Throughout one’s life, memories are created and stored within the your brain. As life goes on, these memories stay within you and occasionally are brought back out in the open. Certain tastes, sounds, sights, touches, and smells trigger the brain and invoke remembrance. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close both give light to the hardships people face in reality by using perspective to illustrate different scenes in the protagonist’s life.

In The Namesake, Gogol Ganguli has trouble finding his identity. Gogol is the nickname that his parents had given him, which becomes his first name. For eighteen years of his life, he believed that his name was too strange and grew up disliking it.  Traditions his parents upheld became an embarrassment as he tried to fit in the American society. Readers watch Gogol’s life unfold from the third perspective, getting a sense of his feelings as the story unravels. By viewing his life from the third perspective, readers are able to compare their own lives to the events that occur in Gogol’s life without being too drawn to his emotions. For example, when Gogol finds out how he got his name, I remembered a story one of my elementary school teachers told me of how she was named after her mother’s favorite character in a book. Different moments in Gogol’s life, with the emotions and words Lahiri uses, triggers a memory within a person, be it small or big.

Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, illustrates the life of a child who had lost his father on 9/11. Oskar Schell sets out on a journey to find the owner of a key that was hidden in a vase, believing that the owner of the key would be able to tell him something about his father. In a way, this adventure that Oskar goes on is a him trying to find closure on the death of his father. Like Lahiri, Foer illustrates Oskar’s story from the third perspective. Readers watch Oskar travel on his journey to find the owner of the key, having their own emotions brought to the surface as Oskar struggles to find closure. Foer creates different scenes of Oskar talking with different people, which can trigger a reader’s memory of past conversations they had before. This may be due to the similarities in the conversation, or the words that were being used in the conversation.

Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan Safran Foer both use third perspective to illustrate their novel’s protagonist’s life. The different events they created are different from reality, yet similar. There are different people who are able to sympathize with these characters, making them similar; however, the path their story takes differs from those of Gogol and aOskar. Even so, the stories of Gogol and Oskar triggers, in some way, a memory.

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namsake and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, many of the characters have experiences that shape how they are today. Both novels are told in the point of view of multiple people, showing us how each of the experiences they have not only shape their own lives, but the lives of the people around them.

In The Namesake, we have the Gangulis, a couple who entered this new world carrying many burdens: a new romance and traumatic pasts. The newlyweds are to learn things about each other after marriage when traditionally, people date before they wed. In turn, us as the readers also learn about these two individuals and see the lives they started not only for themselves, but for their children also. The event that ties this whole story together seems to be Ashoke’s train accident. The train accident that defines Ashoke life also happens to define Gogol’s life too, turning anger into compassion and pity.  Gogol’s name means so much to Ashoke; it reminds him of the accident, how the book saved his life, and how he was given the chance to create life. Yet Gogol is oblivious to all this and secretly despises his parents for giving him that name. Gogol lives for 18 years, wishing to be someone else, wishing to have another name. When he learns of his father’s accident and the meaning behind his name, he gains a new level of respect for his father and learns to accept himself.

Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, also draws attention to one’s experience and how it affects the people around oneself. The “renter”, or Oskar’s grandpa, lived a life of regret and sadness. From his first love leaving him to chosing to abandon his family, he’s done things he wished he didn’t do. After letting down Oskar’s grandmother many times, he wants to try to be there for his grandson, to make up for all the lost time. In playing the part as the “renter”, he is able to cure his own loneliness while curing Osker’s loneliness too. By realizing his past mistakes, he’s able to not make history repeat itself and be there for a loved one when he is needed. Oskar doesn’t know how to deal with the loss of his father and speaking to the “renter” allowed him to finally open up and get rid of his “heavy boots”. Oskar has someone to finally play the voice messages for and someone to speak his feelings to.

When we look back on our past, the bad memories seems to stick out more than the good memories. We then push ourselves to fix those bad memories and make up for the past by affecting loved ones in the present. In doing so, both Ashoke Ganguli and Oskar’s grandfather both changed the lives of the people around them.

Death is an evident theme in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake and Jonathan Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  Death causes people to reminisce on the deceased, how they died, and the last time they spoke.  In both novels whether or not the deceased died alone affects the closure of the living.

