Facebook`a üye misiniz?
Aslında gerçek dünyada mı yaşıyorsunuz?
Geçmiş olsun…

Geçtiğimiz hafta facebook, daha önce icq ve msn gibi pek çok örnekte olan şeyi yapıp üye bilgilerinizi reklam şirketleri ile ücreti mukabili paylaşacağını açıkladı.
Zaten asıl amacı kullanıcı datası toplamak olan sistemlerin bu isim soyad kaydı ile çalışan en kallavi versiyonundan da eski benzerlerinin yaptıklarından daha azını yapmasını beklemek hata olurdu.

Ancak bu sistemin, msn, icq, gmail, hotmail gibi sistemlerden ciddi bir farkı ve ekstra bir tehlikesi var o da “adınız”.

Eğer ortalama sıradan bir insansanız ki toplumun %95 i bu sınıfa girdiği için %95 ihtimalle öylesiniz, asla farketmeyeceğiniz ve aklınızdan geçirmeyeceğiniz şeyler olmakta dünyada ve siz %95 ihtimalle en uygun kurbanlarsınız.

Gerçek dünyaya hoşgeldiniz diyor ve size türkçesi “veri madenciliği” olan ve dünyada bilgisayarların icadı ile ortaya çıkan “elektronik göz” kavramında tavan yaptıran olaylar silsilesinden bir örnek vermek istiyorum.

Biliyorsunuz Facebook sisteminde genelde şunlar oluyor;

1- Adınız ve Soyadınız ile üye oluyorsunuz,
2- Arkadaşlarınızı listenize ekliyorsunuz,
3- Onlarla mesajlaşıyor ve “poke” adı verilen ve belirli konularda hazırlanmış ufak imajlar yolluyorsunuz.

Aslında tüm olan biten bundan ibaret.

Peki nasıl oluyor da alttarafı bukadar birşey yapılan ve 30 milyon üyesi olan bir sistem Milyar dolarlar ediyor?

Tabii ki veri madenciliğine uygun altyapısı sayesinde.
Şöyle örnek verelim;
Kim olduğunuz belli, arkadaşlarınız ile mesajlaşma yoğunluğunuzdan ve gönderdiğiniz veya size gönderilen poke ve mesajlardan arkadaşlık durumunuz ortak olduğunuz noktalar belirli. Bu demektir ki ellerinde sizi hayatınız boyunca sınıflandırmaya yetecek kadar bilgi var.

Günümüzden bir örnek ile gözümüzü biraz açalım;

Tüm kredi kartları bünyelerinde adınız soyadınız ve kart numarasını barındırır, örneğin bir cips firması bu veri tabanını facebook`dan satın alır, tek istediği üye listesi, arkadaş listesi ve poke gönderi tablolarıdır. Sandığınız üzere büyük siteler siz sil dediniz diye birçok veriyi silmez sadece verinin sizin tarafınızdan görünmesini engeller. Bu durumda çevrenizdeki insanlara yolladığınız, çiçek, bira, pasta gibi imajlar aslında sizin bu insanlar ile ne gibi ilişkileriniz olduğunu belirler.
Konumuza geri dönelim

Süper markete gittiniz, evde bittiği için tuvalet kağıdı, sigara ve akşam parlatmak için bir de bira aldınız, kartınızı uzattınız kasiyer ödemeyi almak için geçirdi.
- Kasa bilgisayarı son hızla bankaya ödeme bilgilerini sorarken merkez bilgisayara isim bilginizi yollar,
- Ana bilgisayar isminiz ve satın aldığınız ürünlerin bağlı olduğu ürün grupları ile, facebook da yolladığınız ve aldığınız poke`leri sıklığına göre karşılaştırır.
- Elde ettiği veriyi belirli tölerans aralıklarında filtre eder,
- En fazla içki veya yiyecek konusunda poke yolladığınız ve en sık iletişimde kaldığınız arkadaşınızı bulur
- ve daha siz kasiyerin kartınızı geçirdiğini bile algılayamadan önünüzdeki LCD ekranda en yakın arkadaşınız Ahmet`in facebook resmi belirir,
- Altında da şu yazar: Keşke Ahmet de olsaydı, Doritos`un yeni acılı cipsi ile Efes biralarınızı yudumlar eski günlerden konuşurdunuz. Durma Ahmet`i ara, ArkadaşCell ile sadece 2 kontör

Bu senaryonun gerçek olması için şu an ne yeni bir teknoloji ne de dahi reklamcılar gerekiyor, yıllardır tek eksik internet veri tabanlarında isim yerine Nick kullanılmasıydı, sağ olsun Facebook da bu sorunu güzelce çözdü. işte milyar dolar eden şey, bu size hayatınız boyunca gösterilecek hedef reklamlar.

Birçok kişi farkında değildir ama Süpermarketlerin kredikartlarındaki isim verilerini toplamasını engelleyen bir yasa çıkmasına rağmen uygulanamıyor, zira her alışverişte kasiyere “bilgilerimin saklanmasını istemiyorum” yazılı dilekce ile başvurmayı öngören bu yasa pek de kullanışlı değil

Peki bu veri ile ne yapıyorlar derseniz, şu ana kadar en yaygın kullanım alanı; “belirli sıklıklar ile çocuk bezi veya maması gibi şeyler alan bireylerin verilerini bankalar ile paylaşıp bankaların bu kişilere hayat sigortası, kaza sigortası, çocuğunuz için gelecek sigortası diye ağırlık vermesini sağlamak”tı.

Bu örnek yumşak mı geldi? Ne var bunda reklam altı üstü mü diyorsunuz?

Peki başka bir örnek verelim, Türkiyedeki tüm sağlık sistemi dünyada olduğu gibi merkezi vatandaşlık numarası veri tabanına bağlanıyor. Yani hastaneye giden her kimse, karakola giden her kimse, hatta adresine posta giden her kimse sistemde kaydedilerek eşleştirilebiliyor.

Bu sistemin tek bir açığı var o da insanların aralarındaki ilişkinin aile ilişkileri dışında kaydedilemiyor olması.

Ama facebook verisi bu bilgi ile birşelirse bunu yapmak oldukça kolaylaşır.

Gelelim örneğimize, bundan sadece 2 yıl sonra eşiniz ile parise tatile gitmek istiyorsunuz ve vize başvurusu yaptınız. Sistem arkadaşlarınızın ve sizin suç işleme yüzdesini analiz edip aynı anda da sağlık bilgileriniz ve sık görüştüğünüz kimselerin sağlık bilgilerini karşılaştırıyor. O da ne en sık görüştüğünüz kişilerden biri hepatit-b olmuş, vize başvurunuza cevap “üzgünüz vize veremiyoruz” oluyor, üstelik siz bunun sebebini asla bilemiyorsunuz. Veya mevcut yönetim, siyasi suç işleyenler ile arkadaşlık ilişkisi en güçlü olan %5 lik kesimi kendine düşman belliyor.

