I Am Who I Am... Or Aren't I?

One major theme, and I believe the most important theme, of The White Castle is the fluidity of identity.  By the end of the novel, the reader is unsure which voice belongs to the Venetian and which to Hoja, and perhaps it does not even matter who is who.  Their identities merge into one.  The separation between east and west is a construct in the same way that the rigid boundaries of identity are a construct.  After several years in each others' company, the Venetian and Hoja mimic each others' vocal patterns, behavioral tics and even thoughts (as the Sultan points out repeatedly).  After sharing so much of themselves, and of their dreams and their most intimate memories, Hoja and the Venetian are finally so inseparable that they literally trade lives.  There can be no better proof that, as the Sultan put it, "people are the same everywhere."