            In Extremely Loud and incredibly Close, Oskar Schell returns home from school to five messages left by his father.  The phone rings, but Oskar doesn’t pick up, causing a sixth message to be made.  His inability to pick up the phone causes him to feel as if his father died alone, without any loved ones around him.  Feeling like he let his father die alone, Oskar is unable to find a sense of closure.  He imagines all the ways his father could have died and tries desperately to figure out how his father actually died.  His sense of closure is delayed until he is able to admit his mistake.

            Similar to Oskar Schell’s father, Gogol Ganguli’s father died alone.  When Gogol cleans his father’s room “he cannot remember the last time he and his father had spoken.” (177).  Gogol then proceeds to imagine the daily routine of his father and what his father did the day he died.  Like Oskar, Gogol’s path to closure is a long one, due to the belief that he abandoned his father while he was alive.  After hearing the story behind his name, Gogol feels like he abandoned his father, but as he begins to accept the name he is able to gain closure.

            In The Namesake, Ashima Ganguli receives a phone call and expects it to be about the death of her grandmother. Upon receiving the news that her father is dead, Ashima doesn’t imagine what her father did before he died like Gogol and Oskar did.  She doesn’t have their feelings of abandonment because she followed the practices of her culture as her father wanted.  Since she felt like she followed her father’s wishes and that he father died around loved ones, Ashima acquires a sense of closure allowing her to move on.

            In the end, dying around loved ones makes closure more feasible.  When people feel they abandoned the deceased, like Oskar and Gogol, they take longer to gain closure.

In “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” author John Safran Foer invokes remembrance with many devices. First, he intertwines pieces of letters that Oscar’s grandfather wrote to his father and that Oscar’s grandmother wrote to himself in between the main plot. This gives the story a nostalgic feeling overall as pieces of the letters reveal Oscar’s grandparents’ past and how does it affect every member in the family. Moreover, the author scatters pictures throughout the book that relate to past events including Oscar’s grandfather’s doorknob, his hands with the yes and no on it, and pictures of a falling man on 9/11. He brings out remembrance in these pictures and constantly reminds the readers of how memory in the book affects one’s past, present, and future. On the other hand, Jhumpa Lahiri in “The namesake” conjures up remembrance with other approaches. The first to be pointed out is how the story is narrated in chronological order, from the beginning of Ashoke’s train accident, to Ashima’s marriage to Ashoke, then to how they started in Boston, up until they gave birth to Gogol and Sonita, and then how they too grew up, went to college, and lived life of their own, and so on. Jhumpa invokes remembrance by making the whole life story of the Ganguli go by so fast, that we as readers think back to the beginning and how long has it been since it happened; this effect by turn generates a feeling of bittersweet reminiscence. What makes Jhumpa’s approach to remembrance special is how she makes the whole story revolves around the namesake of Gogol Ganguli, thus the title “the namesake.” Each time Gogol has a struggle between his pet name and his good name with his parents, friends, or even between himself rouses the reader back to the origin of his name, to the train accident that almost killed Ashoke, and to the Russian poet Nikhil Gogol that had inspired Ashoke from the beginning in Calcutta. In conclusion, both novels, although using different methods and devices, trigger in the readers a sense of the past and of reminiscence, a theme which our class will be concentrated on this semester.

One goal that many authors share is to keep their readers engaged in their writing. A strategy that authors use to keep readers engaged is to invoke remembrance from the reader. Authors have different ways of doing this. Jonathan Safran Foer and Jhumpa Lahiri invoke remembrance from their readers by writing about events that many readers have experienced.

In his novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer writes about a boy named Oskar who was deeply affected by the events of September 11, 2001. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Oskar had “an extremely difficult time doing certain things like… getting into elevators” (Foer, 36). Many people share Oskar’s fear. After the terrorist attacks, people were scared to fly in airplanes and go in the subway. When those people read about Oskar’s fear, they remember their own reactions to the terrorist attacks and how they affected them. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close made readers remember the horrific events of September 11 and what happened after.

