1991 Prompt: Contrast Between Places

1991.  Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work.   Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places.  Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.  

My Name Is Red takes place at a pivotal moment in history, when two great powers at the time clash not martially, but culturally. The tensions between Eastern and Western values are centered at Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and the crossroads between the Frankish and Islamic cultures, which is where the story takes place. This is why the novel My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk is a perfect story to address this prompt, since the main conflict is the cultural clash between the East and the West.

Outline:

1.       How each place is different

a.       East: dependent on religion and traditions
Painting as a storytelling medium

b.       West: becoming secular, bent on progress
Painting as art, to be enjoyed

2.       What each place represents

a.       East – tradition (conservative in the modern world)

b.       West – progress (liberal in the modern world)

c.        Istanbul – crossroads, the clash of these two ideas (human beings)

3.       How are they important

a.       Isn’t all about conflicts between the Europeans and the Turks
Can also be reflected to our modern society and ourselves:
1) conservatives vs. liberals, 2) internal struggle for belonging

                                                                                                                    

1. How each place is different

First, we would have to clearly distinguish the differences between these two places by describing them and explaining what each place represents. Knowledge of the background setting is crucial to understanding the symbols and meanings in the story.

The Ottoman East, where the novel takes place, is a land deeply dependent in Islamic culture. Here, the religion is an integral part of daily life. Paintings in Islam are merely for the sake of decoration and accompaniment, not as independent artworks. There is but one “style” in Islamic art, and all of the people must be anonymous. As Stork, one of the miniaturists, tells Black, the Qur’an teaches that “‘signature’ and ‘style’ are but means of being brazenly and stupidly self-congratulatory about flawed work” (Pamuk 105). In other words, Islamic tradition calls on everyone to be humble and modest.

                                                                          

Meanwhile, Europeans in the West are the complete opposite. Western Renaissance art emphasizes individuality and verisimilitude, something the Turks are appalled by. Enishte Effendi shockingly realized when he went to Venice that Western art “wasn’t the extension of a story at all, it was something in its own right” (Pamuk 41).

2. What each place represents

In general terms, the East represents the conservative nature of humans and traditional values. The West, on the other hand, represents our need for progress and change, reflecting the liberal aspect of our personalities.

In Istanbul, all the characters are at a crossroads between these two regions, given the proximity of Venice, the center of the Renaissance and a valuable Ottoman ally. Here, East and West clash violently, making it possible to see the perspectives of both cultures. Characters in the story therefore most resemble us now, coming from a world of culture and traditions into a world of connections and common rituals. They are torn between two conflicting sides: the traditional Turkish miniatures and the new Frankish portraits.

3. The importance of the contrast

We might be tempted to dismiss this as something that is in the past, and has no relevance to our modern globalized life, but actually that cannot be further from the truth. The main topic explored in the story, the struggle between tradition and change, is extremely relevant to both our modern society and even our human nature.

Like Black in My Name Is Red, we are constantly being torn between the need for progress and the traditions we are used to. The culture clash, the story argues, is caused by the need for belonging. The storyteller in the coffeehouse expresses this feeling of loneliness perfectly in the tree’s tale. The tree, like all humans stuck in this conflict, “don’t even know where [they] belong. [They were] supposed to be part of a story, but … fell from there like [leaves] in autumn” (Pamuk 74-75). In reality, the tree literally meant it was supposed to accompany a story, but was lost and therefore lost its purpose. This explains the struggle, since Western traditions bring with it a sense of individuality, as indicated by their lifelike portraits, which appeals to the people who lost their purpose in the rigid structure of tradition.