Veya bankanız kredi başvurunuzu, arkadaş çevrenizin ortalama ödeme potansiyeline bakarak değerlendiriyor.

Bunlar futuristik hayaller değil, dünyada ilk veritabanı bir dondurma şirketi tarafından, o gün doğumgünü olanlara bedava dondurma vermek için kuruldu ve aynı veritabanı Pentagon tarafından analiz edilerek binlerce kişi askere çağrıldı. Bu olurken yıl 1972 idi.

Ancak facebook tüm bunları alt üst ederek internetten kendi kişisel bilgilerini paylaşan ve bu verilerin ne olacağını sorgulamayan milyonları bir araya topladı.

Peki nasıl kurtulabiliriz?

Malesef imkansız. Neden olduğunu rakamlar ile açıklamaya çalışalım.

Ufak resminiz ile birlikte, tüm facebook hayatı boyunca bir kullanıcının yolladığı pokeler, arkadaş listeleri ve kişisel bilgilerini sıkıştırmaksızın bir diske yazarsanız ortalama 5Kb kadar yer kaplar.

5Kb x 100.000.000 kişi = 500GB lık bir veri eder
Bu durumda henüz sıkıştırma yapılmamışken bile reklamcılık için önem arz eden bu verinin mali yükü 120$ lık bir harddiskten ibarettir ve bu disk içerisinde 100 yıl bozulmadan saklamak mümkündür.

Bu durumda, hesabınızı deaktive etmeniz veya “beni silin” diye mesajlar atmanız hiçbirşey ifade etmez. Facebook gibi bir sistem bile 3 kat büyüdüğünde ancak bu 500Gb lık diski dolduracak kadar kişisel veri içerecektir.

Durumu daha da kötüleştiren ise, üye olanları bir yana bırakalım üye olmayanların da üye olanlar yüzünden aynı risklere maruz kalacağı gerçeğidir.
Arama motorları ve birçok sitede arama kutusuna yazılan herşey arayanın kim olduğu kaydı düşülerek veri tabanında saklanır, arama motorları bunu optimizasyon ve ilgi alanları pazar araştırması için kullanırken, facebook da bu alana kişi isimleri yazılmaktadır.

Siz ne kadar aklınızı başınıza devşirseniz ve üye olmasanız da, üye olan sevgili kuzenleriniz ve arkadaşlarınız sizi arattığı sürece, aratılan ismi aratanların arkadaşlık durumları analiz edilerek bu aratılan ismin kimlerin, ortak dostu olduğundan hareket ile sanki üyeymişsiniz gibi sizin adınız için de bir arkadaş listesi otomatik oluşturulur.
Eğer facebook`dan bir “arkadaşınız Zehra sizi davet ediyor” maili aldıysanız durum daha da fenadır, artık mail adresiniz de kayıtlıdır, bir üye olarak tek eksiğiniz şifrenizi bilmemeniz ve üye olduğunuzun farkında olmamanızdır, çünkü sevgili arkadaşlarınız sizi reklam şirketlerine farketmeden satmıştır.

Yukarıda yazanları okudunuz ve “aa hiç böyle düşünmemiştim” veya “ne var canım alt tarafı 2 reklam” diyorsanız merak etmeyin “ortalama insan” denilen bu %95`in zaten beklenen tepkisi budur ve bu veri toplama savaşları bu yüzden gözünüzün önünde yapılmaktadır ama görmemektesinizdir.

Komplo teorisi okuduğunu sananları uyandıracak bir örneği de sitemizden yani Otomatik Portakal`dan verelim.

Bu yazıyı okuduysanız, site istatistiklerine göre %93 olasılık ile Google`da bir şeyler aratmaktayken gelen bir ziyaretcisiniz. Ve siz bu sayfayı açmak için tıkladığınızda şunlar oldu;
- Sunucumuz geliş adresinizin (referrer) bir Google sayfası olduğunu tespit etti,
- Sisteme kayıtlı olup olmadığınızı kontrol ederek üye olmadığınızı anladı ve veri toplama prosedürlerini başlattı,
- Geliş adresinizdeki veri incelenerek hangi kelimeyi aratarak geldiğiniz tespit edildi,
- Bu kelime “googledan_gelenler” veri tabanında karşılaştırıldı,
- Eğer anahtar kelimeniz ile daha önce bir geliş olmuş ise o kayıttaki “kac_kez_arandı” bölümü 1 artırıldı, eğer ilk defa gelen bir anahtar kelime ise sistem yeni bir kayıt oluşturdu.

Bunu niye yaptınız? derseniz;
Çok basit, arama trendlerini belirleyip, sitemizi aramalarda en üste çıkarmak ve reklamlarla site gelirini artırıp, site geliri ile ağaç diktiğimiz ormanımıza bir ağaç fazla dikmek için.

Merak etmeyin ne adınızı biliyoruz, ne de verilerinizi bankalara, marketlere, markalara satacağız.

