Belonging Namesake

BELONGING
The concept of Belonging is a multi-layered concept, particularly in the novel "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri, the news article "Burqas and Fries" by Erika Hayasaki and the play "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare.
A person's sense of belonging is determined by the relationships they share with themselves and other people. Whether it's family, friends or society in general, humans have a desire to belong and be an important part of something greater than themselves. The ideology that one must belong to oneself before they can belong anywhere else, justifies this complexity of someone's Identity and the Relationships they share. These two concepts both encapsulate the notion of Belonging being a multi-layered concept and are fostered into each of the composer's texts coherently.

In the novel "The Namesake", Lahiri conveys the concept of belonging and identity through the characterisation of Gogol (the main protagonist of the story) and the symbolic nature of his name. Contrasting Gogol's adult life to his adolescence, his sense of belonging is never as natural, innocent or playful. Gogol has to work towards achieving a feeling of belonging and to understand himself as a person. Torn between his Bengali and American culture because of his name, his struggle with his cultural identity causes him to gain a sense of alienation. In the event where Gogol attends an ABCD meeting, Lahiri uses the symbol of his name in the quote "Living with a pet name and a good name, in a place where such distinctions do not exist - surely that was emblematic of the greatest confusion of all" to express the microcosm of his world and then later on harnesses the simile "Feeling as if an errata slip were perpetually pinned to his chest" in connection with his new name to represent the rejection of his new found sense of belonging. Furthermore, the quote, "...there's a snag, everyone he knows in the world still calls him Gogol"(pg93) accentuates Lahiri's purpose in showing that Nikhil's re-invention of himself ironically guides him to become further away from belonging than he intended. Lahiri's integration of Gogol's name as a symbol and his unique characterisation reflects the complicated nature of Gogol's struggle with his identity, mirroring the multi-layered notion of Belonging.

Parallel to Gogol's identity confusion, in the news article "Burqas and Fries" Hayasaki uses rhetorical questions, and personal opinion to display a young girl called Hiba's similar Identity Confusion. Hayasaki's use of rhetorical questions communicates the girls acquired sense of cultural exclusion. The quotes "Hiba knows: she is a Muslim teenager living in America. But what does this mean?" and "...can she still be a good Muslim even though she doesn't dress in a hijab or pray five times a day? Is going to the prom sinful? Is Punk...?" are both used to emphasize her sense of confusion from her lack of cultural belonging and at the same time, give the reader a sensitive insight into her frame of mind. Hiba's resolution of her problem involves Hayasaki's use of personal opinion. At the end of the news piece she writes, "Hiba says she now knows she is a Taqwacore. But the term has taken on a new meaning for her. She says, "I think a Taqwacore can be anyone who is trying to find their own way." Her reflection at the end of the article is significant in showing the diverse link between Identity and Belonging. Showing how sometimes belonging can contain a fluid nature and how easy it can change over a short period of time, once again illuminating the idea that Belonging is a multi-layered concept.

Like the importance of Identity, Relationships and above all family, are central to our sense of belonging. In "The Namesake", Lahiri makes a clear line between family and culture through the Ganguli family. Even though there are some family tensions, they all provide a penultimate sense of belonging for each other. For the entirety of the novel, Gogol and his sister Sonia have rejected their parents' culture, but through Lahiri's manifestation of time in the novel and the use of 3rdperson narration, he and his sister realise the importance of the family unit to belonging. Through the passing of time, Gogol's father Ashoke dies, reuniting the family once again at home but ironically bringing them closer together as a family effectively re-birthing their old family ties. The narration allows the reader to gain an insight into the thoughts of each Ganguli, creating a multi-layered effect of different thoughts and opinions on the specific event.
Comparable to this and Identity, the play "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, articulates the major theme of family identity in contrast to the passion of truelove. In the infamous balcony scene (Act II, Scene ii), Shakespeare use rhetorical question and simile respectively in the quote "'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; What's in a name? That which we call a rose/by any other word would smell as sweet;" to demonstrate this contrast. Juliet is perplexed about Romeo in spite of his physical belonging to the hated Montagues. Shakespeare does this show how her undeniable infatuation breaks these bounds only limited by Romeo's family name, creating an unbreakable sense of belonging so complex that nothing that defines either one as person can affect it. Here, Shakespeare is commenting on no-matter how disillusioned an individual is, their name doesn't define who they are or create a sense of belonging. Only with themselves can they achieve this.

Each of these composers has cohesively used textual features to represent different concepts of belonging. These concepts differ from one another but all converse the same idea of a multi-layered concept, how belonging is first found with a sense of self before anything else. As John O'Donohue once said "Belonging has to be chosen, received and renewed. The hunger to belong is not merely a desire to be attached to something. It is rather sensing that great transformation and discovery of one's self. It is a lifetimes work to belong."