Echoes of an Autobiography

          In Naguib Mahfouz's Echoes of an Autobiography, Mahfouz has compiled numerous short stories and tales that shine light into his long-lived life.  Through his provision of these small accounts from different periods of his life with little order or structure, it can be understood that each and every one of these sections has its own lesson to give.  Upon looking back at these particular instances in his life, Mahfouz has culminated the messages that he has leaned over his years of experience that he deems crucial to be heard and taken to heart by his audience.
          Personally, I appreciate the second half of Mahfouz's piece in particular.  In these passages, Mahfouz makes continuous references to Sheikh Abd-Rabbih al-Ta'ih.  The Sheikh is obviously a man who Mahfouz holds in high regard and he has carefully placed the lessons that he learned from him within his book.  This is one way that we are able to see the Echoes being played out throughout the book.  The lessons that the Sheikh has taught Mahfouz resound through his life and have affected him in such a way that Mahfouz considered them such a substantial part of his existence that they deserve a place in his memoirs.  
          The lesson from the Sheikh that resounded in me was the passage where he draws the distinction between mercy and justice.  In the passage 'The End of the Ordeal', Mahfouz asks the Sheikh "How will the ordeal we are suffering end?" to which the Sheikh replies "If we come out safe, that is mercy; and if we come out doomed, that is justice" (91).  Taking into consideration my own Christian background, while understanding that the Muslim faith contains many of the same basic principles concerning God's providence and man's ability to be saved, I was left to consider what this section actually says.  It would seem that the Sheikh is saying that mankind is deserving of its suffering here on earth.  It is just that we all come to a final period of death.  It is only through the good grace of some higher being that we could ever hope to prosper unscathed.  That would be a true example of mercy from some one/thing who provides and cares for its creation.

A Tale of Love and Darkness

            In Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness, Oz gives an account of his life growing up in the tumultuous city of Jerusalem.  The time period that Oz is describing in his autobiography is directly following the Second World War.  And, considering that Jerusalem was the center of the Zionist movement that Oz saw firsthand, there were some obvious implications when many Jews did not return back to their religious genesis.  That is, those Jews that did not return may very well have been killed by the Germans and Hitler’s attempt to create a perfect uniform race of people to dominate the world.  It is because of this realization that Oz begins to recognize from a young age that he wished to leave behind a legacy after his own death.  That by “becoming a book”, Oz would be able to leave an impression that would last longer than his physical self.  As he writes;

Because it was slowly dawning on those whose families had not arrived in Israel that the Germans had killed them all…. if I grew up to be a book, there was a good chance that at least one copy might manage to survive, if not here then in some other country, in some city, in some remote library, in a corner of some godforsaken bookcase. After all, I had seen with my own eyes how books manage to hide in the dusty darkness between the crowded rows, underneath heaps of offprints and journals, or find a hiding place behind other books. (298-9)

            Here we can see the obvious implications towards Oz’s becoming the renowned author that he has become.  Sense, as he grew up he realized that ‘becoming’ a book was slightly out of his ability, he needed to find another way to leave behind his impression.  It is for this reason that we see the progression of the autobiography take the route it does.  In an attempt to make his mark and be remembered more so than all the other Zionist Jews, Oz took to writing and has become quite successful in fulfilling his desire.    

Omeros

          Derek Walcott’s Omeros is a contemporary epic poem that follows the stories of numerous characters as they attempt to evolve alongside their island home of St. Lucia.  However, the piece also moves characters between place and time in an intricate attempt to show the interconnectivity of the character’s situations, like the modernization of the island and the slave trade of long ago.  Walcott also incorporates himself into the piece in order to give a unique point of view into the lives of the characters that he both interacts with and has created.  Because of the complexities that Walcott has created, there are obviously some questions that I have that have been left unanswered (to me at least).  Here, I am now going to merely list a few of these questions in hopes that they can be discussed in the future and some light can be shed onto their ambiguities.

·         If Omeros is supposed to follow an epic tradition, where can we see supernatural involvement as is synonymous with the form laid out in the Greco-Roman style?

·         What is the overarching theme of Walcott’s piece?  What was Walcott’s purpose in writing Omeros?

·         Are we expected to see each individual palimpsest drawn to a conclusion?  Or are we supposed to accept that not each individual story concludes entirely at the expense of discovering an overlying theme (which I also do not understand)?

