I like these two chapters because they seem to progress a change in attitude within Gogol.
In Chapter 4, Gogol has become a teenager and is aware of the strangeness of his name. Gogol abhors his name even more when his English teacher discusses the dark, depressing life of Nikolai Gogol. In Chapter 5, Gogol officially changes his name to Nikhil. Even though he gets rid of the name he hates so much, he feels "as if he's cast himself in a play, acting the part of twins, indistinguishable to the naked eye yet fundamentally different." Towards the end of the chapter, Ashoke finally tells Gogol of the train accident, the real reason why he's named Gogol. When Gogol asks his father if he is reminded of the accident because of him, Ashoke replies, "Not at all...You remind me of everything that followed."
Gogol goes from hating his name, to trying to reconcile his past and present identities, to possibly beginning to accept it. After his father's story, it suddenly dawns on Gogol that his name "means something completely new, bound up with a catastrophe he has unwittingly embodied for years." I think these chapters foreshadow a transformation that Gogol will go through as he accepts who he is and learns more about who his family is.
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