In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, Gogol Ganguli is a conflicted young man, torn between the values of his Indian parents and his own desires to be American. In his confusion, he foolishly cuts himself off from his family and culture to lead an All-American life. Then, Gogol’s father dies a sudden death. Shocked and overcome with grief, he intensely regrets not having appreciated his father more. Gogol recalls a particularly moving memory of his father from a family trip they made a long time ago. His father had said, “How long do I have to remember it?”…”Try to remember it always,” he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. “Remember that you and I made this journey, that went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go” (187*) This memory reflects shared memories between father and son, a bond that even transcends the father’s death. As he looks back on this and other memories, Gogol finally reaches a level of acceptance about his father’s death. The book concludes with a significant scene where Gogol picks up a book by his namesake, the Russian author, Nikolai Gogol, a book given to him by his father. He will remember his father by honoring the values he passed on to his son and family and in doing so attempt to atone for past mistakes.
In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell is a precocious nine-year-old who has lost his father in the 9/11 attacks. The incident has affected him deeply, his pain intensified by regret. Oskar’s regrets his inability on that fateful day to pick up the phone when his father called just moments before he died. It is clear that he idolizes his father, “I loved having a Dad who was smarter than the New York Times, and I loved how my cheek could feel the hairs on his chest through his T-shirt, and how he always smelled like shaving, even at the end of the day. Being with him made my brain quiet. I didn’t have to invent a thing” (12) Now, after his death, Oskar wishes everyone else to idolize his father too – he is worried when his mom meets a new man Ron and appears to have gotten over his father’s death, outraged when Mr. Black did not have a card for Thomas Schell in his biological directory, desperate when he pleads with William Black to recollect every single detail about his father on the day that he bought the blue vase. But, unlike Gogol’s private remembrance and realization in The Namesake, Oskar’s remembrance of his father takes on a larger significance when he goes on a hunt for the mysterious lock. Various other characters in the novel such as Abby Black, who regrets her broken marriage, Mr. Black who regrets not having stayed home and appreciated his wife more while she lived, Grandpa Schell who regrets a life not lived and Oskar’s grandmother who regrets not having the courage to ask for respect and love from her husband confess their regrets, each of them having their own fond and bitter memories to hold on to. In the end, Oskar has yet to fully come to terms with his father’s death. However, he seems to have gained a degree of acceptance and maturity, bolstered by the numerous memories he has of his father.
In Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, the protagonists go through the painful process of losing their fathers and then rediscovering themselves through remembrance. Both Gogol and Oskar appreciate life more as result of their memories of their fathers, especially since both boys lost their fathers abruptly and with quite a lot left to be said. In both novels, remembrance is synonymous with regret, anger, and disappointment and leads the characters on a journey that changes them forever.
*The page number is according to the First Mariner Books edition of the novel published in 2004