Ama bunu yapacak olanlar var…

Magic Bullet / 2007

As one of the main characteristics of the Romantic period, appreciation and glorification of nature is a key issue in William Wordsworth’s poetry, as well as a sense of return and longing for their own childhood. If there is a question of rationality in his arguments, the questions is how much does he go against rationality or how much does he borrow from it.
On the other hand, another earlier romantic, William Blake is in question. How does he reconcile Good and Evil through satire and reject categorisation for unity? As a painter, does he draw concrete images into poetry or is it just imagination?
Looking at Wordsworth, as far as personal feelings are concerned, he seems to be rather chauvinist in his definition of the poet, and draws a male figure that is rational in the face of his own passions. “He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions,” (Preface, 168). He means passions and volutions are female. Women are childish and infantile, and closer to nature. “… in thy voice I catch / The language of my former heart, and read / My former pleasures in the shooting lights / Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while / May I behold in thee what I was once,” (Tintern, 149) Then, is Wordsworth childish looking for a childish nostalgia or an escapism into the wild green hills, away from the realities of adult and urban sense or a tree of knowledge that hurts?
“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity…” (Preface, 173). Here, for Wordsworth, rationality in the meaning of systematic thought has a role of organizing feelings into poetry, or else it would be babbling happiness or crying woes of suffering without meaning. The emotion is filtered through contemplation until it is not purely emotional. Then, ‘voluntarily described’ into poetry, “the mind will upon the whole, be in a state of enjoyment” (Preface, 173). This seems to be a scientific way of producing poetry from within the poet’s mind.
If science generally represents rationality and also in Wordsworth’s Preface, then what is the relationship between a scientist and a poet like Wordsworth? In the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth compares scientist and poet, talks about ‘pleasure’ in writing poetry. In the same way as a scientist, an anatomist takes pleasure in finding about the cut-up human body, a poet feels pleasure because by observing the world around using his own mind as a mirror as he says “He considers man and nature as essentially adapted to each other, and the mind of man as naturally the mirror of the fairest and most interesting properties of nature” (Preface, 171). This also includes empathy or sympathy from a distance, an aesthetic distance. This is pleasure with dignity. However, a scientist keeps it to himself for concerns of individual copyright, just as he puts it as “the other is a personal and individual acquisition, slow to come to us, and by no habitual and direct sympathy connecting us with our fellow-beings” (Preface, 171). This also will set the poet up and apart from the noble savage man’s elementary pleasure, while there is and should be a friendly collaboration between a scientist and a poet, where the role of the poet is “carrying sensation into the midst of the objects of the science itself”. A man of physics made passionate by poetry could one day discover or invent the impossible; he could be driven into that curiosity which no one ever imagined. This idea seems to be affirmed by this one: ‘What is now proved was once only imagined’ by William Blake, who is another subject matter of rationality as an early romantic English poet.
As a trained painter, Blake uses rather vivid images like “The Bat that flits at close of Eve / Has left the Brain that wont Believe” (Auguries, 69). Blake uses his brain to believe, not his heart. This does not mean that he is a deist but he sounds like a pantheist with his “unified imaginative perception” (Intro, 25). For him, the sin or fall is to fall into categories and to try to become self-sufficient; reconciliation between good and evil is what we need.
In Auguries of Innocence, the epigrams and aphorisms show that he is just speaking without giving any ‘because’s. After all, acknowledging an early rationalist, Blake refers to Sir Francis Bacon’s idea of reason: “Sense sends over to the Imagination before Reason have judged, & Reason sends over to the Imagination before the Decree can be acted.” Blake tries to remain moderately rational as a poet prophet.
In the Marriage of Hell and Heaven, Blake puts it as “Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence” (Marriage, 35). He holds a belief in the reconciliation of binary contraries. “Opposition is true friendship” (Marriage, 43) The two binary opposites are checking each other because “Just as the states of Innocence and of Experience satirize one another, so the contraries of Devil and Angel satirically reveal one another’s limitations”. (Marriage intro, 34)
He believes in progression; without one, the other would not exist. This resembles so much to the rationalist Cartesian dualism, but Blake’s duty is to be a poet prophet foreseeing through imagination. In the Marriage of Hell and Heaven, he mocks Voltaire Rousseau’s deism because it is the enemy of imaginative religion. (Marriage, 62) In Mock on Rousseau, he does not believe in Newton and atoms, and stays rather relativist. He complains that they try to measure mystery through science. Neither does he believe in scepticism: “He who doubts from what he sees / Will ne’er believe, do what you please” (Auguries, 71). So, he is ready to beliece and accept, not prudent but active. Besides, he remains conventional here as he said before “The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest”(Marriage, 38). “You throw the sand against the wind / And the wind blows it back again” (Mock on, 62). Considering his words, you can not have a thorough control over the nature. In his notion of flux, everything can change in time because nature keeps going in its own mechanical way.
Blake is also rather common-sensical when he says “Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion” (Marriage, 37). He is imbued with imagination once again when he puts it as “What is now proved was once, only imagin’d.” (Marriage, 38). Here, it is an encouragement for the passionate scientist to discover what is impossible for common sense. This seems like a jump ahead, Blake’s seeing through future as a prophet. This means that his common sense is higher than a common man’s sense.
“Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.” “The cut worm forgives the plow.” “Eternity is in love with the productions of time.” “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.” (Marriage, 37) Here, Blake indicates a belief in progression but he rather mocks it and approaches with common sense, because extreme progression is evil. Rationality is passivity. Good represents passivity and the soul, and bad is the energy of the Hell.
After all, Wordsworth and Blake are the two earliest romantic poets. Anything they think and write bear both the early excitement of the new romantic age and adaptation of any romantic idea into the scientific tradition of the 18th century rationality and frenzy of beautiful minds.
The mind – body dualism in these two men indicates itself as a picture of mind and heart. In this way, they both collaborate with inherent rational roots to their writing, which saves them from creating a purely mad art that takes human soul back to its primitive state of nature, as a noble savage; unlearned, unfelt and unfallen.
WORKS CITED
Blake, William. The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.I. New York: Norton, 2006. pp. 25, 34, 35, 37, 38, 43, 62, 63, 69, 71
Wordsworth, William. The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.I. New York: Norton,
2006. pp. 149, 168, 171, 173,

