Dishonest The Characteristics of Kemal Basmaci
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
hurt other people’ s feeling, regardless of whether his behavior is reasonable or
justifiable.
Being a sensitive person, Kemal is not only in tune with other people’ s
feeling. In fact, he is also in tune with the atmosphere and nuance of a place. This is proven in the way he enjoys the solitude and tranquillity of a museum. Unlike
the majority of people going to a museum to merely see its collections, Kemal goes there to feel its magical atmosphere. Murphy stated that readers can get a
clue of a cha
racter’ s characteristic through the character’ s tho ught 1972: 171.
The theory is applied to prove Kemal’ s sensitive trait using the below quotations,
when Kemal describes his thought about what a museum is for him and how it affects him.
Museums are: not to be strolled around in but to be experienced, made up
of collections expressive of the soul of that ‘ experience’ , not in fact
museums but merely galleries when emptied of their collections. p. 526
“There are many museums in the world I have yet to see,” I would say
with a smile. And then I would try, yet again, to explain the spiritual effect that the silence of museums had on me, what sublime happiness it was to
be in a far corner of the world on an ordinary Tuesday morning, strolling through a f
orgotten museum.” p. 515 Not only being aware of other people’ s emotion, Kemal is also aware of
his surrounding that people usually miss out. He does not only take a closer look of what people do but also of smallest things which need a great deal of sensitivity
and attention to notice. The first quotation below shows how Kemal can
differentiate Fusun’ s cigarette butts from the rest of other cigarette butts lying
around the house. He does so by closely examining their shape. The second quotation serves as
a definite proof of Kemal’ s oversensitivity to his surroundings.
It describes how, in the middle of watching television while having dinner, Kemal is able to notice the slightest changes around his surroundings, for example Fusun
removing her slipper, as it means one should be aware of slight feet movement to notice it.
I could tell from those butts she’ d left around the house before I arrived. I
always knew which ones were hers, not by the brand but rather by the way
she’ d stubbed them out, which bespoke
her mood. p. 394 Sometimes Tarik Bey, tiring of the show, would begin to peer at the paper
from the corner of his eyes. Sometimes Aunt Nesibe, forgetting that she’ d
left a cigarette burning in the ashtray, would light up another in the kitchen. Sometimes I would sense that Fusun had taken off her slipper
underneath the table. p. 399
According to Murphy, a character’ s characteristic can be shown through the character’ s thoughts 1972: 173. To be able to pick up slight changes in
people, place, and event, one has to have great awareness and a great deal of
sensitivity. The fact that Kemal is able to recognize Fusun’ s cigarette butts shows that Kemal’ s subconscious intellectual process is one that is very detailed and
perceiving.