Q. How does the novel 'Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri relate to the poem 'The Road not Taken' by Robert Frost?
Lahiri and Frost have both covered a range of topics in their works such as death, loss, life and choices. In particular Frost's 'The Road not Taken' has a similar message to Lahiri's novel. The message is perhaps that in life you will be faced by difficult choices and you might regret the choices you make but in the end they shape your future in the best possible ways.
The theme of choices is a prominent one in both the novel and the poem. In 'The Road..' the persona is faced with a choice while passing through the woods. He has to choose between two paths that look more or less the same but the places they lead to are hidden by a bent in the undergrowth, just as most aspects of the future are unknown to man. Frost presents the persona such that they decide on going through the path they find more grassy rather and less worn out thus the path seems more alluring and also one that has not often been chosen. Similarly, in ' The Namesake' Lahiri presents Ashoke as a young man who sees his life flash before his eyes in a near-death experience and decides he wants to see the world rather than continue reading about it, before death finds him again. So he makes a choice to move to America, one his Indian family is bewildered by thus like the persona in 'The Road..' he is shown to take the unconventional path and probably ends up changing his entire life.
One contrast seen between these two works is the presence and absence of regret. Frost shows us how the persona in the poem is contemplating whether he will regret the choice he makes. Frost shows us how when one path is taken the choice becomes at times irreversible and how at times that choice can end up making all the difference. In 'The Namesake' Lahiri shows us how the characters do not think over their choices before they make them, perhaps because they are approached with life-changing choices when they are mostly young. Regret either approaches them after in life or not at all. It is difficult to tell if the characters ever actually regret their decisions since it is not directly stated. This makes the readers wonder: does Gogol regret changing his name to Nikhil? Does Ashoke regret moving to America? Do Ashima and Ashoke regret naming Gogol, Gogol? Does Gogol regret not adopting the name 'Nikhil' in early stages of his life? In the end both writers present the idea that whether you regret a choice or not, you can not go back into the past and change it. They also present an aspect of human nature, that whether you are happy with your choices or not you can find yourself speculating your decisions and sometimes the road not taken can seem more alluring once an unchangeable decision has been made. Therefore regret is an inevitable part of human nature and it should be taken with a grain of salt rather than continuously contemplating over it.
Frost shows the persona in 'The Road..' to have taken a path that is not the norm and despite wondering if he has taken the wrong decision, the persona accepts that it has changed his life. Similarly we are shown the protagonist of 'The Namesake', changing his name, something that is rare, especially in Indian culture where names are given by one's elders and are considered sacred. Lahiri shows Gogol to be quite stable with his new name but his identity crisis is seen to prevail. He is shown to drift further away from his parents so when Ashoke dies maybe he regrets giving up the name that his father gave him. At the end of the novel, it can be said that Gogol accepts how his decisions have changed his life as he is shown to finally pick up the book his father referred to while naming him. Thus both writers have presented the importance of accepting our choices and moving on with life.
Lahiri's novel and Frost's poem both emphasis on making the right choice, but they both also bring attention towards human nature, how regret is a natural tendency, but one must not let these regrets keep them from looking forward to a better future. Instead one must embrace them and move on with the world for who knows the choices one may regret at the moment might lead to the best fate.
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English Literature 9695
Non-FictionThis is a compilation of all the essays and notes I wrote while I was in ALevels. It must be noted that not all of of these are A* material (though none goes lower than a grade B) so they aren't meant to be copy pasted for your school assignments. U...
