs” (Lahiri 305).

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Ashoke wonders about the quality of his marriage with Moushumi: ‘Did he still make her happy? She accused him of nothing, but more and more he sensed her distance, her dissatisfaction, her distraction. But there had been no time to dwell on this worry...Part of him wants to bring it up with her. ‘Are you happy you married me?’ he would ask. But the fact that he is even thinking of this question makes him afraid’ (Lahiri 289).

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Ch. 12:“As the hours of the evening pass he will grow distracted, anxious to return to his room, to be alone, to read the book he had once forsaken, has abandoned until now.” (Lahiri 309)

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“‘Do you remember this dress?’ / He shakes his head. She’s disappointed but not surprised. By now she’s learned that his architect’s mind for detail fails when it comes to everyday things. For example, he had not bothered to hide the receipt for the shawl, leaving it, along with change emptied from his pocket, on top of the bureau they share.” (Lahiri 264)

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Gogol is with Moushumi's friends in France and feels left out by the group. The narrator explains, "There is the usual academic talk around the table, versions of the same conversation he can't participate in, concerning conferences, job listings, ungrateful undergraduates, proposal deadlines" (Lahiri 252).

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Chapter 9: Gogol sees how Moushumi's acting at the party. “He knows that the approval of these people means something to her, though what exactly he isn’t sure. And yet, as much as Moushumi enjoys seeing Astrid and Donald, Golgol has recently begun to notice that she is gloomy in the aftermath, as if seeing them serves only to reminder that their own lives will never match up.” (Lahari 254)

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Ch 8 “They talk endlessly about how they know and do not know each other.  In a way there is little to explain.  There had been the same parties to attend when they were growing up, the same episodes of The Love Boat and Fantasy Island the children watched as the parents feasted in another part of the house, the same meals served to them on paper plates, the carpets lined with newspapers when the hosts happened to be particularly fastidious.”  (Larihir, Page 226)

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Chapter 9- Gogol gets upset when Moushumi reveals his name at a party, " ‘He’d confessed to [Moushumi] that he still felt guilty at times...she’d assured him that it was understandable, that anyone in his place would have done the same. But now it’s become a joke to her. Suddenly he regrets ev

er having told Moushumi; he wonders whether she’ll proclaim the story of his father’s accident to the table as well’ (Lahiri 260).

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Ch. 1: Gogol is thinking about his father who has past away and "He remembers his father sitting unshaven on a chair, staring through them, speaking to no one. He remembers those meals eaten in complete silence, the television turned off. Now, sitting together at the kitchen table at six-thirty every evening, the hour feeling more like midnight through the window, his father's chair empty," (Lahiri193-194)

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The narrator describes Ashokes death and says, ¨Now, sitting together at the kitchen table at six-thirty every evening, the hour feeling more like midnight through the window, his father's chair empty, this meatless meal is the only seems that seems to make sense¨ (Lahari 180)

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"And then the young woman tells her that the patient, Ashoke Ganguli, her husband, has expired. Expired. A word used for library cards, for magazine subscriptions.” Ashima tells this to herself after her husband, Ashoke, has died. Ashima loved Ashoke, and he was her whole world. He was her husband, the father of her children, and even her best friend.

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“And then the young woman tells her that the patient, Ashoke Ganguli, her husband, has expired. Expired. A word used for library cards for magazine subscriptions. A word which, for several seconds, has no effect whatsoever on Ashima.” (Lahiri 181)

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“In the morning his mother goes to the mailbox and brings in the paper. Sonia drives into town and does the weekly  grocery shopping. Gogol pays the bills, shovels the driveway when it snows” (Lahiri 196). Chapter Seven

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As we come to the end of Maxine's and Gogol's relationship, we learn that the breaking point for Gogol was about his family. "... Maxine going so far to one day as to admit that she felt jealous of his mother and sister, an accusation that struck Gogol as so absurd that he had no energy to argue anymore. And so, a few months after his father's death, he stepped out of Maxine's life for good" (Lahiri 201).

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After Ashoke has a heart attack Gogol and Sonia both come back home to help out, falling into a new routine. “In the morning his mother goes to the mailbox and brings in the paper. Sonia drives into town and does the weekly  grocery shopping. Gogol pays the bills, shovels the driveway when it snows” (Lahiri 196).

