Post B # 6

In this section, Gogol becomes closer to Maxine as their relationship progresses, but then breaks up with her. Things seemed to be going well (except for the fact that Gogol's parents didn't like her because she seems to be the "dumb American blond" type. Then one day, Ashima gets an unexpected phone call saying that her husband has died in the hospital. When Nikhil hears that his father had died, it begins the process of him getting closer to his family, and farther apart from Maxine. It started when he said he was going to see his mom, something he would have never done before. She told him to check himself into a hotel, but instead he just slept at his father's apartment. I didn't think much of this, but it was the first time he had "defied" (if it can even be called that) her. It suprised me how in the next pages, he spends most of his time with his mother and Sonia. I understand that it is his father who died, but I guess I was suprised that he wasn't so estranged that he would completely not care. A passage that supports this happens when Maxine comes up to visit after the eleven day mourning period. She asks him if he wants to go to New Hampshire after this, to get away. His answer is, "I don't want to get away" (182). He is changing, and now wants more to do with his family, and wants to do more of what his mother wants of him. After his father died, he began to spend more nights with his family, and the nights he spent with Maxine were quieter. She dealt with this for a while, but the last straw was pulled when she was not invited to go with them to Calcutta. After that, Nikhil and Maxine decided it was best to stop seeing each other. I was actually suprised by this, because thus far in the novel, I thought that the life of the Ratliffe's was exactly what Nikhil wanted. With them, he fit in.