The issue of class has a big impact on Changez’s hybridity and shows the divide between his life in England and his ties to his native country of India. Changez demonstrates and seems to embrace the internalized racism prevalent in British culture and looks down upon other Indians/Pakistanis who he perceives to be inferior to him: “’Look at that low-class person…the reason there is this bad racialism is because they are so dirty, so rough-looking, so bad mannered’” (Kureishi, 210). Changez deems anybody he sees on the street with brown skin to be lower-status and expects them to fully assimilate as fully as he feels that he has. He rejects his past in India and spends his time out shopping for fine things and cheating on his wife, flaunting his new-found Westerness to his Indian relations (Kureishi, 210). Bhabha writes that “the migrant is empowered to intervene actively in the transmission of cultural inheritance or ‘tradition’…rather than passively accept its venerable customs and pedagogical wisdom (McLeod, 253). I feel that hybridity allows for migrants such as Changez to choose which aspects of their former and adopted cultures form their own unique identity. This formation of sense of self is definitely not always a conscious decision on the part of the person and is susceptible to all of the prejudices, institutional racism, and feelings of inferiority that come with being a minority in a society full of privileged others.
Dr. Campbell talks about the concept of hybridity in in the above video and explains how immigrants and those of mixed race descent can create their own unique identities. Changez has embraced all things white and has adopted a white identity for himself, even if he is a person of colour and will never be accepted as white by anybody else. He has kept alive the colonial tendency to view the British as superior and in doing so is actively contributing to the remaining oppression against other people of colour. The chart listed below shows how people of colour have much higher unemployment rates than white British do and can reveal the institutionalized racism that leads Changez to believe that anybody with brown skin is low-class and unwilling to assimilate. With 25% of certain populations unable to find work it is not a surprise that some of these people take the low-paying and not glamorous jobs that don't allow them the luxury of being able to purchase fine clothes or practice to speak with perfect diction. Changez deals with his internal feelings of inadequacy by otherizing fellow immigrants and people of colour and embracing the same prejudices and stereotypes that make him hate himself.
The evolution of Gogol's name parallels that of him growing up and embracing his American identity and furthers the cultural divide between him and his parents and their native culture. The transition from Gogol to Nikhil/Nick created two identities: He is Nikhil to everyone he has known in his American college and professional life yet to his parents, Sonia, and their friends and family in America and Calcutta he will always be Gogol. Gogol will never lose the connection to his Indian heritage yet it is obvious from the reading that he has fully embraced being an American and is more comfortable in the nation of his birth. I feel that the fact that Gogol is not a traditional Indian name may have had something to do with Gogol embracing American culture over Indian. Gogol is a very unique and unusual name and people do not associate it with any specific country of origin and I feel that if his pet name had been something more traditional than he would have been more understanding of his parents culture. Gogol will always be reminded of his pet name from those who knew him before Nikhil and he struggled with accepting that to his parents and sister he will always be Gogol. After Gogol gets married and starts to plan for having children with his wife he realizes that names aren't everything like he had thought when he was a child. The following passage from the novel shows how much Gogol has matured and has finally gotten over his hatred of his pet name: “There's no such thing as the perfect name. I think human beings should be allowed to name themselves when they turn eighteen...[u]ntil then, pronouns” (245).
The Namesake is actually one of my favorite books from when I was a kid and it was really interesting to revisit it again in an academic setting and apply the concepts and themes of postcolonialism and our course to the readings. I first read the story when I was a sophomore in high school and mainly enjoyed the book due to the personal connection that I felt to all of the significant places and locations that Gogol finds himself in throughout the story. I have spent three months of every summer since I was eight attending and then working at a summer camp on a beautiful lake in New Hampshire, I grew up in southwestern Connecticut and know New Haven and the Yale campus well, visit Boston multiple times a year and hope to move there after graduation, and have spent a lot of time in New York City visiting my grandparents in Manhattan and my parents' alma matter Columbia University. It was exciting for me to read about seemingly mundane experiences like taking the train into the city or walking down Newberry Street and being able to picture what Gogol was going through. After reading the book again I can actually see some similarities between my life and Gogol's experiences going "home" to Calcutta and his discomfort in his parent's nation of birth. My dad's family is composed of mainly Polish Jews who emigrated to Canada in the early 1930's and have humorously become some of the most proud and assimilated French-Canadians that Quebec has ever seen. My dad was born in Montreal and moved to New York when he went to Columbia and I still find it strange to think of him as an immigrant and of myself as the son of an immigrant. When I was younger I was always encouraged by my relatives to the north to learn French, similar to how it was lamented by the family in Calcutta that Gogol did not speak Bengali. My relatives are very supportive of Quebec remaining a francophone province and are very protective of what they see as the superior culture of French Canada. The cultural differences differences between America and Canada are more compatible than those between India and America but I feel solidarity with Gogol and our shared experiences of awkward visits to foreign lands.