·         What purpose does the killing of Hector and Maud play in the piece?  Is it merely as a tool of conveying the despair of those close to them?   

Identity in Contemporary Literature

     The concept of identity is a reoccurring theme throughout the contemporary pieces that we have read.  The question of what it means to exist as an individual and understanding who oneself is on a deeper internal level plagues the minds of the characters, specifically in the three most recent books that we have completed.  In both Orhan Pamuk’s novel, The White Castle, and his autobiographical work, Istanbul: Memories and the City, as well as in Derek Walcott’s Omeros, the reader can recognize these questions repeating.  As the characters develop through the works, there are questions of individuality that are both resolved and brought about as they move through the process of self-discovery.

            In The White Castle, Pamuk causes his main characters to ponder their own individuality by creating circumstances that bring the two of them together.  Due to their uncanny physical similarities, the two characters eventually trade places and go about living the lives of one another.  In their early moments of realizing their unusual circumstance, the narrator of the piece as well as his master Hoja are standing together in front of a mirror admiring this coincidence.  The narrator relays that “the two of us were one person!  This now seemed to be an obvious truth… I would not tear my eyes away; then he was gleeful as a child who teases a friend by mimicking his words and movements.  He shouted that we should die together!  What nonsense, I thought.  But I was also afraid.  It was the most terrifying of all the nights I spent with him” (82-83).  In this scene, it is apparent that the narrator is struggling to distinguish himself as an individual.  As Hoja continues to mimic his gestures flawlessly, the narrator becomes increasingly afraid and insecure.  He questions how it can be that he is no longer unique and what can be done to define himself as his own person.

            Upon reading through Pamuk’s autobiography Istanbul: Memories and the City, we can see that there are numerous ways in which The White Castle was riddled with pieces of his real life.  As early as the first line of Pamuk’s account of his time and connection to Istanbul, he states that “From a very young age, I suspected there was more to my world than I could see: Somewhere in the streets of Istanbul, in a house resembling ours, there lived another Orhan so much like me that he could pass for my twin, even my double” (3).  From the very beginning, Pamuk has set the precedence that he has questioned his own individuality sense he was just a young boy.  And, as we have discussed in his fictional piece, Pamuk has created an actual account of this stirring within him that caused him to wonder about his other self since childhood.  Pamuk later goes to describe the relationship that he also had in this sense of a replicate him.  He says that “Whenever I was unhappy, I imagined going to the other house, the other life, the place where the other Orhan lived, and in spite of everything I’d half convince myself that I was he and took pleasure in imagining how happy he was, such pleasure that, for a time, I felt no need to go to seek the other house in that other imagined part of the city” (5).  In this case, Pamuk’s individuality was a cumbersome part of his existence.  By connecting to this other person, he had the escape that he desired, away from his actual circumstance that he seemed to dread.

 

            Walcott’s Omeros, while it takes a different approach to the question of identity in that there is no sense of sharing one’s identity with someone else, does question what identity truly is and how we can often times lose who we really are.  In the story, Achille returns back to Africa in a state of trance and is reunited with his father, Afolabe.  In the process of their conversations, Afolabe admits that he has forgotten the name that he bestowed on his son and he asks what his new name now means.  To this, Achille replies “Well, I too have forgotten.  Everything was forgotten.  You also.  I do not know.  The deaf sea has changed around every name that you gave us; trees, men, we yearn for a sound that is missing” (137).  Upon hearing that his son was not even aware of the meaning of his own name, Afolabe becomes seemingly annoyed and responds rather harshly saying “but you, if you’re content with not knowing what our names mean, then I am not Afolabe, your father, and you look through my body as light looks through a leaf.  I am not here or a shadow.  And you, nameless son, are only the ghost of a name” (138-139).  Through this interaction, we can gain insight into what Walcott thinks is important to understanding one’s identity.  It is not necessarily that the exact meaning of one’s name is hugely significant, but it is crucial to one’s understanding of who they are as a unique individual.  This is why Afolabe becomes so disgruntled.  If Achille is willing to live his life without knowing the meaning of his own name, then he must be willing to go through life not knowing who he truly is.  And this is something that his caring father cannot bear to witness. 

