Like Mother, Not So Much Like Daughter

For my last post talking about the Namesake I want to discuss the difference between Moushumi and Gogol's generations compared to their parents. Moushumi and Gogol are so different from their parents yet they ended up in similar marriages as their parents... Perhaps the differences in personality are just one of the reasons why Moushumi and Gogol couldn't work together. Moushumi would crave independence where her mother had no choice and was told since the first day of her marriage that she were to rely on her husband. I'd like to think that Ashima is in between Moushumi and her mother. When Ashima first arrived in America she wanted independence as well. She didn't wan to be cooped up in the house all day, but she also feared the new world that surrounded her. Just how Moushumi's mother might fear independence, Moushumi fears dependency itself.

"She'd privately vowed that she'd never grow fully dependent on her husband, as her mother has." Moushumi's thought process continues "...her mother does not know how to drive, does not have a job, does not know the difference between a checking and a savings account."(Lahiri 247).

You would think that Moushumi totally resents her mother after those words, but then the narrator adds that "she is a perfectly intelligent women"(Lahiri 247).

Does maybe Moushumi see her mother's perfect intelligence a waste because she is so dependent upon Moushumi's father? I think yes. I think that Moushumi is most frightened that her life and everything that she has accomplished will go to waste if she continues her life with Gogol.

I think Moushumi's fear is totally rational. Especially with the recent wave of popularity in Feminism happening I can totally understand how she doesn't want to end up oppressed and limited like her mother has been.

So Moushumi,



We can be independent!! ...But you really didn't need to leave/cheat on Gogol in order to gain your independence.