A discussion of the Enlightenment and the transformations in the Turkish culture as a result of this trend requires us to look into the 18th century Enlightenment in Europe, the 19th century Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic afterwards in the 20th and 21st centuries, and deal with the cause-and-result relationships between the periods together with the idiosyncrasies of this development. The centuries are not coinciding because serious reforms took place later in the empire. This development occured at first in the nature of national identity, agitated as commonly known by the French Revolution. Then, as far as the attitude of the state towards the individual is concerned, there is an issue of improvement in the state politics, which started with the administrative reforms called Tanzimat in 1839. The religious identity is another subject matter in the manifestation of any progress in the Turkish culture. The national and religious identity will give a chance to discuss equality and human rights.
The subject matter of identity might be general, but it is important to note that the Enlightenment philosophers like Montesquieu attacked political authority, Voltaire and Diderot had cold attitude to religion, and French Revolution (1789-1815), which is considered to be a result of Rousseau’s Social Contract, gave the world an inspiration for a national state, especially those within the Ottoman Empire.
Before dealing with the manifestations of the Enlightenment in Turkish history, it is better to define the Enlightenment and its historical background. In fact, it all starts with the Renaissance of the 16th century, which was a cultural, artistic movement and a move towards humanism, together with the Protestant Reformation, which was the collapse of the religious unity of Europe. The following period was the Age of Reason of the 17th century, which is marked by the start of modern philosophy, of which to Rene Descartes is given the credit. And then, the Age Enlightenment comes. It is also associated with the Scientific Revolution after Copernicus’ researches about the bodies in the sky in the 16th century, and Galileo and Newton were other outstanding figures in this context. Thanks to this period, system of thought and rationality were put on a pedestal and considered as a means for individual and also governmental progress after the dark Middle Ages. While Christianity was dissolved in to different sects in Europe, religions became national like the Anglican Church. The economy of the feudal system was turned into expansion and capitalism, and collectivism into individualism. Liberalism, democracy, capitalism and the French and American Revolutions can be traced back to these changes. The collapse of the Ottomans and gradual transformation into a national republic are attributed to the rise of nationalism.
As for the argumentation as a thesis as far as the gradual metamorphosis in Turkish culture and governmental system are concerned, it is interesting to see that there is a recurrent attitude to reject the past and accept the indispensable and inevitable end and turn it into an aim to be accomplished, as part of the process which is in fact just an imitation of the West.
Up to the point when the Ottoman state became aware of the need for accepting the superiority of the West, it was a combination of Islamic attitude of accepting fate, a sense of arrogance due to belief in Islam and the expectation of an earned paradise by Islam, which might also be interpreted as xenophobia. But we know that the Orhodox Christians and Jews were always tolerated in the empire, which was a tradition and part of the politics of an alliance with them against the West. Furthermore, the identity of being a Muslim was promoted in order to receive the support of the Middle Eastern peoples. This attempt was for the creation of a national identity of Muslimship, as opposed to ethnic identities that exalted their Greekness or Serbianness.
During the time when nationalist consciousness increased, Greece was the first nation who declared independence from the empire in 1821. There was Serbian, Bulgarians waiting to do the same. So, there was a need to hold all these people intact within the same borders. The first remedy for the dissolution was the reformations between 1839 and 1876, when the first constituion was made. This idea of a Reorganisation (Tanzimat) was a time when “the empire became fully exposed to the influences of the Western World, and a time when these influences were meant to be operated officially by the hands of the state and laws. (Birand, 5)” The Tanzimat, which promised a series of human rights like security for life, honour and property, revoked the higher taxes taken from non-Muslims, who were now allowed to become soldiers. (İnalcık, 3) It was meant to consolidate the nation of Ottomans, which was literally called Millet (nation). It seems to be an artificial nation because the Ottoman identity included many other ethnic groups from Armenians to Arabs. Nevertheless, they kept on separation. When there were the Middle East and the Arabs, they promoted the Muslim identity for unity, but Arabs, who were another ethnic group, did not take the Ottoman side in the World War I. In the end, there was only Turkish identity for a unity, which was naturally and also out of necessity used for the War of Independence and the foundation of Turkish Republic. At this point, the consciousness of one’s own ethnic nationalism can be associated with a search for human rights, which is an evident of the Enlightenment, especially during the occupation of Anatolia by the West.
Another reformation for the structure of the state system was the Kanun-ı Esasi (Essential Law), which was prepared by the Young Ottomans under the influence of Montesquieu and Rousseau as far as their respective ideas of Seperation of Forces and Social Contract are concerned, and it turned the empire into a constitutional monarchy. However, it was different in another sense because İlber Ortaylı says: ‘The first Ottoman parliament in 1877 had a colourful and various ethnic and religious identities that could never be seen even in the other cosmopolitan empires of Europe. (İnalcık, 334) This first constitutional period did not have any political parties. It visualized the parliament as the voice of the people but not in the form political parties. After all, these were the gradual attempt of the state to be identical with the common people.
When it comes to Turkish Republic (1923), it was founded as a national state, which is a move towards what the Greek and Serbians did a century ago. The trend of nationalism was a danger for the former Empire, but it served as an essence for Turkish Republic. It is natural that the Turkish nationalism rejects the Ottoman identity which was promoted in the earlier century. However, discussing identity together with relationships with the Enlightenment, it is important to see how the Turkish national identity was indoctrinated through instruction and its shortcomings.
Enlightenment of the rural settlements was necessary both literally with electricity and metaphorically with access to information and consciousness, so that there would be no need for another war of independence for this national awareness. “Atatürk, who started a war to wake up people after the war of independence, says that Turkey is still a country of villages. (Kaplan, 9)” To serve this purpose, Village Institutes were opened in 1940 in order to train teachers as there were not enough schools in villages at the time.
In Turkey, the state and Republican People’s Party (CHP) organisation were almost sticked to each other and Turkey is sometimes thought to have been governed by dictatorship until 1950s. So, it can be said that whoever set up the Village Institutes, they had the chance to educate or agitate people according to their own ideology. But the aim was to teach people how to read and write, make them teachers too, and educate also on agriculture. People who comment on these schools say that they were all full of leftist and socialist books. (Kaplan, 253) İsmet İnönü, the second president of Turkey at the time, says that “these schools are not political but social and cultural institutions. (Kaplan, 16) Whether they tried to bring up a society of leftist people as a whole or not, these schools were closed down in the time of right-side Democrat Party government in 1954. We do not know whether otherwise Turkish people would have lost its religious or right-sided identity, which have not allowed any leftist party to get the power on its own henceforth. But this situation does not mean that the enlightenment process of the Village Institutes failed. Despite almost a hundred years after the Turkish Revolution in 1923, the state, based on the Kemalist ideolody, still has its revolution (İnkılapcılık) principle intact. This could mean that the revolutions will keep on universally and allow the self-rejection or self-denial of the system that again allowed a possible menace to the secular system in the 2002 general elections. Any danger fulfilled on the secular system would be the denial of the democracy that helped the same danger come to power. This is closely related with the historical denial of the Ottoman state authority against nationalist states in the 19th century and the denial of the national Turkish Republic against the Ottoman identity. However, the Islamic identity has been in the middle of these two in terms of politics, considered less important in state politics because it was too important and general as an identity to be used for political instrument.
Moreover, today’s nationalist understanding has brought up a question of upper and lower identity, and it meant the acceptance of Kurdish identity, unlike before. This could be interpreted as the first step to accept their full or half independence. Whether true or not, this is another challenge or denial to the understanding of nationality by its own.
The question of nationalism, religion and state regime have gone or had to undergo drastic changes through almost two centuries. Ironically, democracy was first used as a last resort to keep the empire intact. It is another question that the reforms for democracy were based on the western thinkers of the Enlightenment, which means imitation but not creativity. This imitation manifests itself further when we see that ethnic nationalism which once was a danger for dissolution became the basic idea behind the new Turkish Republic.
Works Cited:
Birand, Kamuran. Aydınlanma Devri Devlet Felsefesinin Tanzimatta Tesirleri. Son Havadis
Matbaası. Ankara. 1955. 5
İnalcık, Halil. Tanzimat, Değişim Sürecinde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu. Phoenix Yayınevi.
Ankara. 2006. 3, 334
Kaplan, Mevlüt. Aydınlanma Devrimi ve Köy Enstitüleri. Kültür Bakanlığı. Ankara. 2002. 9, 16, 253

