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.

5. Nostalgic

Kemal is also a nostalgic person. Aside from feeling constant longing to past happiness, he places great value on the past as well as its memory, as shown in the below quotation. I slipped a colored porcelain thimble into my pocket, and an orange pastel pencil that Fusun had been fiddling with a short time before. In the last months of 1979, I stole the most things from the Keskins household. By now these objects were no longer just tokens of moments in my life, nor merely mementos; to me they were elemental to those moments. p. 372 According to Murphy, a character’ s characteristic can be shown from the character’ s habits 1972: 173. The above quotation shows that Kemal’ s nostalgic trait prompts him to have a habit of picking little stuff from Fusun’ s house. H e loves to bring the stolen stuff to his own house or to Merhamet apartment so that when he misses her while she is absent, he can mitigate the pain by toying the stuffs. Another proof of Kemal’ s nostalgic characteristic is shown in the below quotation. I t was an object that reminded me of her. I put the end marked “30 centimeters” into my mouth, keeping it there for the longest time, despite the bitter after taste. For two hours I lay in bed, playing around with the ruler, trying to recast the hours it had spent in her hands, which introduced a relief, a happiness almost akin to seeing her. p.163 Murphy stated that readers can get a clue about a character’ s characteristics through the character’ s habit 1972: 173. Soon after Fusun disappears, Kemal falls into the habit of playing around with objects reminding him of her. In the above quotation, after learning from Fusun’ s mother that she does not live with her parents any longer, Kemal feel the growing yearning for Fusun. To reduce the longing, Kemal steals a ruler from her house that is often used by Fusun for her geometric lesson. Kemal describes that playing around with the ruler lessens the pain of missing her. It proves Kemal’ s nostalgic trait because it seems that Kemal wants to reiterate the ti me when Fusun is still there. Kemal’ s nostalgic characteristic is apparently what drives him to collect stuffs. He keeps stuffs other people usually banish and throw away. “By the time of his death, he had visited 5.723 museums saving all of his admission ticket” p. 512.