The Namesake Belonging

“Some people claim that a person’s cultural identity is the foundation or groundwork on which every other aspect of their being is built” (No Bullying). That describes exactly what Gogol in the novel, The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri is trying to discover about himself through his name. Almost every aspect of this novel have to do with Gogol and his journey with his companions and family to find his sense of belonging through his culture. Lahiri uses the manipulation of time in this novel in order to positively accentuate one's process and struggles of discovering their true cultural identity. Throughout the novel, the author seems to accelerate time when Gogol’s life is not impacted with problems, but she suspends time when he faces conflict
This occurs when Gogol's father, Ashoke, process the readers with a flashback of his experience of the train accident. That flashback was necessary due to the fact that it shows the background story of how Gogol received his name. This is very similar to the television show, Once Upon A Time, since they provide past insight in order to explain the event that is occurring currently, as they switch back and forth between the sequence of events. That type of time manipulation is significant because his constant struggle with his true self identity is all rooted from his name. As a final point, Lahiri’s sequence of time in this novel greatly influenced how Gogol's gourmet with discovering his true cultural identity is perceived. In that case, the acceleration and suspension of time marks specific events in the novel where Gogol and his connection with this cultural identity is the most significant. As a result, she the story unfolds, the reader’s understanding of Gogol and his struggles with his name is relatively