Arranged Marriage - The Namesake

What is an arranged marriage, you ask? Great question, Reader! According to OxfordDictionaires.com, an arranged marriage is defined as, "a marriage planned and agreed to by the families or guardians of the bride and groom, who have little or no say in the matter themselves." Basically, the parents agree on the marriage, not the the bride and groom themselves.

Now you ask, "How does an arranged marriage fit into the Indian culture?" Again, what a great question, Reader! Arranged marriages in India are very common. They originally came to be when the Hinduism replaced the Vedic religion around 500 B.C.E.

You then ask about how arranged marriages relate to The Namesake. OMG, Reader, you are on fire! Where do you come up with these questions?! In The Namesake, Ashima and Ashoke have an arranged marriage and proves to affect Gogol's life.

Great! All your questions are answered!!

As for Gogol, the arranged marriage could have had bigger effect on him then previously discovered. Brace yourself, this is going to be hard to explain through a computer screen.
Anyways....
A regular marriage is based on love right? Yes, of course. (Well, sometimes... but that's a whole other barrel of monkeys) So, what is an arranged marriage based off of? I believe that an arranged marriage is based on culture. Or in other words, the common ground of marriage is the shared culture.
For Ashima and Ashoke that statement is generally correct.
Now what happens when the marriage that is based on Indian culture moves to a totally different culture, American culture?
From critically reading, it can be seen that the result of the change comes adversity and identity crisis.
For Ashima, especially, the change is really hard. At the beginning of the novel, she feels like she doesn't belong and "nothing feels right". The unfamiliarity and how uncomfortable Ashima is in the new culture has an effect on her marriage and later Gogol. The name 'Gogol' is seen as an example of how the change in culture has been an ordeal.

Despite all that, I feel like Ashima and Ashoke, throughout the book, become more of a caring couple and less of the couple they were at the beginning of the novel, an arranged one.