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While thinking about his father, Gogol remembers the time when Ashoke's father died "He remembers when his paternal grandfather died, sometime in the seventies, remembers his mother screaming when she walked in on his father, who was shaving off all his hair with a disposable razor...Years later Gogol had learned the significance, that it was a Begali son's duty to shaver his head in the wake of a parent's death." (Lahiri 192)

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“Gogol sits silently, as if he were any other passenger, lost in his own thoughts, thinking of Moushumi. But as they near his apartment, he leans toward the plexiglass and says to the driver, in Bengali, ‘It’s that one, up on the right.’” (Lahiri 213) Throughout this chapter, Gogol’s mindset changes towards his culture. Before, it was a task in his childhood to be a part of, and later something he refused to be a part of. Now, after meeting Moushumi (again), he makes a reconnection.

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The narrator states how hard things have turn for Ashima now that his husband moved to Cleveland. The narrator remarking Ashima's courageous self by stating that "Now that there is no one to feed or entertain or talk to for solitude that her husband and son and daughter already know, and which they claim not to mind. ‘It’s not such a big deal’, her children tell her. ‘Everyone should live on their own at some point’. But Ashima feels too old to learn such a skill. She hates returning in the evenings to a dark, empty house, going to sleep on one side of the bed and waking up on another” (Lahiri 173).

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In chapter 7, Ashoke has a heart attack, which brings the family together in grief,“And then the young woman tells her that the patient,Ashoke Ganguli, her husband, has expired”(Lahiri 181)

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“He works to remain calm during these conversations, not to accuse her of meddling, as he once would have done”(Lahiri 204). This quote shows Gogol becoming mature because he finally listens to his mom instead of arguing.

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Before the wedding with Moushumi, Gogol thinks that, “... he has continued to call Moushumi’s father Shubir Mesho, and her mother Rana Meshi… he will become their son-in-law and so be expected to address them as his second set of parents, an alternative Baba and Ma” (Lahiri 237-238).

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¨Now, sitting together at the kitchen table at six-thirty every evening, the hour feeling more like midnight through the window, his father´s chair empty, this meatless meal is the only seems that seems to make sense¨ (Lahari 180)

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The narrator expresses, “Don’t bring anything back,” his mother had told him on the phone. “It’s not our way”(Lahiri 188).

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Ashima just found out that Ashoke has just passed away, and doesn't want to believe it. "And then the young women tells her that the patient, Ashoke Ganguli, has expired... "No, no, it must be a mistake"... My husband is not there for an emergency. Only a stomachache" (Lahiri 181)

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The author details Ashima's task of addressing Christmas cards and her thoughts of Gogol's good name by writing, “And so she returns to her project. At the bottom of the cards, over and over, she signs their names: her husband's name, but she has never once uttered in his presence, followed by her own, and then the names of her children, Gogol and Sonia. She refuses to write Nikhil, even though she knows that's what he would prefer. No parent ever called a child by his good name. Good names had no place within a family” (Lahiri 178).

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Gogol is angry at Moushumi for bringing up his name at the dinner party: ‘He’d confessed to [Moushumi] that he still felt guilty at times...she’d assured him that it was understandable, that anyone in his place would have done the same. But now it’s become a joke to her. Suddenly he regrets ev
er having told Moushumi; he wonders whether she’ll proclaim the story of his father’s accident to the table as well’ (Lahiri 260).

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in these chapters of the book family is a important part because they talk about gogol´s name and why they had to name him instead of the grandmother doing it because that is usally the tradition but i think family was a huge part in this chapter because of everything that was happening in the chapters 7-9

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i think identity plays a huge part in these chapters because i think gogol is having a hard time with his name and trying to figure out who he is or he wants to be and i blame his name for that and the reason is because i would be mad if i had a pet name but also i think he doesnt know who he is because he decides at college he wants to be known as nikhil instead of gogol because nikhil isn't the best name but it is better than gogol. (lahari pg 82)

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When Gogol presents his goal, he is asked, “What is the reason you wish to change your name, Mr. Ganguli” (Lahri pg 108).

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Gogol is struggling with his identity and who he truly is. “At times he feels as if he’s cast himself in a play, acting the part of twins, indistinguishable to the naked eye yet fundamentally different” (Lahari 106). He wants to be this but is stuck in who he is.

