In "The Namesake," how does Ashoke's death alter relationships within the immediate Ganguli family?

Ashoke's death is the catalyst for the transformation with
Gogol.  Having to retrieve his father's ashes in Ohio causes a change within Gogol.  It
is at this point where so much that had been dismissed or deferred comes back to haunt
Gogol.  The configuration of relationships in the family, with Gogol on the periphery,
seeking his own appropriation of consciousness is something that changes with the death
of his father.  The transformation involves Gogol withdrawing more from Maxine and the
"Westernized" life he had been living, one that he was quite content to live.  It also
encompasses emotionally moving closer to his mother and sister and seeking to find
answers in this realm and not going outside of it.  This transformation of the
relationships in the family is brought on by death for a couple of reasons.  The first
is the immediacy of Ashoke's death.  Considering that he had lived through the train
accident, facilitated a life for his family in America, and had essentially fulfilled
the obligation of the immigrant settling in America, the sudden prospect of his death
causes an inward gravitational pull in the family, most noticeably in Gogol.
Additionally, the death experience in America for the Ganguli is different in American
than it would have been experienced in Bengal.  Consider the opening where the birth of
a child is something that is so isolated in America, and something that is in stark
contrast to the familial and collective setting of India.  In much the same way, the
family emotional dynamics are altered through death to create much of the collective
experience that is so noticeably absent in America.