Jean François Lyotard, a French philosopher living between 1924 and 1998, is one of the fathers of postmodern philosophy. He defined the time after modernism as postmodern condition. Modernism is closely associated with the Age of Enlightenment, which started the industrialized time. Before dealing with postmodern philosophy, we need to know how modernism is defined but not by this postmodern theorist now.
“Modernism is the fashion of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic.” It is placed at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century.
However, Lyotard defined modernity with the roles of the “metanarrative” or “grand narrative” which are used to legitimize science. In his theoretical criticism of modernity, a metanarrative is a generalizing, global and totalitarian narrative system that orders and explains knowledge and experience. It includes and explains little stories within generalizing schemas, and according to Lyotard, postmodern is incredulity towards metanarratives because they generalize things and deal with special cases within a totalizing attitude. This can be a good explanation for the fact that the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution are responsible for the totalitarian national state systems and the fascist regimes in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Accordingly, postmodern philosophy is also rooted in the disillusionment caused by the great wars in that century, especially because science made the atom bomb and so many people were killed with it. In this way, the Enlightenment and modernity caused darkness and barbarism of old times. Postmodern thought nurtured in this disappointment with science for the sake of a more humanism than the modernist thought.
Lyotard, who has doubts about modernity and its principles of progress, enlightenment, nationality, freedom and universality, does not find them convincing. So, this situation of disbelief in these principles becomes an outlook of life called the postmodern condition. Arguing for the relativity of truth, he makes us think that there is no absolute truth. Modern human rights require that all human beings are equal, but George Orwell’s words that “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal” – by which he means human beings – reflect a disappointment even with human rights. How can we be all equal? One thing that is true for you can be false for me. So, we can’t form norms and standards, and we can’t measure anything. Neither can we compare two things properly. He argues for temporary agreements, temporary and relative local social contracts. This can be interpreted as a good excuse for federal governments and the United States of America. So, Lyotard is against universality, generality and metanarratives which are also called grand-narratives.
The philosophy of postmodernism that Lyotard helped to conceptualize refers to a cultural, intellectual or artistic state lacking a clear hierarchy or a principle of organisation and including complexity, contradiction, ambiguity and diversity. He admits that he prefers a plurality of small narratives instead of metanarratives or grand narratives.
In detail, what is Lyotard’s attitude towards the Enlightenment philosophers? “Lyotard is fascinated by Immanuel Kant’s admission that the mind cannot always organize the world rationally. Some objects are simply incapable of being brought neatly under concepts.” This is closely linked with his idea of the collapse of the “Grand Narrative” in science. As post-modernity is characterized by an abundance of micro-narratives, Lyotard draws on and strongly reinterprets the notion of language games found in Wittgenstein (Lyotard, 9). So he is under the influence of his philosophy of language as well as Karl Marx, because rationality and science now serve for the sake of mass production and for capitalism of course. “Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valorized (given a price) in a new production.” We get further disappointed with the daily consumption of knowledge. But I think a daily usage of the information we get is not something that he should react to. This is a timely localization of knowledge and it is temporary; so it is a micro-narrative, not a meta-narrative in fact.
Furthermore, is Lyotard really supported by others in his theories? Critic Gerald Graff has a disappointed attitude. “Art was supposed to give the world meaning, which the rise of science and Enlightenment rationality had removed. However, in the postmodern period this task is finally revealed as a futile one (Wikipedia).” So, what are the flaws in Lyotard’s philosophy? Postmodernist philosophy is often thought to be a cynical reaction against the Enlightenment, a loss of conviction and pessimism, contrasting with the optimism of modernity.
I think we should believe that civilization will one day learn how to keep its good promises, so we should have confidence in it and be hopeful. Disappointment with and denunciation against modernity might turn it into a distrustful and cynical but not progressive improvement, which in return justifies postmodernism.

WORKS CITED
Lyotard, Jean François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Theory and
History of Literature. University of Minnesota Press. 1993. vol. 10. 9,

The aim of this essay is to show and exemplify the naming practices and address forms in Turkish language and Turkish culture with a few exceptions from different ethnic and religious groups so as to indicate any difference or similarity on a cultural basis. The paper is the culmination of a study and interview with different people from different cultures, who have been questioned in terms of the issues indicated as the subject matter in the title above.

How and what poeple name their children as is a subject matter that depends on many factors from culture such as religion and nationality, to social, economic and political conditions.

In Turkish culture, the name is chosen by either by an old family member like the grandfather or after an agreement between the parents but the patriarchal hegemony is evident in Turkey. However, there are different factors in choosing a name.

If the family is interested in or employed in art, the name will be after an artist’s or a mythlogical character or historical figure as a work of art such as Venüs or Monalisa. On the other side, they have a political background; choice of the name will be effected by this. After the execution of Deniz Gezmiş and Mahir Çayan, many families with a left-wing orientation named their boys after them. When Kenan Evren as the head of the army took power in 1980 around the same years, people who approved of the military interference with the government named their boys after Kenan Evren.

Also, a family with a religious background tends to name their babies after religious leaders like the four caliphs or names that directly refer to Islam such as Mümin, Mücahit or Rabia. Sometimes they do this just to make sure that their children should become a religious person following the suggestion of the name. If it turns out to be otherwise, the boy who gets irritated by the name Muhammed might apply to the court to change it at least to change it into Mehmet. Likewise, Ali is a common name among Alevi’s. Sunni Muslims living in the same city as the Alevi’s and the Shafi tend to have names like Hanefi or Hanifi, especially in Kahramanmaraş in Turkey – where it is a common masculine name – so that those people with their first names have a façade that tell about their identity. This is also significant because they try to emphasize their religious identity as a probable sign of showing-off for a possible superiority of religion. In the same way, people who claim to have stronger nationalistic feelings name their children as Asena, İlteriş, İlhan or Oğuzhan – with an implication of longing for the ancient Mid-Asia Turkish emperors and the culture – and tend to have surnames like Arıkan, Temizkan, which emphasize purity of blood. As an example from a different culture, Berfin (snowflake in Kurdish) is a female name commonly given to a baby born on a snowy day. Very much like this example, Turks have the habit to name the baby according to importance of the day: If it is the Victory Day on 30th August, the name is often Zafer (Victory). Even though the baby is female, some families name after Zafer. Another striking example is the name Arefe or Arife (Eve, the day before a religious day). If the baby girl is born on that day, they may name her after Arife. Rhyming names for the children in a family can be chosen just because they rhyme and sound nice. For example, my uncle named his children as Neslihan, Nagihan and Birhan, because his father named him Nizamettin rhyming with the other Kemallettin, Alaattin and Sebahattin. Also, when a close relative have died recently, his/her name is passed on to a new-born child just for commemoration, which happened to me because my youngest uncle had died a few years before I was born. As for me, if I want my children to be intelligent and powerful and good-looking people, I would name my daughter as Bilge (wise) followed by a name of flower emphasizing and inspiring the concept of beauty.

