Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake (2003), which was also made into an English-language drama film by Mira Nair in 2006, explores the complexities of identity, family, and cultural displacement. The film follows Ashoke and Ashima, a Bengali couple who immigrated to the United States when they were young. They have a son, Gogol, who is named after the Russian author Nikolai Gogol. Ashima’s journey reveals the emotional weight of building a life between two worlds, the sacrifices of motherhood, and the enduring strength it takes to adapt, love, and let go. The narrative delves into themes of generational conflict, alienation, love, loss, and self-discovery.
Ashima struggles to reconcile her sense of belonging and alienation with her ageing body, which is becoming increasingly unfamiliar to her. Lahiri’s writing brilliantly emphasises a strong essence of dwelling in-between and of unsettlement that connects the discord of Ashima’s ageing body and the space she inhabits. Ashima’s familiarity changes to estrangement and alienation when she moves to Massachusetts after marriage. This sense of alienation continues throughout her life as she ages in a different country and culture, especially after Ashoke’s sudden demise when situations force her to live alone.
Instead of succumbing to sadness, loneliness, and perpetual loss traditionally expected out of a lonely older Indian woman, Ashima’s life changes for the better, marking the transformations and self-discovery that were uncommon among older Indian women. Ashima’s transformative journey of self-discovery is also a part of the Reifungsroman narratives as she navigates her life as an immigrant in the U.S.
As she ages, Ashima’s preconceived ideologies of marriage, widowhood, and motherhood break, and she eventually evolves as an agentic and independent older woman, a character we hardly come across within the larger tales of coming of age, self-evaluation, and transformation. Furthermore, the counternarratives Ashima’s character produces re-centre racial stereotypes of older Indian immigrants in the US.
What is Reifungsroman, and why do we need it?
In her book From the Hearth to the Open Road: A Feminist Study of Aging in Contemporary Literature (1990), Barbara Waxman elaborates on the idea of Reifungsroman. Reifung– a German word, means process of fully growing or ripening; hence, Reifungsroman novels are regarded as ‘novel of ripening,’ in an emotional and philosophical way. Waxman explains Reifungsroman as a genre that extends from the existing Bildungsroman into middle age and old age. This genre depicts the non-stereotypical portrayal made of old people in society.
The narratives produced through this genre narrates the progress of ageing in a graceful manner. Waxman also emphasises the unique and upsetting reality of self-development and self-discovery of older women in contemporary society by stating that “when the curve of self-development is measured, older women are found to grow down and hardly grow up.”
The depiction of old age in other literary genres is in sharp contrast with this particular genre. The most prominent aspect of this genre is the choice of the protagonist. Instead of the clichéd young romantic hero/heroines, who are generally the protagonist, a reifungsroman genre’s protagonist is a mature person who powerfully engages with the world and challenges the misconceptions of old age. Thus, Barbara Waxman’s Reifungsroman offers a counterpoint by reframing ageing as a narrative process characterised by self-discovery, acceptance, and a renewed sense of agency in later life, even within the constraints of societal marginalisation.
Living alone in old age—a blessing in disguise
The concept of living alone in India is extremely gendered. Women in India aren’t raised to live alone—it’s just not part of the playbook. In a deeply collective and close-knit society, the idea of living independently is rarely an option for women. Conservative traditions and societal norms reinforce the belief that women need protection, making it almost taboo to embrace independence. Furthermore, living alone, especially with joy and contentment, is often judged as selfish rather than celebrated as a bold step toward independence, self-reflection, and self-discovery.
For older women, self-discovery can mean reclaiming autonomy, redefining beauty, and challenging ageist stereotypes. It is an act of resistance against narratives that equate ageing with decline, offering instead a vision of ageing as a dynamic and liberating phase.
Living alone is also an ageist construct. Since ageing in India is mainly understood as a period of unavoidable dependency and vulnerability, it is quite unnatural to think about older women’s situation of living alone as a period of individuality and self-discovery. Sarah Lamb’s extensive interviews with older Bengali immigrants in the US reveal how they (especially older women) connect living alone to the trepidations of ‘eka thaka‘ (living singly) and the trauma of the dismantling of traditional family, moral values, and the setting of India’s long-standing ‘intimate ageing,’ culture (older family members living together with the younger people).
In The Namesake, Ashima’s journey of self-discovery and independence begins in her mid-50s, following the sudden death of her husband, Ashoke. Widowhood, here, works as a stepping stone into Ashima’s self-discovery. Although initially marked by trepidation, anxiety, and uncertainty, by the end of The Namesake, Ashima transforms into an empowered and self-assured woman with a clear vision of how she intends to shape the next chapter of her life.