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Even though he has changed his name he still decides that “There is only one complication - he doesn’t feel like Nikhil. Not yet … But after eighteen years of Gogol, two years of Nikhil feels scant … He fears being discovered…”(Lahiri112)

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Chapter six: “Maxine is open about her past, showing him photographs of her ex-boyfriend in the pages of a marble-papered album, speaking of those relationships without embarrassment or regret. She has the gift of accepting her life; as he comes to know her, he realizes that she has never wished she were anyone other than herself, raised in any other place, in any other way.” (Lahiri 147)

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While speaking to Gogol's guidance counselor, Ashima says: “We have no relatives in this country,’ Ashima informs the guidance counselour. ‘That is why we are going to Indian in the first place.” (Lahiri 85)

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Ashima speaks about her father and how he was an artist, and Gogol incorporates the tradition in his drawings,“...he is brave that evening, kissing her lightly on the mouth as she is talking to him, his leg pressed gently against her leg on the sofa, briefly running a hand through her hair.” (Lahiri - 103)

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¨She is surprised to hear certain things about his life:  the oldest parents' friends are Bengali, that they had had an arranged marriage, that his mother cooks Indian food everyday, that she wears saris and  a bindi¨ (Lahiri 148).

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"The wheels touch the ground, the aircraft is sprayed with disinfectant, and then they descend onto the tarmac of Dum Dum Airport, breathing in the sour, stomach-turning, early morning air. (Lahiri 87) The children have grown so accustomed to life in America, the think of India as a lesser place. They even dislike the “sour, stomach-turning, early morning air”

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“For by now, he’s come to hate questions pertaining to his name, hates having constantly to explain… He hates that his name is both absurd and obscure, that it has nothing to do with who he is, that it is neither Indian nor American but of all things Russian.” (Lahari, 81)

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Gogol's dad finally tells him about the train accident that happened to him as a kid and how joyful life was post-accident “Gogol asks him. “Do I remind you of that night?” “Not at all,” his father says eventually….. “You remind me of everything that followed.”(narrator, Gogol, Ashoke, 133)

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Gogol has just changed his name and feels lighter because of it saying, "He wonders if this is how it feels for an obese person to become thin, for a prisoner to walk free. “I’m Nikhil,” he wants to tell the people who are walking their dogs, pushing children in their strollers, throwing bread to the ducks" (Lahari 109-110).

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When Gogol admits to his parents about Ruth they express no interest in meeting her. They tell him, “‘You’re too young to get involved this way,’ Ashoke and Ashima tell him. They’ve even gone so far as to point out examples of Bengali men they know who’ve married Americans, marriages that have ended in divorce” (Lahiri 125).

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Ch. 5 Gogol is so embarrassed by his name when actually no one cares except him. “For his father had a point; the only person who tormented him...was Gogol”(Lahiri 107).

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Gogol thinks about the struggles h has with his name. "At times his name, an entity shapeless and weightless, manages nevertheless to distress him physically, like the scratchy tag of a shirt he has been forced permanently to wear. At times he wishes he could disguise it, shorten it somehow... but Gogol, already short and catchy, resists mutation. Other boys his age have begun to court girls already, asking them to go to the movies or the pizza parlor, but he cannot imagine saying, 'Hi, it's Gogol' under potentially romantic circumstances. He cannot imagine this at all" (Lahiri 81)

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ch.4 The author describes Gogol falling in love and having a crush, "He suffers quiet crush, which he admits to no one, on this girl or that girl with whom he is already friends with” (Lahiri 99).

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While having discussion about Gogol's name, Ashima says, " It's our way Gogol. It's what Bengalis do." (Lahiri 107)

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Gogol reflects on the differences he and Maxine have, “She has the gift of accepting her life; as he comes to know her, he realizes that she has never wished she were anyone other than herself, raised in any other place, in any other way. This, in his opinion, is the biggest difference between them…” (Lahiri 147)

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Gogol is talking about his feelings towards his name to his parents, and questioning why they picked that name. "Gogol's lifelong unhappiness, his mental instability, about how he starved himself to death" "Did you know all that stuff about him?" he asked" (Lahiri 107

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In college, soon after Gogol changes his name to Nikhil we are told that he thinks "There is one complication: he doesn't feel like a Nikhil. Not yet. Part of the problem is that the people who now know him as Nikhil have no idea that he used to be Gogol. They know him only in the present, not at all in the past. But after eighteen years of Gogol, two months of Nikhil feel scant" (Lahiri 113).

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Gogol is at a party talking to a girl named Kim who doesn't know him, so when she asks for Gogol's name he thinks that, “He could introduce himself as Colin, or Jason, or Marc, or anybody at all… He remembers the other name that had once been chosen for him, the one that should have been” (Lahiri 102).

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The narrator states, “That he remembers that his father left for Cleveland a week ago, that by now he is there, in a new apartment, alone”(Lahiri 169).

