What kind of character is Moushumi in the namesake?
The Namesake. Moushumi. Gogol’s wife, Moushumi has led a complex life, and the narrator provides a glimpse of her mind through the narration, in Chapter 8, of her failed relationship with Graham, the American banker, in Paris, before Moushumi began her doctoral program at NYU. Moushumi is very intelligent and a hard worker.
What kind of person is Moushumi Gogol?
Gogol’s wife, Moushumi has led a complex life, and the narrator provides a glimpse of her mind through the narration, in Chapter 8, of her failed relationship with Graham, the American banker, in Paris, before Moushumi began her doctoral program at NYU. Moushumi is very intelligent and a hard worker.
What kind of life does Moushumi have?
Moushumi is a graduate student in French literature and adores Paris. She also adores, in part, the cosmopolitan life she lived there, with a banker named Graham, who left her and broke her heart. Moushumi marries Gogol but, after a time, becomes restless in the marriage, and enjoys more and more the company of her intellectual friends.
What does Moushumi find in the envelope?
While she is sorting through department mail, she discovers an envelope sent to a professor in her department by an old love interest of hers named Dmitri. He had flirted with her for years, calling her “Mouse.” Moushumi writes down Dmitri’s phone number and calls him the following week.
How does Gogol feel about Moushumi?
Gogol feels that Moushumi has betrayed his trust. Because Moushumi and Gogol are Bengali, their parents seize the opportunity to have a Bengali wedding, which causes Moushumi and Gogol to feel disconnected from the wedding preparations and even from the ceremony itself.
Why is Gogol attracted to Moushumi?
Gogol is attracted to Moushumi because he shares a connection with her that he did not share in his prior relationships. Whereas Gogol views Maxine as an outsider who could not be part of his family, he understands that “Bengali friends [such as Moushumi] were the closest thing they had to family” (pp. 200–201).
What does Moushumi study for?
We later find out that Moushumi goes to Brown to study French. Her parents had wanted her to study chemistry, but Moushumi had plans of her own. For four years, she secretly takes French classes, and when she graduates, she pulls together all her money and moves to Paris.
What was the nickname that Dimitri gave Moushumi?
MouseIn the present, in the French department at NYU, Moushumi copies down Dimitri's phone number and address, wondering whether she will contact him. Later that night, she finds a copy of Stendhal's The Red and the Black given to her by Dimitri, years ago, and inscribed to “Mouse,” his nickname for her.
What gift does Gogol start planning for Moushumi?
Gogol buys airline tickets for a trip as a Christmas gift for Moushumi. Gogol will put the airline tickets in a book he has bought for Moushumi that he knows she will like. Ashima will sell her house and spend part of each year in India and part of it in America.
How do Gogol and Moushumi know one another?
Moushumi is from Gogol's “world,” and he is from hers. They have known each other, vaguely, since they were children. They have a shared set of cultural experiences, and they know the kinds of pressures, customs, and anxieties that children of Bengali parents feel in the United States.
Why is Gogol attracted to Maxine?
Gogol views his relationship with Maxine as the height of his “American-ness” so far in his life. Maxine and her parents represent what Gogol sees as the best of American culture: the interest in art and physical affection and relational openness that Gogol has never known with his own biological family.
How do Gogol and Moushumi know one another?
Moushumi is from Gogol's “world,” and he is from hers. They have known each other, vaguely, since they were children. They have a shared set of cultural experiences, and they know the kinds of pressures, customs, and anxieties that children of Bengali parents feel in the United States.
What kind of wedding do Gogol and Moushumi decide on?
Within a year, Gogol and Moushumi are married in a Hindu ceremony in New Jersey. The wedding is organized by their respective families, and the couple themselves have very little input. On the day of the wedding, Sonia gives Gogol a belated birthday present. During the ceremony, they dress traditionally.
How is Gogol's name tied to his identity in the novel The Namesake?
First, his name. Gogol is Gogol, of course, because his father and mother needed a name for him before leaving the hospital. The name “Gogol” was an important one to Ashoke, who adored Nikolai Gogol's work. Ashoke also has traumatic connection to the train-wreck during which he was reading Gogol.
Who is Moushumi in The Namesake?
This lesson examines the complex character of Moushumi Mazoomdar from 'The Namesake.'. You will read about her personal and career goals, her relationship with Graham, and her marriage to Gogol.
Who Is Moushumi?
In Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, Moushumi Mazoomdar is an extremely complex character. At times, she is quite likable. She is intelligent and hard-working, and she is also adventurous. However, she can also be selfish, stubborn, and self-absorbed. After making a brief appearance earlier in the book, Moushumi reappears and significantly alters Gogol's life.
What happened to Moushumi and Graham?
