list. In truth, Kemal feels dejected after Fusun tells him about her male admirers in the past. The two quotations above show that Kemal has a tendency to avoid clash
by not telling the truth. Kemal does not only like to lie to other people, but he also likes to deceive
them. As someone who is able to sense what other people want to see, Kemal uses his acting ability to present himself as someone other people want to see, as
described in the quotation below. For a brief moment I recognized myself among those men whose real
source of happiness is their secret lover, but who pretend it is their wives and children
—
I, too, was acting as if it was Sibel who made me happy, and we
weren’ t even married yet. p. 122
According to Murphy, thought is one way of characterizations 1972:
171. The quotation shows Kemal’ s dishonesty by being manipulative in terms of
his own thought and attitude. When meeting the guests in the engagement party along with Sibel, Kemal puts a happy face as if he is too happy to be engaged to
Sibel. The true reason behind his joyous mood is actually Fusun who comes to the party pretending as a mere distant relation. By pretending to be happy as a result
of his engagement, Kemal hopes to carry on his secret affair with Fusun , without drawing suspicion.
Another proof of Kemal’ s dishonest characteristic is as followed. “
Having, of course, omitted the details of sexual bliss at the heart of my tale, I made it s
ound like a typical Turkish man’ s silly indiscre
tion on the eve of his marriage p.191
”.
Months after the engagement party, Sibel finally finds out that
Kemal cheats on her. Murphy stated that a characer’s thought can be used to
determine characteristics 1972: 171. In an attempt to keep Sibel at his side, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Kemal manipulates the story of his secret love affair with Fusun. In doing so, he
only tells Sibel that he happens to be infatuated by Fusun’ s beauty just before the
engagement party. In fact, Kemal and Fusun meet at lunch time during fourty four
days prior to the engagement party to make love. Kemal’ s trick to play down the
significance of his affair shows that Kemal knows really well how to tell lies and manipulate things so that any possible bad outcome will be minimal.
4. Oversensitive
Kemal’ s understanding trait is contributed from his soft and sensitive
heart.
According to Murphy, another character’ s opinion can be used to better understand a character’ s characteristic 1972: 162, as stated by Kemal’ s best
friend regarding his sensitive nature.
“You’ re a man of real feeling,” said Zaim. “That is one of t
he things I cherish about you p. 419
”.
Kemal is an intuitive person as well. Intuition can be in the form of knowing what other person is thinking or feeling though they do not express it
verbally.
“Which of you didn’ t want to? Her or you? As curiosity consumed her,
compassion gave way to desperation, and her expression, which a moment ago was saying please tell me the truth, now was pleading, please tell me a
lie. Don’ t hurt me.” p. 50
Kemal knows what inside Fusun mind is, just by looking through her expression
and her eyes. He even can tell that Fusun’ s eyes change as her feeling changes
from being suspicious to insecure. Murphy stated that a
character’ s characteristic can be drawn from thoughts 1972: 171. The quotation goes into Kemal’ s
unconscious thinking process, in which he is able to relate to Fusun’ s feeling by
reading her facial expression, especially her eyes. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
As having been said e
arlier, sensitivity is a huge part of Kemal’ s
characteristic. Due to his sensitivity, Kemal feels guilty easily. He always seems
to try to make everybody feels at ease. Hurting a person’ s heart is something
Kemal desperately avoids, as shown in the below quotation.
She looked deeply pained. Dear God, I thought, why hadn’ t I just disposed of this bag and told Sibel I’ d gotten my money back? “Look, this has
nothing to do with you or Senay Hanim. We Turks, praise God, manage to make imitations of every Europe
an fashion,” I said, struggling to smile. “For me—
or should I have said for us
—it’ s enough for a bag to fulfill its function, to look lovely in a woman’ s hand. It’ s no
t important what the brand is, or who made it, or if it’ s an original.” p. 16
The incident happens in Sanzelize Boutique, a shop in which Fusun works as a shopkeeper. It begins when on a night out, Sibel admires a Jenny Colon bag
displayed on the mannequin and Kemal buys the bag as a gift. However, upon receiving the present Sibel knows that the bag is a fake and urges Kemal to ask for
his money back. Kemal is reluctant because both the shopkeeper and the owner of the shop are his distant relation and preferring to just exchange the bag, an idea
Sibel dismisses.
Murphy said that a character’
s characteristic can be implied through reaction 1972: 168. In the above quotation, Kemal can sense that Fusun is
deeply embarrassed by Kemal’ s wish, taking the matter too personally.
Here,
Kemal’ s sensitivity can be seen in the way he reacts to Fusun cr
ying. He goes out
of his way to comfort Fusun. It is also implied that Kemal is able to feel Fusun’ s
feeling because he finds it hard to smile while trying to console her. From the above quotation, it is clear that Kemal is a sensitive person who does not like to
