In the Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, the reader encounters the story of one of the main characters, Mustafa Sa'eed. In Cultural Identity and Diaspora by Stuart Halls, we gain insight into what forms an identity and what shapes it to be the way it is. During the season of migration to the north, the narrator attempts to discover Sa'eed's true identity, but instead also finds himself. Cultural differences help shape one's identity into one's being, versus what they become. Halls' article on cultural identity can be related to the experience the narrator goes through to find out more about the mysterious Mustafa Sa'eed. Stuart Hall's article explains how a person's voice representing themselves says a lot about them. Then he continues by asking: “Where is he coming from? Practices of representation always involve the positions from which we speak or write – the positions of enunciation” (Pavilion 222). The way we speak can reveal almost everything, from guessing your country of origin, to your level of education, and can even go as far as being a clear indicator of your social class. That is why in the novel the beginning is introduced by an unnamed character who returns to his small and simple hometown of Wad Hamid, after studying in Europe for seven years. The unnamed character (who will be called "the narrator" for the purpose of establishing the character's identity) becomes mesmerized by the cool and mysterious atmosphere he receives from Sa'eed. The narrator is annoyed by the questions asked around him about his long adventure in Europe. The narrator believes that due to the disadvantages in terms of economic progress and education development that are not available in...... middle of paper...... "a people" with colonization efforts, changes at the end of the novel. Eventually he realizes that he is metaphorically "stuck in a river" from which he has no hope of getting out. The effects of colonization put his "being" to the test. Through the "diaspora experience" that Mustafa Sa'eed and the narrator end up having, the audience sees how, although very similar, their cultural identities were far from identical. In the narrator's efforts to uncover the misfortunes of what Sa'eed was going through and why he chose the life he did, we see the narrator "becoming." Unlike Sa'eed, he is not fixed, and although at first he is a little worried that he would let himself die by drowning in the river, the audience understands the difference between the two characters when the narrator chooses to save his life out of need . smoke a cigarette.