    

            The question of identity is by no means a cut and dry issue.  There are multiple factors that need to be considered before even attempting to contemplate who someone actually is and what their individuality really means to them.  I think that these three books discussed above do well to portray just how complex an issue this can be for us as people.  Personally, I think that through various approaches, Walcott and Pamuk were both successful in shining light onto this intricate topic and have really caused me to consider what it means to be ‘me’ too.     

Istanbul: Memories and the City

Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul: Memories and the City takes an autobiographical look into the life of the author as he grew up in a transforming Istanbul.  From his first love to the descriptions of the painters that recreated his city, Pamuk goes to many lengths to ensure that his reader has a firm grasp on what the city of Istanbul means to him.  One of the most reoccurring, as well as more interesting defining characteristics of Istanbul is the concept of hüzün, or melancholy that plagued the city.  This sense of hopelessness and distraught was a constant throughout Pamuk’s time in Istanbul and it left one of the deepest impressions on him as a writer and an individual.

The troubled history of Istanbul played a primary role in creating this sense of hüzün throughout the city.  As an Empire that has travelled from an elite power of the East to being an impoverished nation, Turkey has a definite sense of loss and melancholy within it.  As the world around begins to modernize, Istanbul’s environment leaves a resounding feeling of times long ago lost and wealth that may never be regained.  As Pamuk describes this aura of depletion, “The difference lies in the fact that in Istanbul the remains of a glorious past civilization are everywhere visible.  No matter how ill-kept, no matter how neglected or hemmed in they are by concrete monstrosities, the great mosques and other monuments of the city, as well as the lesser detritus of empire in every side street and corner- the little arches, fountains, and neighborhood mosques- inflict heartache on all who live among them” (101). 

A similar feeling is also portrayed when Pamuk describes the reasons that he and his first love never held hands while within the city.  He said that the “melancholy of the poor neighborhoods, of ruined, ravaged Istanbul, had long sense engulfed us” (334).  To Pamuk, the despair of the city had an effect on him to the point where he was unable to be openly happy within its confinements.  To me, this shows how Pamuk had become the city in a way and shared with it a sense of hüzün.  

The White Castle

Orhan Pamuk’s novel The White Castle does well to encompass the contemporary topic of identity throughout its plotline.  Over the course of the story, the narrator and his ‘master’, Hoja, both must come to terms with the concept of self and what it means to be an individual, unique to each of them personally.  Due to their uncanny similarities in physical appearance, Hoja concerns himself with learning all that the narrator knows and eventually the two characters are able to switch places with one another without detection because of their similarities. 

This idea that the narrator was not necessarily himself alone is exemplified when he and Hoja stand in front of the mirror together after the narrator has examined an ailment of Hoja’s skin.  The narrator comments that “the two of us were one person!  This now seemed to be an obvious truth” (82).  After Hoja had learned to perfectly imitate the narrator and mimic his every move, there was truly no way to distinguish the two characters.  Hoja goes to further reiterate his intentions of becoming one another when he continuously repeats to the narrator that “I was he and he was I” (85).

After the two characters have lived out the story and the narrator has left the servitude of the sultan, the narrator come to a realization that I believe to be one of the most prominent themes of the novel.  After many years of service, seven of which came after suspicions began to arise that the narrator was not who he was claiming to be (Hoja), the narrator began to once again feel confident in his answer to the question of identity and what makes someone who they are.  The narrator says, “I was now quite shameless in answering the questions about my identity which had at first put me on guard: ‘Of what importance is it who a man is?’ I’d say.  ‘The important thing is what we have done and will do’” (149).  

Personally, I think that this message is important to be heard in the world today, so it is appropriate how blatantly Pamuk relays it.  Regardless of our reputations or what others may think of us, we are still in control of who we are.  If we choose to do, and continue to do, what is right, there is no need to question our identities.  We can hold steadfast in knowing that we are who we are.  And that will be just fine.   

The Presence of Evil in Contemporary Literature

           There are certain distinct qualities that have gone to help contemporary literature become what it is today.  One of these traits is that contemporary literature is the writing of the presence of evil.  In contemporary works, there are always main characters, or sets of characters, who must overcome a sort of evil in their lives.  We have seen this conflict within the numerous pieces that we have read so far.  From here, I would like to examine how the presence of evil was a constant, appearing in numerous ways, in three of the novels that we’ve read.