For me, having a two first name seems to inspire both respect and self-respect, which I inferred after I have seen that people with two “proper” first names as I suggested for myself tend to be more ambitious and successful.

As far as “how” babies are named is concerned, there are traditional or rather classical rituals. Traditional ways of naming mainly include saying prayers or the traditional call for prayers said by imams to the one ear of the baby and the name to the other ear. This might be done by the grandfather or an old and reverend person who is cultivated in religious matters. As one participant in the survey said, there are no rituals in the Kurdish culture before naming a new-born baby. In Christianity, the ritual baptism is great importance and the Father in the church baptizes to name the baby. Names of the 13 apostles or major emperors like John, Charles and Paul are used. As for Turkish Christians, we tell them from non-Christian Turks by their names such as Alen, Sera, Arev, Mari, Antuan or Etyen, and even when they have Turkish names, their surnames tends to end with “-yan” especially among Armenians. In Judaism, names related to Judaism in the Bible or names of places in Israel – which has an almost mythological importance as far as the longing for the Diaspora there is concerned – are often used.

A very non traditional way of naming babies is to look for a proper name from websites on the Internet that provide baby names. Some people even spend time on this to make websites such as www.namingbaby.co.uk. However, since long before this innovation in naming practices, there have been books written for parents with new-born babies like Bebek İsimleri Sözlüğü or İsimler Sözlüğü and people resort to these books because they think that those names serve as a reflection of the popular culture evident in that age.

Sometimes, the civil servant responsible for registering the baby’s name can misunderstand or misinterpret the name and mistype it; for example, Gülşen or Gülseren instead of Gülsen, Sabahattin instead of Sebahattin or Sadettin. However, these mistakes are not done intentionally due to ideological concern except the situation with Bulgarian Turks who had been told by the former communist government to choose Bulgarian names from a list or named by the army by randomly using force. Most of the Turkish emigrants from Bulgaria after such hardships have Bulgarian names in their passports. Some names can be banned under the circumstances, for example I had seen a German man who was arrested because he had named his dog as Adolf and taught it to salute like Hitler.

Even calendar sheets have suggestions for naming. They are often religiously oriented calendars such as Fazilet Takvimi which provide Arabic names like Rukiye or Osman, rejecting the mainstream popular culture. However, even the most radically religious families that I know of do not act on a suggestion by a calendar sheet but they just follow what is traiditonally done and find names from the Quran. There is yet another popular culture emerging in Islamic while people find two first names for their new-born babies, as one is a Turkish name and the latter is Arabic.

According to Türk Medeni Kanunu (Turkish Civil Code), it is the both parents who name the baby. They can not give names that do not conform to rules of morality or considered abusive for the society. If so, prosecutors of Turkish Republic have the right to institute an accuse against the parents for a change in the name. Furthermore, closely related to the same issue is the prohibition for letters like q, x and w while giving a name to a baby officially for her identity card. Kurdish language has sounds that sound so different from Turkish that they need exceptional letters for the Turkish alphabet like x, but a girl named in daily call as Xeval can be registered as Heval.

So, the after a discussion names as origin, choice and customs, another closely related issue as well as the names and naming practices is how we use those names in daily speech and communication. While the names refer to us, we should discuss the different forms and importance of addressing to each other by putting the function of the names into practice in daily usage.

In fact, how we address each other is expressionism of our feelings towards people with whom we interact. As a rule of the mainstream, people use intimate addressing words for people whom they are intimate with. For example, people switch from using the plural you to the singular you during a conversation because they say they get bored with the statement you and the cold formal atmosphere. If one of the speakers wants to get closer, he may switch to the singular you Sometimes, it is considered as considerate to ask the person how to call them such as would you mind if I just call you Ian? For some people, especially Westerners do not care about how you address them. A man at the age of your father may want you to call him by his first name. Such libertarian attitude is almost impossible to witness in Oriental cultures. Refusing conformity and tradition in this way is often seen in characters who can not tolerate limitations on human nature.

When we try to show our respect for the person older or higher in professional status, we address them with Bay, Bayan, Abi, Abla. This is a general rule but Efendi (Sir) seems to have an exceptional implication because people use Efendi when they address to a manual worker like a cleaner or a janitor. In this way, people with higher status somehow try to raise the self-respect of such people, which is also kindness as a whole. Efendi can be used as a sarcastic addressing term for someone the same age as or younger than us and who probably on a certain occasion do not care about us but only himself or herself.

What about shortening address terms or names? Anniş, babişko, teyzoş, kuzi, mükü are the examples given by a female from İzmir; on the other side, a male at the same age but from Van recite examples like Ferho for Ferhat, Mısto for Mustafa. They are used between close friends and when a parent calls for his/her son.

As far status is concerned as a factor in calling people with certain address terms, the best example is the case when a farmer called to the prime minister Tayyip Erdoğan who in turn said “Artistik yapma lan!” “Ananı da al git.” In vulgar language, the one with the higher status uses deprecatory addressing words. Siboş instead of Sibel is an expression of affection by the seniors and closeness by the peer group. Calling beloved ones with the names of organs such as ciğerimin köşesi (corner of my liver), gözümün bebeği (my pupil) are expressions implying affection while sağ kolum (my right hand) suggests trust.

In some cultures where girls are not sent to school and married at sixteen or seventeen, the age difference between the mother and the son or daughter turns out to be less than two decades, which has in some ways good culminations as far as a gap of generation between the mother and the child. This may effect the relationship in a better way fort he sake of more healthy conversation and communication However, even in such cases, addressing statements do not vary further than Anne, Ana. In such marriage case, the mother of this woman may continue giving birth and there might be aunts and uncles at the same age of or even younger than the nephews or nieces. The nieces or the nephews do not abstain from calling their peer aunts or uncles with the usual amca, dayı, teyze, hala, but they might sound to be having fun, in which case they choose to treat such close relatives as brothers or sisters and just address them by their first names like Ayşe! instead of Ayşe Teyze! (Aunt Ayşe).

