While watching the movie Friday I noticed something rather interesting. While Gogol’s teacher teaches about Nikolai Gogol , a student sitting behind Gogol stands up for him when another student insults Gogol. At first I did not find this all that strange, only later in the film when Gogol is hanging out with three classmates did I realize this interesting discrepancy from the book. Suddenly it occurred to me that Lahiri never has a scene where Gogol appears to have any real friends. The closest Gogol comes to having a friend in the book is either his girlfriends, all of whom he immediately abandons after breaking up with them, or the “friends” he makes when going out with Moushumi. I found this discrepancy very intriguing. When I read The Namesake I always pictured Gogol as somewhat of an outcast, really having no or few friends and spending most of his time by himself. When watching the movie I don’t have that same image of Gogol, he seems more like an average teenager who only gets picked on by the select few who, more than likely, make fun of everyone. I feel the movie paints a much more solid picture of Gogol as an insecure, self-conscious child, while the book shows Gogol as really being how he feels. Granted the majority of the picture we get of Gogol comes from himself and therefore he would appear that way, I still find it unusual that from all the other perspectives in the book Gogol never appears with a general friend.
While Lahiri does not talk much about Gogol's friends she dose mention them at various points of the book. During Gogol's time in high school Lahiri mentions Gogol and his group of friends spending time listening to certain types of music together and smoking together or going to see concerts together without his parents knowledge. So while Lahiri does not emphasize the friends she does discuss the friends Gogol had in high school.
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