The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a parallel story to Nikolai Gogol's short story, The Overcoat. Gogol's work is praised and mentioned countless times by Lahiri in his writings. The Overcoat tells the story of a man named Akaky Akakievich, who at first is satisfied with his life, but then begins to question his identity. In an attempt to improve himself, he replaces his old overcoat with a new one, and everyone envies him. When his overcoat is stolen, no one lends him a hand. In The Namesake, an overcoat is everyone's identity, a burden that everyone possesses, and it can reveal or hide a character's true colors. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay. Every name is an overcoat. Gogol Ganguli, the main protagonist, is named after Nikolai Gogol, the author of the story that saved his father's life in a huge train accident. “With a slight thrill of recognition, as if he had known it all along, the perfect nickname for his son comes to Ashoke’s mind… ‘Gogol’, he repeats, satisfied” (Lahiri, 28) . This name “was the first thing his father gave him” (Lahiri, 289) and it was presented for a specific purpose. It turns out that Gogol's life resembles that of Akaky. For example, Akaky discovers that his shame may be the result of an ugly overcoat, just as Gogol finds the shame of being Gogol. “He thought that sin might perhaps reside in the overcoat” (Gogol, 400). When Akaky wears his overcoat, Akaky suddenly changes, becoming the complete opposite of himself. During the party, he “dined happily and wrote nothing after dinner…” (Gogol, 410). This is similar to how Gogol transforms when he changes his name to Nikhil. “But now that he's Nikhil, it's easier to ignore his parents, to ignore their worries and their pleas... That's when Nikhil, that first semester, grew a goatee, started smoking Camels Lights at parties…, obtains a false identity card which allows him to be served alcohol…, loses his virginity…” (homonym, 105). By carrying Nikhil, Gogol becomes the version of himself in which he found the most happiness. In doing so, a new character was revealed along with their traits, personality, niches, and tendencies. An overcoat can reveal a character. In the novel, Gogol is involved in a love affair with Maxine Ratliff. The name Maxine means “the greatest, the maximum”. She represents the epiphany of American women: intelligent, sophisticated and sexually uninhibited. Her outgoing personality and openness towards Gogol appealed to him and made him feel like she was perfect for him, therefore being the tallest. “He is curious about her, attracted, flattered by the audacity of her pursuit” (Lahiri, 130). The closer Gogol is to her, the more naked she becomes for him. It is the way she accepts herself that makes her unique and different from Gogol. “She has the gift of accepting her life; as he gets to know her, he realizes that she never wanted to be anyone other than herself, raised elsewhere, in another way. This, in his opinion, is the biggest difference between them, a thing far more foreign to him than the beautiful house she grew up in, her education in private schools” (Lahiri, 138). Just as an overcoat can reveal everything about a character, it is capable of doing quite the opposite. An overcoat can also hide a character. Moushumi means “A moist southwest breeze” (Lahiri, 240). A breeze comes and goes, like Moushumi's past and present. When Gogol had first seen her in pujos while they were, 78).