Within The Namesake, Lahiri presents the relationship between men and women as heavily influenced by their environment, heritage, and socioeconomic background. The relationship between the Ratliffs, Maxine's parents Gerald and Lydia, is directly juxtaposed to the relationship between Ashoke and Ashima as more loving and physically affectionate, due to the Western culture in which they were raised. The relationship between Gogol and Maxine is deliberately depicted as intensely and explicitly sexual to signify Gogol's character's rebellion against his parents' sexual puritanism, while the relationship between Gogol and Moushumi is depicted as doomed to fail due to the ongoing insecurity present in both partners as they struggle to find their identity. Thus, Lahiri approaches each couple through the lens of a post-colonialist writer, characterizing each union through the very different identities resulting from their different experiences. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Lahiri presents the relationship between Ashoke and Ashima as quite austere, emotionally and sexually, due to the dictates of Bengali customs. This can be seen through Lahiri's depiction of Ashima's reaction to the husband of one of the patients in the hospital, where she is about to give birth to Gogol, declaring that he loves her. Ahsima “has not heard nor expects to hear this from her husband; that's not how I am." The matter-of-fact tone with which Lahiri instills Ashima's perspective creates a sense of pathos for Ashima, but, more importantly, reveals the different expectations a married Bengali woman of her position would have about love , compared to a typical modern American woman. Lahiri skillfully uses punctuation to create pause for the reader, which has the effect of increasing the sense of finality of Ashima's assessment of her relationship, which is "not how I am." Lahiri uses potentially the formality of the phrase "not as I am". well-defined moral positions and focuses on the characters' feelings and emotions rather than trying to interpret them, through objective third-person narration, we as readers can infer that it seems to encourage a sympathy for Ashima that she can never expect. hearing affectionate platitudes, such as "I love you" or "darling", from Ashoke due to the incorrectness of the exchange according to Bengali custom. The fact that Ashima doesn't even say "Ashoke's name" even though she "has adopted his last name, but refuses, in fairness, to say his first." Lahiri perhaps allows the reader to glimpse this seemingly intimate detail about the relationships between Ashima and Ashoke to convey how subsumed Ashima is to Ashoke, how she is no longer "Ashima Badhuri", an identity personal to her, but now "Ashima Ganguli", who denotes her status as Ashoke's consort. However, Lahiri notes, “correctness” with its connotations of righteousness and social acceptability, prevents her from being truly connected to Ashoke. We readers notice how at the beginning of the novel, Ashima's grandmother did not expect any "betrayal", predicting that Ashima would "never change". .' This expectation, in which the grandmother represents the broader expectations of Indian society, seems to be a golem looming over Ashima's marriage, reinforcing the old ways. Lahiri's aim here may be to reveal to readers the limitations of traditions and how they can rob a marriage of passion and romance, on the altar ofconformism. Therefore, he explores their relationship through a post-colonial lens, insinuating that their Indian heritage continued to shape them even as they transgressed its physical boundaries, recalling Elizabeth Brewster's phrase, "People are made of places." And so Ashoke and Ashima's relationship is made of the customs of their "place", India, and is portrayed as stifled because of it. In contrast, the Ratliffs' relationship is described as very loving and physically affectionate despite having overcome the birth pangs of young age. Love. We readers witness this, through Gogol's wondering eyes, as Lahiri describes how "noisy they are at the table." This is a deliberate choice by Lahiri to use the adjective "vociferous" as it creates an impression of vehemence and clamor. This is the opposite of dinner with Ashima and Ashoke, as Lahiri tells us through Gogol's perspective, as they are "indifferent to: movies, museum exhibits, good restaurants, the design of everyday things." Lahiri's use of the term "indifferent" illustrates the apathy that the Ganguli's ancestors possess toward the hallmarks of liberal, upper-middle-class American culture that the Ratliffs take for granted. It is clear to readers that Gogol wants his parents to have the same ease with each other as Gerald and Lydia, Maxine's parents, that they can discuss these things with each other. However, Lahiri subtly suggests to readers that this is because of the immense privilege and wealth afforded to them, instead of the constant financial, personal, and social anxieties that first-generation immigrants experience. Lahiri develops this idea further with her vivid image of "the two of them openly kissing" and "taking walks in the city." The key observation here, made by Gogol, is that he "never witnessed a single moment of physical affection between his parents." Lahiri conveys to readers that the Ratliffs are like "Gogol and Maxine," behaving so "openly" because they were raised around Western ideals of love, perpetuated by Hollywood and made possible by their "WASP" wealth. It is almost as if Lahiri created the Ratliffs as the direct antithesis of the Ganguli whose love is a "private and unsung thing", which illuminates the traditional view that intimacy between married individuals must remain hidden and secret rather than explicitly expressed , as it is with Gogol and Maxine, and later with Moushumi. The relationship between Gogol and Maxine is Lahiri's embodiment of the sexual rebellion undertaken by Gogol, almost in defiance of the sexual puritanism his parents experienced. They "skinny dip", which is a remarkably subversive act for Gogol, perhaps more psychologically than physically, due to his parents', particularly Ashima's, discomfort with being publicly undressed, by which he was influenced. Her mother is ashamed when her "Murshidabad silk sari" is removed, as it symbolizes the stripping of her identity and her connection to her Indian past, symbolized by the given name "Murshidabad". Lahiri intends to show readers that Gogol shuns this modesty, rebelling through the sexual act with Maxine, because he wishes above all to distance himself from his parents' lives. Lahiri suggests this through her investigation of his innermost thoughts, revealing that she believes that, when they "make love on the grass wet by their bodies," "he is free." The phrase "he is free" has an almost Freudian concept. , as Lahiri implies, is attracted by what is missing in the model of love that has been shown to him; that his rebellion stems from the sexual repression he experiences secondhand from his parents. Through his sexual rebellion and promiscuity he frees himself.