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Gogol discovers a role for family in Maxine's life that is very different than his own: ‘...he is continually amazed by how much Maxine emulates her parents, how much she respects their tastes and their ways...There is none of the exasperation he feels with his own parents. No sense of obligation. Unlike his parents, they pressure her to do nothing, and yet she lives faithfully, happily, at their side’ (Lahiri 148).

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After Gogol and Sonia return from Indian, they try to forget their experiences in Indian culture: ‘And so the eight months [in India] are put behind them, quickly shed, quickly forgotten, like clothes worn for a special occasion, or for a season that has passed, suddenly cumbersome, irrelevant to their lives’ (Lahiri 94).

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Nikhil is own his own and responsible for his own decisions considering he's in college. "It is a Nikhil, that first semester, that he grows a goatee, starts smoking Camel Lights at parties and while writing papers before exams...It is a Nikhil that he loses his virginity at a part at Ezra Stiles, with a girl wearing a plaid woolen skirt and combat boots and mustard tights." (Lahari 105)

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The thematic element is clearly represented through the quote. When the narrator explains that reading that book would represent for Gogol to accept his namesake by stating that “He has never touched The Gogol book his father gave him on his fourteenth birthday. And yesterday, after class, he’d shoved the short story anthology deep into his locker, refusing to bring it home. To read the story, he believes, would mean paying tribute to his namesake, accepting it somehow” (Lahiri 99).

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i think family  is important in the story because it in chapter one i think. the mom gives gogol a pet name as his legal name which made him hate his bengali culture and his family for giving him a name

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Chapter 2: The names given to individuals can not be inherited because names have a sacred meaning, “Within Bengali families, individual names are sacred, inviolable.They are not meant to be inherited or shared.” (Lahiri 30).

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Chapter 3: Since their family resides in India, Gogol's memory of ancestors are the other Bengali's from Cambridge on Saturdays, " Saturday will consist of a single repeated scene of thirty-odd people in a three bedroom suburban house..." (Lahari 67).

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Ch 3: Ashoke is pained by Gogol playing with his food noticing that "his father's plate is polished clean, the chicken bones denuded of cartilage and chewed to a pinkish pulp, the bay leaf and cinnamon stick as good as new. Ashoke shakes his head at Gogol disapproving, unyielding. Each day Ashoke is pained by the half eaten sandwiches people toss in the garbage cans on campus, apples abandoned after one or two bites. "Finish it, Gogol. At your age I ate Tin" (Lahiri 60).

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Ch 1: Ghosh is talking to Ashoke about her future and her getting married when he says, "You are still young. Free...Do yourself a favor. Before it's too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late." (Lahiri 17).

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Ch. 3 To avoid confusion and explain their traditions, the Gangalis decide “They’ve learned that schools in America will ignore parents' instructions and register a child under a pet name. The only way to avoid such confusion they have concluded, is to do away with the pet name altogether, as many of their Bengali friends have done. For their daughter, good name and pet name are one in the same”(Lahiri66)

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Ch. 3 Ashima is shocked about Indian traditions after Gogol visits the cemetery and says "In Calcutta the burning ghats are the most forbidden of places, she tells Gogol, and though she tries her best not to, though she was here, not there, both times it happened, she sees her parents' bodies, swallowed by flames. 'Death is not a pastime,"(Lahiri76)

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“Hello Gogol,'' he whispers, leaning over his son's haughty face, his tightly bundled body. “Gogol” he repeats, satisfied”

(Lahiri 31) Even though Gogol has just been born, this represents identity because choosing a name is a big choice and this will be his name forever, this will be what people know

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Ch.1 The narrator opens up the story with Ashima in her kitchen and says, "Ashima has been consuming this concoction throughout her pregnancy, a humble approximation of the snack for pennies on Calcutta sidewalks and railway platforms throughout India." ( Lahiri 1) The theme is represented in this quote because she's from India, so her wanting to make something from the place where she's from shows that she's used to it when she was in India or a tradition of her culture.

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Ch. 1  “‘My grandfather always says that’s what books are for...To travel without moving and inch’”(Lahiri 17)

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Ch. 1  “The process will take some time, Dr. Ashley tells her; given that this is her first pregnancy, labor can take twenty-four hours, sometimes more. She searches for Ashoke’s face, but he has stepped behind the curtain the doctor has drawn”(Lahiri 3).

