The bastard of istanbul

Martina Colaizzi
Professor Metcalf
Analysis of: The Bastard of Istanbul
March 18, 2009


With the evolution of time comes the evolution of culture. This evolution can encompass either a mass deterioration or a sudden resurgence. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak takes the history of Turkey and manipulates it into a modern story of family ties, history, and secrets. With this book the reader grasps an understanding of the presence the past has in the present. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the argument the author is making that the present as modern and ever evolving it is always has ties to the past, thus we must acknowledge and accept what happened in the past and evolve from it.
What connection can we make with the past and the present? For what reasons is the past the past and the present the present and how do we establish these differences? The Bastard of Istanbul argues that the past and present are not different studies but are intertwined no matter how different the present time may seem. Thus, it is important and necessary to understand our past in order to fully comprehend it and go about the future ever evolving and avoiding the mistakes.
The revelation at the end that the Turkish step father, Mustafa, raped his sister, Zehila, and had a bastard child, the young girl who is met by Mustafa’s American step-daughter, the same age, makes the point on how the past does not die. The underlying argument of the author is that even years after the evidence remains of the past, in this specific case in Turkey of a horrific event that occurred on the eve of the First World War, the Armenian genocide. Moreover, it also shows that the past is able to link different cultures with the book connection with the two families, one in Turkey and the other in the United States.
On the eve of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire, the last greatest empire standing was deteriorating due to economic, social and political issues. The twentieth century became one that was deficient in unity that had keep the Empire in existence, with religion being the top unifying force, and saw a resurgence of nationalism due to cultural ties. Hence, religion had no more been the unifying force and the Armenians in Turkey, who where the Christian sect of the Ottoman Empire, became the scapegoats of the failure of the Ottoman Empire. As the conducted reports state, the Armenians were a threat to the Empires security, and sadly over one million Armenians between 1914 and 1918 were slaughtered by acts called “relocations” or better known as deportations and massacres, which used Russian style execution tactics, rape, displacement, and separating those who were strong enough to suppress the weak, specifically by putting the strong men into the passive segment of the army. As if the First World War was not requiring the Ottomans to put in all their time and resources, they were able to utilize a section of their empire, Muslim-Turkey, and have them massacre a small group of Christian people that were always in the picture, but were seen as promoting factor of stripe in the empire. Hence, a significant point that is presented here by Elif Shafak is the noteworthy impact Turkey’s denial of what occurred in 1915 has had, although today termed as genocide by many scholars and governments, and how the future is willing to accept these mistakes again because of the impact this denial has created. Sadly, we subsequently see this occurring during the Second World War when Hitler-Germany exterminated the majority of the Jewish community, because they were also seen as the causes to Germany’s strife.
Hence, although it is a book written in a satirical matter, based on what is occurring within the families and its four major characters and their clash between modern culture and traditional culture, the argument is presented of what we are willing to accept from our past. In the novel we find four profound characters, one daughter being a Muslim mystic, another a high school teacher, another a schizophrenic and the youngest, who is the central figure of the book, being that it is her daughter that is the “bastard of Istanbul”, who owns a tattoo shop. By telling the stories of each character the author is actually using them to comment on the importance of how the past does not die with time or relocation but rather it is always present. Therefore, one can boldly state that the Armenian genocide was still alive after all those years due to Mustafa’s crime against his youngest sister, Zehila.
Reading The Bastard of Istanbul, allows the reader to understand the significance of the past of the present in a satirical manner. It is extremely important that we understand what occurred in the past to aware ourselves of what may come in our future. The books comments on how Turkey, as young as a nation it is, is struggling with its traditions that was conceived by the Ottoman Empire, and its role in today. One can use the example of the anxiety the European Union had when the question of adding Turkey to the EU came about. In conclusion, the purpose of Elif Shafak’s novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, is to acknowledge to the reader that the identity of a nation is based on its past. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was flooded with nationalism, revolutions, wars, and invasions all to suffice the ethnic struggle it was in on the eve of the First World War. We are educated in history due to the importance it can have on the future, in means of avoiding mistakes that have occurred. Although we see history repeating itself, with wars and specifically today with the economic crisis we are in, which resembles that of the 1919 stock market crash, the past is important to comprehend because it does not die but vividly lives in the present.






















Bibliography:

1. Adams, L. "'The Bastard of Istanbul': Turks, Armenians and a troubled past." International Herald Tribune , Jan 19 2007.

2. Shafak,Elif. The Bastard of Istanbul. New York New York: Viking Penguin, 2007.