Jhumpa Lahiri – The Namesake – Exam Based MCQs
1. The Namesake is written by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Arundhati Roy
B) Anita Desai
C) Jhumpa Lahiri
D) Kiran Desai
Ans: C) Jhumpa Lahiri
2. The Namesake was published in: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) 1999
B) 2001
C) 2003
D) 2008
Ans: C) 2003
3. The Namesake is Jhumpa Lahiri’s: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) first novel
B) second novel
C) first play
D) autobiography
Ans: A) first novel
4. The novel mainly centers on which family? (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) The Das family
B) The Ganguli family
C) The Chatterjee family
D) The Banerjee family
Ans: B) The Ganguli family
5. The protagonist of the novel is: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Ashoke
B) Gogol / Nikhil Ganguli
C) Maxine
D) Moushumi
Ans: B) Gogol / Nikhil Ganguli
6. Gogol’s father is: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Ashoke Ganguli
B) Amit Ganguli
C) Anil Ganguli
D) Bikram Ganguli
Ans: A) Ashoke Ganguli
7. Gogol’s mother is: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Sonia
B) Moushumi
C) Ashima Ganguli
D) Ruth
Ans: C) Ashima Ganguli
8. The story begins with Ashima and Ashoke living in: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) London
B) Kolkata
C) Cambridge, Massachusetts
D) San Francisco
Ans: C) Cambridge, Massachusetts
9. Ashoke is in America primarily because he is: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) a businessman
B) an engineering student
C) a diplomat
D) a doctor
Ans: B) an engineering student
10. Gogol’s name is taken from the Russian writer: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) Leo Tolstoy
B) Fyodor Dostoevsky
C) Anton Chekhov
D) Nikolai Gogol
Ans: D) Nikolai Gogol
11. Ashoke chooses the name Gogol because: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) it is his grandfather’s name
B) it saved his life emotionally after a train accident
C) it was Ashima’s choice
D) it is a common Bengali name
Ans: B) it saved his life emotionally after a train accident
12. In Bengali custom, a child often has: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) no formal name
B) only a public name
C) a pet name and a good name
D) three surnames
Ans: C) a pet name and a good name
13. Gogol later changes his name legally to: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Ashoke
B) Nikhil
C) Amit
D) Nilanjan
Ans: B) Nikhil
14. Gogol’s legal name change symbolizes his: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) rejection of all education
B) struggle with identity
C) desire to become a writer
D) hatred of America
Ans: B) struggle with identity
15. A central theme of the novel is: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) medieval warfare
B) migration, identity, and belonging
C) industrial capitalism only
D) detective mystery
Ans: B) migration, identity, and belonging
16. Ashima’s experience in America is marked by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) immediate happiness
B) isolation and homesickness
C) political activism
D) complete rejection of Indian culture
Ans: B) isolation and homesickness
17. Gogol studies: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) medicine
B) law
C) architecture
D) economics
Ans: C) architecture
18. Gogol’s sister is: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) Ruth
B) Sonia
C) Moushumi
D) Maxine
Ans: B) Sonia
19. Gogol’s college girlfriend is: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Maxine
B) Moushumi
C) Ruth
D) Kim
Ans: C) Ruth
20. Gogol later becomes involved with: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Maxine Ratliff
B) Ashima Sen
C) Lilia Kapoor
D) Hema
Ans: A) Maxine Ratliff
21. Maxine represents for Gogol: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) traditional Bengali domesticity
B) an affluent, assimilated American world
C) religious discipline
D) academic competition only
Ans: B) an affluent, assimilated American world
22. Gogol eventually marries: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Ruth
B) Sonia
C) Moushumi
D) Maxine
Ans: C) Moushumi
23. Moushumi is best described as: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) a Bengali American woman with her own identity struggles
B) an American schoolteacher
C) Ashima’s cousin in Calcutta
D) Gogol’s sister
Ans: A) a Bengali American woman with her own identity struggles
24. Gogol and Moushumi’s marriage ultimately: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) becomes stronger after moving to India
B) ends in separation
C) is never legally valid
D) is prevented by Ashima
Ans: B) ends in separation
25. Ashoke dies while working in: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Cleveland
B) Chicago
C) Boston
D) Ohio State area / near Cleveland
Ans: D) Ohio State area / near Cleveland
26. Ashoke’s death becomes a turning point mainly for: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Ashima’s rejection of family
B) Gogol’s reconnection with family and heritage
C) Sonia’s move to Europe
D) Ruth’s marriage
Ans: B) Gogol’s reconnection with family and heritage
27. A key conflict in the novel is between: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) village and city law
B) inherited tradition and individual self-fashioning
C) monarchy and democracy
D) science and religion only
Ans: B) inherited tradition and individual self-fashioning
28. The novel’s title refers primarily to: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Gogol’s identity crisis around his name
B) only Ashoke’s surname
C) Moushumi’s career
D) a legal immigration case
Ans: A) Gogol’s identity crisis around his name
29. The train accident in Ashoke’s youth is significant because it: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) prevents his marriage
B) leads him to value books and fate differently
C) forces him into politics
D) separates him from Ashima forever
Ans: B) leads him to value books and fate differently