In her novel The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri writes about an Indian family that has moved to the United States and how it adapts to the new culture. At one point in the novel, Lahiri writes about a vacation that Gogol goes on with his girlfriend. During this vacation, Gogol “sits with Maxine’s famly on a thin strip of beach… applying sunblock at intervals to his arms, reading” (Lahiri, 153). Many people go on vacation with their family to relax. Reading about Gogol’s vacation evokes memories many people have of their own vacations. Reading The Namesake evokes memories people have of living their life in America.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Namesake both deal with events that many people have experienced. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the event is September 11, 2001 while in Namesake the event is growing up and living life. Reading about these events evokes memories that the reader has had related to these events.

The two novels, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer, both use memory as a powerful tool to advance and improve their stories. However, they have completely different methods to integrate memory into their novels. These methods can be explained by the course theme “Culture and Memory”; Lahiri uses the development of culture in the lives of the Gangulis and Foer uses memories inscribed in key objects.

In The Namesake, the book’s progression is rather chronological. This makes the concept of culture a lot more significant to evoke memory. As the characters grow up, they develop new views as they become accustomed to American life. As a result, the change in the characters allows the readers to feel somewhat nostalgic when a reference to the Ganguli’s culture appears. Family meetings, old trips to Calcutta, good names and food, appear frequently in Gogol’s thoughts late in the novel. These aspects of his culture serve as memories that both the readers and Gogol can share.

On the other hand, Foer uses a more direct approach to evoke memory. Objects and possessions of the characters in Extremely Loud and incredibly Close serve as the vehicle of memories.  Oskar uses the envelope and key as a method to preserve the memory of his father, although there is no real connection between the two.  He uses the key as a way to keep the most precious memories of scavenger hunts and riddles with his father close to heart. In a way, Oskar wants this personal relationship with his father to never end; he wants to keep experiencing these memories over again, which is why Oskar embarks on the unreasonable quest. We can see similar ways the other characters inscribe memories into objects through letters and places like the Empire State Building.

The ways both writers evoke memory in the readers extremely effective and relatable, allowing readers to be reminded of their own memories.

In both Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake we see the importance of a father figure in the lives of the protagonists. In both stories the main characters are devastated by their fathers’ deaths and try to hold on to them. They try to recount the memories of their fathers to bring them closer to them.

In Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the protagonist, Oskar Schell looks up to is father and is devastated upon his death. Oskar tries to hold on to his father and searches the house for clues that might help him understand his death. Oskar tries to “remember” his father in a couple of ways.  Firstly, his expedition to find the lock that matched the key was in my mind a way to remember his father and embrace his memory. Oskar had an ulterior motive to his investigation. Not only did he embark on this journey to find the truth about his father’s death but he felt that by searching he was getting closer to his father. He tries to visit all of the people named Black because he believes that his father may have been associated with them and that they may hold a piece of his father’s memory. Secondly, I believe that the answering machine was, in Oskar’s mind, something that tied him and his father together. He believed that he was the only one who received the message and it made him feel connected to him. The answering machine is the last memory that Oskar has of his father.

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake we see the struggle of an Indo-American Boy in balancing both his new American culture and the culture of his family. Gogol’s very name invokes the remembrance of his father and keeps him close to his heart. We see that growing up Gogol dislikes his name and believes that it has nothing to do with his culture or his ethnicity. When he turns eighteen he upsets his father and changes his name to Nikhil. Later on in the story Gogol hears the story of his father’s near death experience and finally realizes the value of his name. He regrets changing his name and starts to understand the importance of the name Gogol and how it saved his father during the train accident. Later on, Gogol realizes the significance of the gift his father gave him during his fourteenth birthday and how close this gift was to his father’s heart. Gogol finally sees that in his very name rests a piece of his father and all of the memories they shared.

The father figure seems to be very important to both Oskar, from Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Gogol from Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. Both of these characters seem to “remember” something of their father. Coincidentally, both of them have died and their thoughts on this male role model has changed as the story progresses.

