Jhumpa Lahiri’s work The Namesake is a classic coming of age tale about an immigrant who struggles with identity and attempting to be his own man. The work is about a boy of Indian decent who has to struggle not only with the changes in environment, but also with how his family interacts with his new world. He is attached to his family, at least in part because they like to stick together in a time when things might get difficult. However, as the author suggests in this work, it can sometimes be difficult for a person to become his own man when he is not sure of his identity. There are times when a young man has to strike out on his own in some way, and to take his own path, even if this means he will disrupt the familial closeness he has developed out of expediency.
This text connects well with the reader by bringing to bear issues that readers know to be important. While all people might not have grown up with the difficulty of having two names and a family from a different place, all people have the feeling of trying to impress their parents or make them proud. This is, in effect, a part of the human condition. Young people will try to do things to win the acclaim and approval of the people they care about the most, and when it becomes difficult or impossible to achieve this goal, people will struggle and have some difficulty. This story tells this universal struggle, bringing into the fold people who might not be able to immediately identify with the immigration elements of the tale.
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In addition, this story connected with me as a reader because of its ability to discuss the critical nature of identity. All people need to know who they are, what their place is, and what their future is going to be. Without this kind of moral center, it can be difficult for a person to make decisions about his future. In this book, the author discusses how the moral center of a person is sometimes tied up in a name. The name can reflect so much, showing a person’s history, the family’s expectations for a person, and the pressures placed upon a person. In some cases, a change in name can be a good thing, but in other cases, changing a name can make a person feel like a stranger in his own body. The key, then, especially for young people is become familiar and comfortable in their own skin. Young people should have the ability to make their own decisions and maintain some determinism, choosing their own path. This is especially true of young immigrant children, who are often caught between two worlds, trying to respect the old world traditions of their parents while fitting in with new world traditions practiced by the people in their schools and elsewhere around them.
Importantly, this book is one that needs to be read by people who wonder how difficult it is for people to grab the American Dream and to grow up when they are being held back by issues of identity. If people are truly to grow in a way that is healthy, they have to do so at their own pace and in a way that makes sense for them. It is not productive for people to be asked to identify entirely with their parents. For this reason, The Namesake is a critical book that offers important insights into the ways immigrant life can be challenging and how it can cause people to struggle to grow.