            First, we have a tangible evil seen through particular antagonists.  This is displayed in Naguib Mahfouz’s Arabian nights and Days.  Within this intricate episodic novel there are numerous different stories that are occurring, many of which are accompanied by the presence of genies.  However, these divine characters are not intrinsically good and do not necessarily consider the well being of man for their own entertainment.  This mentality is shown in an interaction between two genies named Zarmabaha and Sakhrabout in which Sakhrabout begins;

“Zarmabaha, this world is weighted down with stupidity”

“I have an idea,” exclaimed Zarmabaha joyfully.

“What is it?”

“An idea worthy of Satan himself.”

“You’ve set my curiosity afire.”

“Let’s have some fun and set [Nur al-Din and Dunyazad] together!” (79)

Keeping in mind the sometimes malicious intents of the genies, the novel does go to further show how the genies inspire people to do evil.  At times, this is as far as to persuade people to commit murder and other heinous acts.

            There is also the use of evil as sickness, both mentally and physically.  These sicknesses can be seen in Amos Oz’s My Michael.  In My Michael, the main character Hannah displays symptoms of rather severe emotional deterioration.  This came to fruition when Hannah took the freezing cold showers on the cold morning, silently laughing in her pain.  As Hannah describes, “I strained my vocal cords like a drunkard, singing and shouting.  The pain and the pleasure enflamed each other.  The pain was delicious and exhilarating” and “I turned blue with cold.  The warm pain spread down my back, trickled down my spine” (173).  These actions clearly suggest that Hannah was undergoing a very serious sickness that effected everyone around her.  There was a definite evil present.

Another example of sickness as an evil can been seen in Kying-Sook Shin’s Please Look After Mom.  In this novel, we can see evil in the form of disease.  As a mother’s condition continuously deteriorates, all while she is neglected as a constant person by her family, the reader sees just how the evil of physical disease can affect one’s life.  As the mother took pleasure in visiting her son in the bustling city of Seoul, she had few hesitations to visit him again, despite her ailments.  However, while there she has an episode that leaves her lost and confused in a subway system in the largest city in Korea.  And yes, while the story does go on to use the mother’s disappearance as a means to develop her as a character and her family’s transition to a life without her presence, it is inescapable to recognize how the mother’s constant headaches and memory loss affected the entire family.  Even after their mother’s disappearance, her children and her husband all recollect how they had sat passively by while ignoring the signs of mother’s conditions.

Lastly, the evil of complacency occurs within the novels that we have covered.  In Arabian Nights and Days, the sultan character made a drastic change in his life when he chose to abandon the throne and take the life of a travelling commoner.  It is while on his adventures outside of the palace that the sultan does actually obtain an opportunity for real happiness.  When meeting a mystical queen, she offers to the sultan a life as “my partner in love and in throne” in a “city not of human making: in beauty, splendor, elegance, cleanliness, fragrance, and climate” (225).  Had the sultan remained complacent in his unsatisfying role as leader, he would never have been granted the opportunity to life a life of eternal pleasure.

In Please Look After Mom, complacency is recognized as an evil that kept the eyes of the children and husband characters void of their mother’s condition and her influence in their lives.  One of the most powerful and meaning times that this is displayed is when her daughter is remembering how accepting her mother was of her father when he returned from a time away from his family with another woman.  She describes how the father walks into the room where the whole family is sleeping, as her mother wakes up and brings him a bowl of rice that she had prepared for him and placed in the warmest corner of the room.  She had performed this ritual everyday that her husband was gone. 

There is also the scene in Please Look After Mom that describes how the father had never considered their mother when he continuously walked a pace too fast for her.  It is because of this negligence that she was lost originally, having lost sight of her husband as he walked ahead in the crowded subway.  In his mourning after mother been lost, the father character dreads his previous ways.  He confesses to himself “since your wife has gone missing, your heart feels as if it will explode every time you think about your fast gait” (149).  It was only after he had lost his wife did the father realize that he had taken her for granted throughout their whole marriage.  And it was this evil complacency that eventually caused their mother to be hopelessly lost in the Seoul winter.

Evil is accepted reality in the world.  Through all of the good things in the world, there is always this enemy to overcome.  As we have recognized throughout the novels we have read, contemporary literature is greatly concerned with the overcoming of these evil forces and the realization of their presence afterwards. We see that evil has the ability to take many forms, all of which are out solely for the detriment of people.  Whether internal or external, evil has a way to make itself known and it is up to us to recognize and overcome it.  Contemporary literature makes this theme known through its writing.