Why does the narrator continue to refer to Gogol as Gogol, even after he changes his name to Nikhil? I thought maybe she was making a comment on the impossibility of changing your identity after a certain point in life, especially by just having a legal pronouncement made.
What do you think is the significance of Gogol being an architect? I always think of an architect as someone between an artist and an engineer. His dad was an engineer. And wasn't his grandpa an artist? There was a notion that Indian immigrants to American always went for the successful, scientific-type jobs — employment that provided for their families but didn't necessarily nurture the soul.
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I think you've got the right idea on both counts here.
Gogol could change what everyone called him, but he was still Gogol in his heart. He couldn't truly change who he was.
And architecture is sort of between artist and engineer. It took the artist element from his grandfather and his own natural proclivity, and the engineering thing from his father and "uncles" in America. Gogol was always a blend of things, Indian and American, traditional and modern, etc.
Ooh, I just thought of this, rereading your comment: Do you think there was any notion in the book that being a "blend" of things, as you put it, involved the idea of dilution?
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