Finally, all we can conclude about the two subject matters, naming new-born babies and addressing people with whom we are in interaction. The general statement would be that there is not a standard name choosing and naming practice even in the same society. There are always exceptions and ironies serving the opposite meaning. What sounds nice as a name and is popular and mainstream is given as a name, as well as to commemorate late relatives. This is an implication that we care about respect for both the dead person and the new-born. While addressing people, we may not always watch for respect but both respect and closeness. So, we address people, with diminutive words or abbreviations, which suggest affection for the beloved ones and antipathy against those we dislike. In this way, so much depends on the context, and representations of identities are easily determined by those contexts.

Sebahattin Cücü 2008

If we take the two short stories in question, “Eleven” by sandra cisneros and “The Man Who was Almost a Man” by richard wright, they each deal with young people. one is an 11-year-old girl and the other is a boy around 17. there is another common point in that much of cisneros’ writing is influenced by her mexican-american and wright’s by his african-american heritage.
as for the stories in question, the boy called dave in wright’s story is quite appropriate to be evaluated sigmund freud’s psychosexual stages because his problem seems to be his age. likewise, rachel in cisneros’ story has the same problem, but her experiences will be dealt with in terms of assuming her normal roles at the gate of puberty. yet, they are not really ordinary in their own ways because those two young people suffer from something that is not ordinary, at the gate of something new. they are both at a critical point in terms of their ages; rachel is 11 and dave is 17. rachel cannot decide how on her 11th birthday she can act like a girl of 11, and speak bravely in the discussion in the class over the fuss about the ugly red sweater, and say that it does not belong to her. on the other hand, dave is 17 years old, and he is obsessed with the idea of a gun of his own in order to prove his manhood. but ı am sure and argue that they are both objects to, not subjects of, the society they live in. they are almost victims at their critical ages, at 11 and 17. ın both cases, there is lack of proper timing in terms of behaving or – as it is often said – acting one’s age. however, what the society imposes on those two young people could be problematic in their lives. what people impose on them clashes with their nature, and they express and react to it in extraordinary ways. there is also a question of nature versus nurture in the expression of assuming social and gender roles.
look at dave. after his tragedy with the mule, he thinks: “nobody ever gave him anything. all he did was work. they treat me like a mule, n then they beat me.” (wright 1917) ıt seems that his family did not give him any toys to play. maybe, he was not given any time or chance to make friends, because he looks for an individual toy, a gun, and then he goes to play with it on his own except for the mule with which he sort of associates himself in terms of labor.
ıf we are to deal with him discussing realities, it is important to remember that reality has so much to do with natural sciences. then, what would sigmund freud say about him? ı think dave wants to prove his manhood with the use of a gun. “freud conceived of the mind as having only a fixed amount of psychic energy, or libido. though the word libido has since acquired overt sexual implications, in freud’s theory it stood for all psychic energy.” (stevenson 4) ıf we consider that hunting and masculinity are associated with each other as a stereotype, it is true that a gun is associated with the male sexual organ, which freudians call “phallus.” ındeed, he searches for manhood in a reasonable way if we are to justify his relationship with the gun. as freud says, the phallic stage is the time when a boy becomes aware of his sexual identity and starts to grow interest in his genitals. this also involves the elimination of any same-sex attraction. dave gets the gun and wants to prove his manhood, but he uses his manhood device on the female mule jenny. ıt is so interesting that he in a symbolic and ironic way penetrates the mule and makes it bleed with the gun which now represents his manhood. the death tragedy of the animal bears a similarity to his own flight away from home, to somewhere he will not work like a mule any more. here, wrong timing with the toy and the gun turns him into a sexual deviant in an unnoticed process. however, there is a lack of proper timing that is caused by the family and the society – even though less than the family. his own conformity with the rules that his family have imposed up to now made him look for a killing device, and not for a kind of safer toy which would seem too childish for a 17-year-old boy. this is a problem of getting stuck between two things, between childhood and maturity. however, no play but work would infuriate men like charles dickens, who himself was a child laborer and often criticized child labor; but dave has to help his family and play is also necessary. otherwise, dave is turned into a devil, and he slips away just like a wet soap that is squeezed too much in hand.
according to rules of logic, there is someting called the impossibility of the third state: ‘a’ cannot be ‘a’ and ‘not-a’ at the same time. ıf you are dead, you are not alive, and you cannot be both alive and dead at the same time. dave at 17 is not a child any more but not yet a man. he can wait patiently for a year or two to get a gun, but he seems so impatient. ıs he a man or a child at 17? we cannot decide which, and neither can he on how he should react to those people who made fun of him in front of everyone when he killed the mule: either to forget them all who made fun of him like a child, or feel ashamed like an adult, or despise them like a monarch?
ıf we trust freud again, it is possible to see a sort of oedipus complex because dave is closer to his mother than to his father and persuades her to give the money for the gun. his flight away from home is a certain consequence of his clash with the father, because he has to work harder now serving the father in order to pay for poor jenny. there is also a sort of castration complex, which freud would say is the fear of the child – who is close to mother – against the father, who might castrate the boy. (kowalski 426) ındeed, dave has such a complex because he hides his gun, his phallus, away in the ground so that the father would not take it away. maybe, he does not realise this but his obsession with the gun is indeed an obsession with his own sexual identity. at the end of the story, he has gone away to a place where he can be a man, but there his obsession with his own sex could probably make him kill a man, as he can be a man as long as he has the gun and within that clash of childhood and manhood. what about losing his own sense of sex and becoming a homosexual? “fixation at the phallic stage develops a phallic character, who is reckless, resolute, self-assured, and narcissistic – excessively vain and proud. the failure to resolve the conflict can also cause a person to be afraid or incapable of close love; as well, freud postulated that fixation could be a root cause of homosexuality.” (stevenson 4) freud is afraid that dave will fail in proving his manhood and become attracted to his own sex, which means homosexuality. dave is too reckless, resolute, self-assured, and narcissistic. dave is between man and child states, and it is probable that he will choose such a gender as between man and women. he might make friends with people who have guns and then become a bandit, a villain, as far as his love for the gun is concerned. dave worked and had nothing to play, which would infuriate charles dickens, who himself was a child laborer and often criticized child labor; but dave has to help his family and play is also necessary. otherwise, dave is turned into a devil, and he slips away just like a wet soap that is squeezed too much in hand.