Gogol thinks of his father as a normal person. He never thought much of him. His father was usually quiet and Gogol hasn’t taken much notice to it. Later on, Gogol grows older and disappoints his father by changing his name. Soon enough, his father explains the reasoning behind his name. It has suddenly occurred to Gogol why he was given that name. Gogol was very upset when his father died and finally towards the end of the book, does he realize that he has never bothered to look at his fourteenth birthday present twice. “In so many ways, his family’s life feels like a string of accidents, unforeseen, unintended, one incident begetting another”(Lahiri 286). After everything has happened, Gogol finally begins to read the book, the very book his father had during his near death experience.

Oskar was devastated when his father was killed. He doesn’t quite believe that his father has passed away and begins looking for “clues” that his father has left. The key may symbolize how he still hasn’t moved onto the truth. As he travels across New York City, searching for people who may have known his father, Oskar begins to see the world in a different way. “I can’t live, I’ve tried and I can’t. If that sounds simple, it’s simple like a mountain is simple” (Foer 135). Oskar realizes that his father has died and the key wasn’t as important as he though it be. Oskar still has some lingering feelings of “rewinding” his life.

Both Oskar and Gogol show that “remembering” has a great significance in their lives. Both of these authors have shown how important it is to remember a memory that has changed one’s life.

In the Namesake by Jhumpa lahiri names are very important. Jhumpa lahiri uses names constantly to invoke remembrance in the readers and characters themselves. Jonathan Foer also uses names to invoke remembrance and play an important role in the novel.

In the Namesake gogol’s very name is a remembrance to the author Gogol but also to the memory of the night that his father was saved by Gogol. When Gogol finally discovers his namesake he is shocked and starts to regret changing his name and his identity. Another way in which Lahiri uses names is when Moshumi is sorting letters and all of a sudden she sees a familiar name that was a past crush. This name invokes in her memories of the past when she was just a young high school girl. These memories consist of her bus ride to D.C. as well as her first date. This remembrance causes her to call him up and start an affair that leads to a divorce between Gogol and herself.

Jonathan Foer also uses names to invoke remembrance but he uses them in a different way in the story. Jonathan Foer uses the fact that the grandfather can’t say Anna’s name as the reason why he can’t speak. This is because the memories of the death of his son, and Anna cause him to remember the dreadful night of the Dresden bombings.

Both Lahiri and Foer use names to invoke remembrance. Although not in similar ways both understand the power of the name, which invokes memories of not only the person but also how the individual felt during that time period.

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, both protagonist try to analyze and come to terms with their fathers’ deaths. They encounter sceneries and items that evoke memories of their past with their fathers. Through their memories, they are able to connect with their fathers who are no longer with them and find solace.

In The Namesake, Nikhil’s train rides triggers his the story of Ashoke’s story of how that “other train he has never seen, the one that nearly killed his father. Of the disaster that has given him his name” (Lihari 185). Nikhil has been constantly discovering himself. He finally realized the importance of his name. It’s a reminder of his father and everything his father has done for him. His name itself triggers memories. The birthday when his father gave him The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol. Ashoke refrains from telling Nikhil the real reason why that is his gift. Ashoke “will never forget that night, it no longer lurks persistently in his mind, stalking him in the same way” (Lihari 78). Traces of Ghosh’s death linger in Nikhil’s name. Lihari manipulates powerful memories to make Nikhil’s namesake that much more significant.

In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the only link Oskar had to his father was the key he finds in the envelope with “Black” written on it.  He goes around from apartment to apartment looking for the last remnants of his father. Foer’s method of extracting remembrance is through the images he uses. The “flipbook” of Oskar’s father falling pushes Oskar to wish for a safer and more peaceful time, the quotidien routine of his life with his father, the jeweler. One early morning, Oskar returns to his mother and his mother explains how his father had called beforehand confirming he “was on the street, that he’d gotten of of the building. He said he was walking home” (Foer 324). That line allows Oskar and his mother to realize what a loving father he was. He didn’t want his family to panic. Foer is able to draw out intense emotions through the remembrance of the deceased and what they signify.

I reminded of the deceased family members that imparted fond memories to me. Whenever I cook steamed red snapper with ginger, scallion and soy. I reminisce about my late grandmother in Canton who taught me how to cook my first dish at the age of five. I recall the pungent aromas and the loud cleaver chopping away. Like Ashoke tells Gogol about the time they forgot the camera when they wanted to capture the sunset on the docks. “Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go” (Lihari 187).