30. The novel moves between which two main cultural spaces? (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) India and the United States
B) India and Canada
C) England and France
D) America and Mexico
Ans: A) India and the United States
31. Jhumpa Lahiri’s prose in The Namesake is best described as: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) dense and highly experimental
B) restrained, lucid, and observant
C) comic and exaggerated throughout
D) mythic and surreal
Ans: B) restrained, lucid, and observant
32. The novel is especially associated with: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) immigrant fiction and diaspora identity
B) Gothic horror
C) war literature
D) absurd drama
Ans: A) immigrant fiction and diaspora identity
33. Ashima’s gradual adaptation to America suggests: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) total assimilation without loss
B) a complex negotiation between cultures
C) permanent rejection of Bengali life
D) immediate freedom from loneliness
Ans: B) a complex negotiation between cultures
34. The novel is NOT mainly about: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) naming and identity
B) immigration and family
C) generational tension
D) supernatural revenge
Ans: D) supernatural revenge
35. Which statement is TRUE about The Namesake? (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) It is Jhumpa Lahiri’s first novel, published in 2003
B) It is a short story from 1999 only
C) It is set only in Kolkata
D) It has no family theme
Ans: A) It is Jhumpa Lahiri’s first novel, published in 2003
36. Gogol’s discomfort with his name reflects his discomfort with: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) architecture
B) cultural inheritance and selfhood
C) literature only
D) marriage alone
Ans: B) cultural inheritance and selfhood
37. The Ratliff family mainly highlights for Gogol: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) his total rejection of America
B) an alternative model of elite American domestic life
C) Bengali ritual life
D) legal pressure from immigrants
Ans: B) an alternative model of elite American domestic life
38. The breakdown of Gogol and Moushumi’s marriage suggests: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) cultural similarity alone guarantees intimacy
B) identity remains complicated even within shared ethnicity
C) family always destroys love
D) education is harmful
Ans: B) identity remains complicated even within shared ethnicity
39. The best short description of the novel is: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) a diasporic family novel about naming, identity, and belonging
B) a war thriller
C) a detective romance
D) a Gothic fantasy
Ans: A) a diasporic family novel about naming, identity, and belonging
40. The novel’s structure mainly follows: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) a single day
B) Gogol’s development across childhood to adulthood
C) courtroom testimony only
D) alternating war diaries
Ans: B) Gogol’s development across childhood to adulthood
41. The novel’s treatment of family is best understood as: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) purely comic
B) intimate, realistic, and culturally layered
C) symbolic only
D) mythological
Ans: B) intimate, realistic, and culturally layered
42. Lahiri’s novel suggests that names can function as: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) random labels without meaning
B) sites of memory, identity, and cultural tension
C) legal technicalities only
D) comic devices only
Ans: B) sites of memory, identity, and cultural tension
43. The novel is especially useful for discussing: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) naming, diaspora, and second-generation identity
B) medieval kingship
C) environmental disaster
D) magical realism only
Ans: A) naming, diaspora, and second-generation identity
44. Gogol’s final reflection at the end of the novel is linked to: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Ashoke’s gift of Gogol’s book
B) Maxine’s letter
C) Ruth’s return
D) Moushumi’s apology
Ans: A) Ashoke’s gift of Gogol’s book
45. The ending suggests that Gogol: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) has fully solved every identity problem
B) begins to understand the emotional meaning of his name and inheritance
C) leaves America forever with Maxine
D) refuses all connection to Ashoke
Ans: B) begins to understand the emotional meaning of his name and inheritance
46. The novel’s broader message is that immigrant identity is: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) fixed and simple
B) layered, evolving, and often conflicted
C) meaningless
D) determined only by law
Ans: B) layered, evolving, and often conflicted
47. The film adaptation of The Namesake was released in: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) 2004
B) 2006
C) 2008
D) 2010
Ans: B) 2006
48. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake is admired especially for its: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) epic battle scenes
B) emotional subtlety and diasporic insight
C) comic absurdity only
D) supernatural plot
Ans: B) emotional subtlety and diasporic insight
49. Which statement is TRUE about The Namesake? (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) It follows a Bengali immigrant family in America and explores the problem of identity through Gogol’s name
B) It is set only in London and Paris
C) It is a purely comic novel with no family conflict
D) It rejects all cultural memory
Ans: A) It follows a Bengali immigrant family in America and explores the problem of identity through Gogol’s name
50. The overall message of The Namesake is that: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) identity is shaped through memory, family, migration, and cultural negotiation
B) names have no real significance
C) assimilation is always complete and painless
D) family tradition should always be rejected
Ans: A) identity is shaped through memory, family, migration, and cultural negotiation
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