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Chp 2: The narrator describes the process and tradition of naming children in India. “In India parents take their time. It wasn’t unusual for years to pass before the right name, the best possible name, was determined. Ashima and Ashoke can both cite examples of cousins who were not officially named until they were registered, at six or seven, in school.” (Lahiri 27)

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Chp 3: Ashoke expressing his excitement about getting his dream job. “The job is everything Ashoke has ever dreamed of. He has always hoped to teach in a university rather than work for a corporation. What a thrill, he thinks, to stand lecturing before a roomful of American Students. What a sense of accomplishment it gives him to see his name printed under ‘faculty’ in the university directory.” (Lahini 53)

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Ch. 2 "At times, staring at the baby, she sees pieces of her family in his face - her mother's glossy eyes, her father's slim lips, her brother's lopsided smile." Lahari 35

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Chapter 4: The narrator is describing Gogol's time with the girl, saying “It is the first time he has kissed anyone, the first he’s felt a girl’s face and body and breath so close to his own”(Lahiri 103).

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Chapter 4: When the girl asks for Gogol's he says, “I’m Nikhil,” he says for the first time in his life”(Lahiri 102).

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Ashoke boards a train to his grandfather´s house in order to read to him. On the train, Ashoke meets a man named Ghosh who has a conversation with him about if he would like to travel to Britain or America to which Ashoke replies, “My professors mention it from time to time. But I have a family,” Ashoke said. Ghosh frowned. “Already married?” “No. A mother and father and six siblings. I am the eldest.” ( Lahiri 16 -17). This shows Ashoke´s devotion to family over his own personal aspirations.

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“They get an express passport with “Gogol Ganguli” typed across the United States of America seal….” The element alienation is represented here since Gogle’s name feels very out of place on a U.S passport and makes him feel like he doesn’t belong.

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Ch. 1: “He was born twice in India, and then for a third time in America.” (narrator, 23) The theme family is present here since it shows the diversity and culture of his family by saying how “he was born multiple times.”

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Ch.2: The Ganguli family and friends gather for Gogol's ceremony, "'Put the money in his hand!' Someone in the group calls out. 'An American boy must be rich!' 'No!' his father protests. 'The pen. Gogol, take the pen.' Gogol regards the plate doubtfully. Dozens of dark heads hover expectantly" (43).

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Ch. 1: The narrator details the timeline of Ashima's marriage with Ashoke, "It was only after the betrothal that she learned his name. One week later the invitations were printed, and two weeks after that she was adorned and adjusted by countless aunts, countless cousins hovered around her. These were her last moments as Ashima Bhaduri, before becoming Ashima Ganguli" (10).

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Gogol learns a lot more about the meaning of a name in the graveyard. "Until now it has not occurred to Gogol that names die over time, that they perish just as people do." (Lahari 75)

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American customs force Ashoke and Ashima to name their baby themselves, rather than follow their original tradition of the grandmother naming it. "For they learn that in America, a baby cannot be released from the hospital without a birth certificate. And that birth certificate needs a name." (Lahari 29)

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Ch 2: “But now the days that had once dragged rush all too quickly toward evening -- those same hours are consumed with Gogol, pacing the three rooms of the apartment with him in her arms.” (Lahari, 38)

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Ch 1: “Just as Akaky’s ghost haunted the final pages, so did it haunt a place deep in Ashoke’s soul, shedding light on all that was irrational, all that was inevitable about the world.” (Lahari, 15)

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Ch 1: The way Ashima refers to her husband, Ashoke, is the first sign of the kind of love that is present in their marriage, which is more traditional than other relationships based on antique rules that are now present in most of the Hindu families. “When she calls out to Ashoke, she doesn’t say his name. Ashima never thinks of her husband’s name when she thinks of her husband, even though she knows perfectly well what it is. She has adopted his surname but refuses, for property’s sake, to utter his first. It’s not the type of thing Bengali wives do. Like a kiss or caress in a Hindi movie, a husband’s name is something intimate and therefore unspoken, cleverly patched over. And so … she utters the interrogative tha has come to replace it, which translates roughly as ‘Are you listening to me?’” (Lahari 2).

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Ch. 3 Gogol talks about the things he has noticed being done to his parents in America. "Gogol discovers, on his way to the bus stop, that it has been shortened to GANG, with the word GRENE scrawled in pencil following it. His ears burn at the sight... For by now he is aware, in stores, of cashiers smirking at his parents accents, and of the salesmen who prefer to direct their conversation to Gogol, as though his parents were incompetent or deaf" (Lahiri 72-73).