The Namesake

The next 25 pages of Jhumpa Lahiri's, "The Namesake," explain that Gogol's dad moves to Cleveland , Ohio and leaves Ashima alone. Ashoke, Gogol's dad, only goes back home to visits every three weekends, and during each visit, he has a lot of things to do due to Ashima never learning how to do the work of a "man." When Ashima is alone at home, she looks through pictures and old letters an documents, and remembers how life used to be when she lived with her parents. Each time Ashoke comes home, she puts the memories away and focuses her life on his existence. Finally, one day comes when Ashoke dies and Ashima is left all by herself. At the time of his father's death, Gogol begins to understand Bengalian traditions. He learns that when a father dies, the son has to completely shave off all of his head and the whole family goes onto a mourning period of ten days where they are not allowed to eat any type of meat or fish—only rice and vegetables. Each day, people call to send the family their dearest condolences, and at the end of the mourning period, Ashima is forced to change all bills and important documents to her name,, and as she does so, she comes to "understand" that the reason why Ashoke had left her before, was so that she can get used to the loneliness she would soon have at the time of his death.

Quote: "She refuses to be so far away from the place where her husband made his life, the country in which he died."

Question: Will Gogol become more appreciative about his culture and begin to become more aware of Bengali traditions after his father's death?