Moushumi throws her engagement ring in the street, and Graham hits her across the face. Needless to say, this is the end of their relationship. In the aftermath of her breakup with Graham, Moushumi is devastated. She drops out of her graduate classes. Without Graham, she can't afford her apartment anymore.
How long did Moushumi date Gogol?
Gogol and Moushumi date for about a year before they get married. They move into a luxurious apartment on Third Avenue, and they start to settle into their married lives. In the spring, Moushumi and Gogol go to Paris together. By the end of their trip, Moushumi reveals that she misses Paris and hopes to live in her beloved city again one day. As time goes on, it's clear that there is some sort of emotional disconnect between her and Gogol. Soon after she starts teaching at NYU, Moushumi starts an affair with a previous boyfriend, Dimitri Desjardins. For several months, she keeps this from Gogol, but he eventually finds out. She ends up moving out of their apartment, and they get a divorce. The last thing we hear about Moushumi is that she is planning on moving back to Paris.
What is the last thing we hear about Moushumi?
The last thing we hear about Moushumi is that she is planning on moving back to Paris. Lesson Summary. Let's review! In The Namesake, Moushumi Mazoomdar is a complex character with both positive and negative character traits. She is intelligent and hard-working, but she is also stubborn and selfish.
What book does Moushumi read?
During the party, Moushumi reads a copy of Pride and Prejudice while the other kids watch Love Boat and Fantasy Island. She also tells everyone that she despises American television. We later find out that Moushumi goes to Brown to study French.
Where does Moushumi live?
They meet each other while Moushumi is living in Paris. She falls in love with him quickly, and she decides to move back to the United States so that they could be together. After living together in New York for some time, Moushumi asks Graham to marry her.
Who is Moushumi Mazoomdar?
Moushumi Mazoomdar Character Analysis. Moushumi Mazoomdar. The Bengali woman who marries Gogol, Moushumi was one of the children present at the many gatherings of Bengali friends in their childhood. She grew up in London, and had a British accent when she and Gogol first met, always preferring her books to the television ...
What color dress does Moushumi wear?
They’ve both dressed up for dinner, and Moushumi wears the black dress from the first night they made love in her apartment. She... (full context)
What chapter does Ashima mention Ashoke's death?
Chapter 8. ...Ashoke’s death. One day Ashima mentions a girl Gogol used to know, a Bengali named Moushumi Mazoomdar, who had broken off an engagement the year before and “could use a friend.”... (full context) Moushumi is waiting for him in a bar in the East Village, reading a book in... (full context)
What does Gogol bring to Moushumi's apartment?
The next weekend Gogol goes to Moushumi ’s apartment for dinner, bringing a bunch of sunflowers. She looks for a place to put... (full context) ...they get to know one another, Gogol feels he already knows her life—he can picture Moushumi ’s house, the parties, the family dynamics, as if they were his own.
Where did Moushumi and Gogol go in March?
In March they visit Paris together, where Moushumi is presenting an academic paper. The weather is gray, and Gogol feels acutely the eyes... (full context)
Where is Moushumi waiting for Gogol?
Moushumi is waiting for him in a bar in the East Village, reading a book in... (full context) ...a small French restaurant, where Gogol insists on paying the bill, and then he walks Moushumi home, surprised at how much he is enjoying himself. On the way back to his... (full context)
Did Moushumi meet Dimitri?
Moushumi had met Dimitri years before, at the end of high school, on a chartered bus... (full context) Moushumi returned to Princeton every day afterward, finally finding Dimitri and going on her very first... (full context) Now, sitting in her office, Moushumi reads his cover letter and inserts a missing period.
Where are Moushumi's intellectual friends?
Moushumi’s intellectual friends in Brooklyn. Donald and Astrid are, in Nikhil’s mind, the kind of people who find their own choices to be the only correct ones. Although Donald and Astrid seem open and liberal, they are in fact quite set in their ways. Nikhil is frustrated by what he views as their selfishness.
How did Dimitri meet Moushumi?
Dimitri met Moushumi when she was in high school and he was applying to PhD programs. Moushumi finds Dimitri’s information by change, and they begin an affair. Moushumi knows that her tryst with Dimitri is wrong, and that he is something of a slob and a dilettante. But this does not keep her from the affair.
What does Ashima do in the beginning of the novel?
Ashima, at the beginning of the novel, does not make choices so much as she accepts the choices of others. Her parents arrange her marriage to Ashoke, and out of duty she follows him to cold, desolate-seeming Boston. She grows to love her husband, and, later, her son Gogol and daughter Sonia.
What chapter does Ashima's father die in?
an illustrator in Calcutta. Ashima’s father dies in Chapter 2, as the family is preparing to return to India to visit. His death is very difficult for Ashima, who feels distant from her family.
Where is Ashima Ganguli's home?
Only after many years, and following her husband’s death while away in Ohio, does Ashima realize that the Boston area is her home, and that she is surrounded by friends and a surrogate family there. Read an in-depth analysis of Ashima Ganguli.
