The Namesake: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Gogol has become convinced that he should change his name, as so many—immigrants, revolutionaries, actors, even Nikolai Gogol himself—have done before him. And so in the summer of 1986, before leaving for Yale, he rides the train on his own into Boston, wearing a tie. At the courthouse, with its grand marbled interior, he practices writing his new name in the margins of the newspaper.

Gogol had decided to change his name a few months before, when he saw a quiz about famous people whose real names were forgotten. He asked his parents over dinner, but they tell him that it would be too much hassle to arrange the change, and that Gogol has become his good name now. He tries to convince them that his name should be Bengali, not Russian, and that no one takes him seriously. When Ashoke asks whom he is referring to, he offers a vague reply, secretly aware that it is only he himself who feels embarrassed by this name. Eventually Ashoke consents, telling him to do as he wishes, because in America “anything is possible.”

Now, form in hand, Gogol appears before a judge to legalize the change. He is nervous, but carries his project through. When the judge asks for the reason behind his decision, he considers telling him the whole saga of his life, but instead responds simply that he has always hated the name Gogol. Within ten minutes it is done, and Gogol feels like a new man. He is still Gogol to everyone who knows him, however, for the next three weeks until he leaves for college, as he will be at home and on holidays forever. When he leaves for Yale, though, his life as Nikhil truly begins. He diligently changes his name in the university’s register, and his new friends never know him as Gogol. His name is only one of the new things in the whole new world of college life.

As Nikhil, he finds independence from his family—exploring new music, getting a fake ID, and taking classes outside of the majors—pre-med, engineering, law—that he is expected to pursue. He loses his virginity one night to a girl from a party whose name he cannot remember. He cannot shed the memory of his old name, though. At times he feels as though he were acting a part, and he lives in fear that his old name will be discovered. When his parents, at his request, refer to him as Nikhil to his friends, it sounds wrong, like when they speak to him in English instead of Bengali.

Every other weekend he takes the train home to his family, morphing back into Gogol. When he is home, however, he is distracted, and misses his life at school. He watches as Sonia dies her jeans black, and sees her becoming a true American teenager, arguing with Ashima over her hairstyle choices. Sometimes the two are dragged along to a gathering of Bengalis. Once Gogol refers to Yale as home by accident, and his mother is outraged. She still does not feel that Pemberton Road is her home, and she has been in America for nearly twenty years now. But Gogol feels most at home at Yale now —he has fallen in love with its Gothic architecture, sketching buildings for the introductory architecture class he takes in the spring semester.

On one crowded train ride home, Gogol meets a girl named Ruth, and the two of them talk the whole journey, discussing their backgrounds. Ruth’s parents are divorced, and she was raised on a commune, a past that seems fascinating to Gogol. Meanwhile Ruth expresses genuine interest in his visits to Calcutta, something he has never discussed with another American. Gogol is smitten, and the following week they meet for coffee, beginning to develop a friendship that Gogol hopes will blossom into more. One afternoon they find themselves alone, and from that moment on they are inseparable, studying together every evening. A few weeks into their relationship, they have sex, and it is intimate, loving, and personal.

All too soon they are apart for the winter holidays, and Gogol thinks of Ruth constantly. She had invited him to her house in Maine, but if he went he would have to tell his parents about Ruth, which he is not prepared to do. He cannot imagine her in his home, where he is still known as Gogol. They spend one day together in Cambridge, wandering Harvard Square, kissing, and exchanging gifts. They even look at the first house where the Gangulis lived in America.

By the next year Gogol’s parents know about Ruth, but they are not interested in meeting her. Sonia, who has her own secret boyfriend, is the only member of the family who goes to see her one day in New Haven. Gogol is angered by his parents’ disapproval, pitying them for having never been young and in love as he is. That spring Ruth takes a semester abroad in Oxford, and he feels lost, longing for her as his parents once longed for their families.

One day Gogol attends a panel discussion about Indian novels written in English, since one of the panel members, Amit, is a distant cousin, and Ashima insists he go. The discussion centers on “ABCDs,” or “American-born confused deshis” (meaning Indians), and the audience is filled with the type—a group that Gogol has avoided at school, along with the questions of identity and conflict that the term implies. After the discussion, he must remind his cousin that his name is Nikhil now, not Gogol.

For Thanksgiving of senior year, Gogol takes the train up to Boston alone. Although he and Ruth spent the first few days after her delayed return together, when they returned to campus they broke up, and now they avoid each other. On Gogol’s journey, the train suddenly slows, the lights dimmed as the conductor runs between the cabins. Later Gogol is shaken to discover there was a suicide on the track. He arrives at the station in his hometown late, where Ashoke has been waiting nervously for three hours, thinking of his own accident.

In the driveway before they enter the house, Ashoke decides to tell Gogol about that accident, and the true origins of his name. His son is stunned, and feels lied to, almost betrayed. He apologizes, asking whether his name still reminds his father of that night. After a moment of silence, Ashoke responds, telling him that Gogol reminds him of everything good that came after.