as for the philosophy of life as far as a man, particularly a young man is concerned, ı think a man must be careful with what he wants, as the consequence might be doom. remember ıcarus from greek mythology, who took permission from his father dedalus for a couple of wings with which to fly up to the sun. he falls when the wax melts in the sunlight. again, king midas of lydia asks dionysus to give the power to turn everything he touches into gold. everything he touches becomes gold, but midas gets bored with all those gold around him and asks the god to take the power back. as a punishment his ears grow longer and he looks like a donkey. ın “the necklace,” a short story by guy de maupassant, a poor women wants to go to a party of rich people and she borrows a necklace from her rich friend, but she thinks it is genuine. when she loses it, she buys a genuine one secretly with all her money and going into debt, and gives it to her friend. she has to work for ages to pay her debts, and one day she meets her old friend again, and learns to her amazement that the necklace that she had lost was paste. so, it is a tragedy that happens because she tries to go through something beyond herself and her means, but fails. again, our mother eve eats the banned apple even though the garden is full of other fruits, and adam and eve, or rather humanity suffers from the first tragedy. man is unable to be calmly satisfied with himself. after all, the myths are myths. the necklace story might be romantic, and the garden of eden is written in holy books, but these are all good examples to what the almost-man wants and suffers in the end as a reality.
so, what can be problematic or what can be said about an age complex of a young girl? take rachel into consideration. she makes us think about the points where we decide to grow up. on her birthday, she cannot decide how to act her age, 11. what is important about the age of 11, then? this point is interesting: “ı got my period when ı was 11. the first few years were ok. ı didn’t mind it so much. then, when ı was about 14, ı started to get cramps.” says a girl called tiffany k. somewhere on the ınternet and it is claimed on the same site that the average age is 11. of course, a girl start to assume female roles years before 11 by helping her mother in the kitchen. however, with the start of the menstruation periods, girl assume more natural, personal or psychological roles as a women. such female roles come to her naturally. the red sweater, which the teacher thinks is rachel’s, seems like a symbol. ındeed, red is an important symbol of women; it is almost a compulsary role in itself. the red sweater is old and red color is a traditional role for women. ıt can also be associated with the blood of mensturation and then chilbirth, or meal cooked with red sauce. they have to look beautful and sexy in order to attract the standard handsome man. society teaches or imposes this role to women in some ways but media such as magazines, tv advertisements and movies have a great role today for that. so, they need red lipsticks, red dresses, red fingernail polish and so on, in order to live up to the standards set by the high culture and sent down to individual women. this is not tradition but it is going that way. ıf the red sweater is old, it means that it is the traditional role for the female. ıf rachel does not accept the red sweater role, ı think she will become a minority, who often suffers in a childish society where there is not enough respect for differences, where people are discriminated against due to gender, nationality, religion and language.
rachel does not accept the sweater at first, and it is also important to notice that a girl does not believe and accept her first menstruation. she gets nervous and sometimes throws away her clothes stained with blood. she even claims that she does not have a wound, so the red blood cannot be hers until mother tells her about realities of adulthood.
likewise, the teacher does not want rachel to wear a blue sweater instead. ıt goes far beyond the story but, it made us think that the society do not want people to be a homosexual, reminding her as an example in an authoritative way that she should choose her gender properly. this is a normal attitude of the society to promote normal sexuality, but if she is controlled too strictly in this way, she may get bored with the red sweater role and act like a wet soap squeezed in hand and slip away from the regular walk of his life, unlike dave, who might become a transgress the so-called roles of his sexual identity because of his eagerness to assume male roles – with the gun – at once. 11 is also too early to assume too some female roles, as a girl of 11 is not supposed to wear make-up, it might be unhealthy. both rachel and dave should be given the right to satisfy own childhood, out of lipsticks, out of guns and all right with taking care of dolls and playing with toy guns. these toys are necessary here because they act as an imitation of real life and teach them realities of life through playfullness. as reality makes us feel sorry, children learn feeling cheerful with imitation of realities. again, this is a question of proper timing here. children should be given toys, not red sweater roles or real guns.
rachel naturally has a reaction to her woman roles imposed on her through the red sweater and wants to stay the child she is. ıf dave is stuck and suffers between childhood and manhood, and wants to grow up, rachel does not want to live what is between childhood and oldness. wishing to become “one hundred and two” is another defence or flight mechanism for her. she wants to suddenly get old, be an old women who has already completed her female roles. she will have lost all her female sides and will not need to look sexy. no childbirth, no housework. she will be looked after like a child, this time by her grandchildren. also, old people are not forced to accept any sexual roles as they will not change any more, and best of all, an old person will be respected without doing nothing. that is why she wants to become 102. ındeed, an old person is very much like a child. a child is naive as she does not know or have not learnt much about life, which makes her happy, almost blindly happy. an old women has lived a life and forgotten some things as her memory becomes weaker, as well as the eyes get blind and the ears deaf. old age is easier than getting to know the realities of adult life, because old people have already gone through them.
besides all these, the year of the story is 1991, a time when women had already started going out to work and come back home and look after children and do the housework especially in the usa, a long time. women’s roles are getting various. ıf lack of such variety makes life boring and oppressive under male domination for a woman, variety in a women’s roles and too much for her to do could make life harder and unbearable. old age that rachel wishes for is far beyond all these. but she has to face life as an adult because real life destroys a child without parental care or state aid. as rachel herself says: “ı wish ı was anything but eleven, because ı want today to be far away already, far away like a runaway balloon, like a tiny o in the sky, so tiny-tiny you have to close your eyes to see it.” (cisneros)
so, these two young people suffer more from family life or people around them, than from their own natures. characters of man reflect the character of the society in which they live, and indeed hitler was created by his own nation. even “monster” (2003) was based on true story, with either too much parental control or ignorance and hostility of the society. here, we see that the society creates its own gods and controls weak individuals such as young people, even without knowing why and how, because we are always supposed to imitate what we see. ı see that we are often under the influence of the social context where we live, and these two young people – at 11 and 17 – are at critical or maybe dangerous ages, but they grow up, get aged and change, and then die. anything problematic at young ages bear some traces until it is solved and regulated either in a clinic or in prison, or until it destroys the individual himself/herself. so, if the problem is not that big to go through these regulations, we should forget everything bad or remember it feebly so as to avoid it or make it avoid you in some way. to think of these gives us a chance to look back on our childhood and the gradual process to go into adulthood, and evaluate anything problematic, because conditions around a young person – who is to become a man metaphorically, or rather a good adult person – should not turn him into a monster.
works cıted:
kowalski, robin and drew westen. psychology john wiley & sons, ınc. hoboken, nj: wiley, 2005. 426,427
mcmichael, george et al. “concise anthology of american literature” prentice hall ınc. newjersey. 2001. 1908, 2270
stevenson, david b. 1998, 05 january 2005
http://www.victorianweb.org/science/freud/develop.html