Who is Ashoke Ganguli?
Ashoke Ganguli. The third of the novel’s protagonists. Ashoke is a quiet, sensitive man, and although the narrator does not have access to many of his thoughts, he is nevertheless devoted to his wife and children. Ashoke is also deeply affected by the train accident that nearly killed him in his youth.
Is Moushumi's point of view included in the novel?
Moushumi’s point of view is included, though not frequently, in the novel . We learn, for example, of the dissolution of Moushumi’s first engagement, to the American banker, via access to her own thoughts, although the narrator retains the third person in these sections. Read an in-depth analysis of Moushumi.
Why does Moushumi refuse to change her name?
For Moushumi to refuse his last name feels like a rejection of his identity. Not only does Moushumi refuse Gogol’s last name, but she also treats the story of his name change like a joke while she is talking with her friends. What feels to Gogol like an intimate part of his identity Moushumi sees as an insignificant piece of biographical information, an amusing talking point during a party.
Who introduced Moushumi to Graham?
Back at home in Brooklyn, Gogol and Moushumi attend a dinner party hosted by Moushumi’s friends Astrid and Donald, who first introduced Moushumi to Graham and who continue to remind Gogol about Graham. When the topic of names comes up at the dinner party, Moushumi tells everyone that Gogol changed his name.
Why do Gogol and Moushumi feel disconnected from the wedding?
Analysis. Because Moushumi and Gogol are Bengali, their parents seize the opportunity to have a Bengali wedding, which causes Moushumi and Gogol to feel disconnected from the wedding preparations and even from the ceremony itself.
Why does Gogol follow Moushumi?
When Moushumi travels to a conference in Paris, Gogol accompanies her. At first, Gogol follows Moushumi, feeling out of place because she is so comfortable in Paris and he is so uncomfortable. After Gogol tells Moushumi of his discomfort, she sends him out to explore on his own while she participates in her conference.
What did Gogol give Moushumi?
After the wedding, in the hotel’s honeymoon suite, Gogol remembers the day of his proposal, Moushumi’s birthday, when he gave her the expensive hat he bought for her after their second date and an engagement ring. She was more surprised by the hat than the ring, which she expected.
Does Moushumi refuse Gogol's last name?
Not only does Moushumi refuse Gogol’s last name, but she also treats the story of his name change like a joke while she is talking with her friends. What feels to Gogol like an intimate part of his identity Moushumi sees as an insignificant piece of biographical information, an amusing talking point during a party.
What does Moushumi realize about Gogol?
But now, Moushumi realizes that her marriage to Gogol condemns her to the life she tried for so long to avoid. She wants to be free and cosmopolitan, but Gogol seems to be turning her into a New York–bound Bengali housewife, someone too much like her mother.
Why is Moushumi's dream impossible?
Her dream of returning to Paris, which had made perfect sense when she was single, is now impossible because of her obligations as a married woman. Rather than tell Gogol about this disappointment, she allows it to fester inside her, and it becomes the root of many of her later frustrations. What begins as sadness for a lost opportunity slowly transforms into bitterness toward the marriage that keeps her tethered to New York.
Why did Moushumi feel drawn to Gogol?
Moushumi originally felt drawn to Gogol for many of the same reasons Gogol was drawn to her after losing Maxine: The predictability and the familiarity of a fellow Bengali were assets.
What happened to Moushumi and Gogol?
One year after Gogol and Moushumi marry, Moushumi finishes her graduate school exams and is awarded a fellowship in France to work on her dissertation. Moushumi turns down the fellowship without telling Gogol about it . To celebrate their wedding anniversary and Moushumi’s exams, they eat out at a restaurant that Astrid and Donald have recommended. The restaurant is expensive and fancy but very stiff and unfriendly. Moushumi hates the evening, wishing aloud that they hadn’t come.
What is the immediate product of Moushumi’s bitterness?
The immediate product of Moushumi’s bitterness is her terrible anniversary date with Gogol. She is conflicted about where to direct her frustration, and as a result, small displeasures feel enormous to her. When she and Gogol are window-shopping on the walk to dinner and Gogol checks for a price tag on a pair of shoes, Moushumi feels both fond of and irritated by him. She remembers how glad she was to have found him after her breakup with Graham, but now she can’t help but feel stifled by him.
What does Moushumi do in Alice's office?
Moushumi goes into Alice’s office and ends up doing all of Alice’s work, taking comfort in the rhythm of the monotonous office tasks. While she is sorting through department mail, she discovers an envelope sent to a professor in her department by an old love interest of hers named Dmitri.
Why does Moushumi not have an affair with Dmitri?
Moushumi does not begin an affair with Dmitri because she loves him more than Gogol; if anything, her continuing love for Gogol is what causes her to be so emotionally distraught during the affair.