Ashima challenges heteropatriarchal conventions in The Namesake
Ashima’s experience of living alone allows her to alter several heteropatriarchal conventions of marriage, motherhood, and widowhood that she used to have throughout The Namesake. As a sheltered and obedient wife, Ashima initially navigates alienation and exile after she moves to the US with Ashoke, immediately after marriage. She was the reluctant migrant who shared a hostile relationship with her host country and fought all possibilities of assimilation. Ashima’s sense of alienation heightened with her pregnancy as she took great pains to preserve her Bengali traditions and uphold the image of a good, responsible Indian mother that is bestowed on her due to the renewed ideological postcolonial construction of an Indian New Woman, writes Partha Chatterjee.
In Mira Nair’s film adaptation, Nair keeps a scene where Ashima performs the widowhood rituals, crying profusely, although in tremendous shock and disbelief. As an older woman, Ashima puts all of these heteropatriarchal ideologies to rest. Although she had her children with her, Ashima never became overtly dependent on them. She did not live with them, especially Gogol, after his marriage. In a traditional setting, the older mother must reside with the son, his wife, and kids under the same roof. Lamb’s study shows how older generations rely on the concept of intimate ageing, i.e., ageing within the family structure, to hold on to their traditional values of family, life course, and old age. Ashima does not follow that pattern. She also does not encroach on Gogol’s decision to divorce Moushumi, nor does she belittle Moushumi, and rather quietly supports her son’s decision.
Through this, Ashima flouts several stereotypes of an older Indian mother and a mother-in-law. Neither does Ashima intervene in her children’s privacy and choices, nor does she promote the derogatory images of a belligerent mother-in-law. Instead, Ashima takes a positive attitude towards life, makes new friends at the library, her workplace, and decides to split her time between India and the US and pursue her long-lost passion for music .
The Namesake and changing the narratives of marginality through self-discovery
As poet May Sarton quotes, “Alone we can afford to be wholly whatever we are, and to feel whatever we feel absolutely. That is a great luxury!” self-discovery at an older age is a profound and transformative journey, often shaped by life experiences, loss, and the redefinition of one’s identity. Contrary to societal assumptions that self-discovery is a pursuit reserved only for youth, ageing offers unique opportunities for introspection and growth. This process is particularly significant for women, who often navigate layers of societal and familial expectations throughout their lives. For older women, self-discovery can mean reclaiming autonomy, redefining beauty, and challenging ageist stereotypes. It is an act of resistance against narratives that equate ageing with decline, offering instead a vision of ageing as a dynamic and liberating phase.
Ashima is not a protestor in the novel, The Namesake. She never questions her position in the family or society; instead, her life is a continuous process of adaptation and adjustment, and through all these alterations, she culminates into the agentic and confident version of herself by the end of the film. She does not fight or struggle for certain rights or the greater good of the Indian community in the diaspora. Yet Ashima’s sense of subversion can be understood through the way she re-invents herself repeatedly, writes Shammeem, 2009.
Ashima’s choices also break the stereotypes and singularities that exist and that typically define South Asian immigrant women, offering a refreshing counterpoint to these reductive ideations. What makes Ashima truly remarkable is the complexity and unpredictability of her character. Though shaped by a patriarchal upbringing, she evolves in ways that set her apart, revealing layers of strength, adaptability, and individuality absent in other members of the Ganguli family. Ashima stands as a dynamic figure, breaking boundaries and redefining what it means to age as an immigrant woman. Ashima’s journey, like Ashoke advised his son, is indeed one that “came out of Gogol’s Overcoat.”
References:
- Chatterjee, Partha. “Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized Women: The Contest in India.” American Ethnologist 16, no. 4 (1989): 622–633.
- Lamb, Sarah. Aging and the Indian Diaspora: Cosmopolitan Families in India and Abroad. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.
- Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Feminist Review 30 (1988): 61–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/13950
- M, Asma. “Single Woman In The City: Of Living Alone, Fear & Freedom.” Feminism in India, March 26, 2021. https://feminisminindia.com/2023/07/11/single-woman-in-the-city-living-alone-fear-freedom/
- Shameem, M. “Growing Up as an Individual: Ashima Ganguli in The Namesake.” Crossings: A Journal of English Studies 2, no. 1 (2009): 109–115. https://doi.org/10.59817/cjes.v2i1.402.
- Taub, Ruth. “Alone We Can Afford to Be Wholly Whatever We Are, and to Feel Whatever We Feel Absolutely. That Is a Great Luxury!” In Women and Solitude: Essays on the Pursuit of Independence, edited by Linda M. Grasso and Estelle C. Jelinek, page range. New York: Northeastern University Press, 2016.
- Waxman, Barbara, Frey. “From ‘Bildungsroman’ To ‘Reifungsroman’: Aging in Doris Lessing’s Fiction.” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 68, no. 3 (1985): 318–34. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41178344.
- Waxman, Barbara. From the Hearth to the Open Road: A Feminist Study of Aging in Contemporary Literature. 1990. New York: Greenwood Press
About the author(s)
Madhurima Guha is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Gender Studies at Arizona State University, USA. She earned her BA, MA & MPhil from Jadavpur University. Her Doctoral thesis focuses on non-normative representations of ageing Indian women, their sexualities, desires, and subversive actions in cinema.
