The ending of The Namesake brought everything full circle for the reader. It had mirror-like quality in the way things turned out. Gogol was single again and he was learning about his namesake and understanding his parents better. Moushumi and Gogols marriage ended in a way that seemed as if it was destined to fail from early on. He found out about her affair, purely by accident when she mentioned her lovers name to him. Although he did not expect it, the fact that she was having an affair was not a surprise for him. It seems as if, although he did not consciously let himself think it, he knew that their marriage was ending. When she mentioned Dimitri, he simply asked her if she was having an affair. Although he had not considered it before, it was not sudden. They agreed to end their marriage and parted somewhat amicably. Neither was to blame any more than the other. Gogol did not tell Moushumi how he truly felt about many things like her friends and some of her actions. That lack of communication strained their relationship. Moushumi promised herself that she would never become dependant on a man like her mother was dependant on her father. These things prevented them from getting close emotionally, the way many married couples get. It created a chasm, so to speak, that they were simply unable to cross. Partially in response to this, Moushumi went looking for more than she got out of her marriage to Gogol. This caused them to draw apart from each other even more. The marriage was not meant to be in that neither Gogol nor Moushumi was interested in putting in the extra effort to make it work out. At the end of the book, Gogol has finally grown up. He has an understanding of life, love, and death that he never had before. He has come to truly appreciate his parents and his Indian heritage in a way that he never did before. No longer tied down by the guilt of ignoring his Indian side, the feeling that he should appreciate it more