Similarly she teaches the newly arrived Bengali wives how to make halwa from Cream of Wheat, she fries the shrimp cutlets in sauce pans, and she and the other Bengalis drink tea with evaporated milk (38). While she is still pregnant with Gogol, she tries to reproduce the snack from Calcutta she likes so much with Rice Krispies, peanuts and chopped red onion, all products bought in America, but she only gets to a “humble approximation” (Lahiri 1). From the very first moment Ashima moves to the United States, she adapts American products to cater to her needs. In The Namesake, American products are being constantly adapted to suit the Bengali traditions. Although American products can get adapted to other cultural traditions as Wasserstrom argues, Ashima and Gogol’s relationships to the food they consume suggest that the adaptation to America and its products is far more complex, making food not only a link to old traditions but also an important component of the Americanization of the new generations. Moreover, Gogol’s relationship with food implies that “as generations settle in, the food, like the ethnic group itself, becomes subsumed into American culture” (25). As Ali argues in his essay “The Subway Falafel Sandwich and the Americanization of Ethnic Food,” some quality of the original product must be sacrificed to fit the American standards (26) and such is the case with the Bengali food traditions in the novel. However, these very Bengali traditions become “Americanized” in the process. The characters, especially Ashima, tend to adapt American products to their own traditions. Throughout the novel, food plays an important role as a link between the characters and their Bengali roots. These characters do not receive the American products in their native country as Wasserstrom argues nevertheless, when the Gangulis first move to the USA they create their own little Calcutta where they gradually let in the influence of America. Yet, when looking closely at the characters of Ashima and Gogol and their relationship with food in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake, we learn that this is not quite the case. Wasserstrom claims that “American products on distinctly new cultural meanings when moved from the US” (22) into other cultures, and that it is superficial of us to equate globalization with Americanization. In his essay “A Mickey Mouse Approach to Globalization” Jeffrey N.

Jhumpa lahiri's novel the namesake