Rebellion

            Gogol is an extremely independent person. The idea of not having his own identity but rather an identity predetermined rules his decisions. It also consumes his life in a way where the need to find his own identity haunts him at every point, almost like a never-ending high school atmosphere. Because he is obsessed with his image throughout high school, it drives him to rebel against his parents. He starts to smoke weed, goes to college frat parties, has his first kiss, goes to the movies when he tells his parents otherwise, etc. These little rebellions have a snowball effect, and although they don't have an effect on his success (getting accepted to Yale is success in my book), it does have an effect on his family life. He begins to try avoiding his parents once on his own in college. He starts to ignore his Indian heritage, something that was always forced on him by his mother.

           Bit by bit, he starts to break off from the influences his parents have had on him. changing his name, picking architecture as his major, rather than engineering or getting a medical degree. He dates women seriously and even moves in with his second serious girlfriend, whom he loves because she is nothing like his family. All of these are examples of how he strives to make his own identity, rathere than letting his parents choose one for him.