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‘Image’ presentation in My Name Is Red

In order for authors of literary works to pen their ideas in such a way that they bring to the fore the true identities of their characters, and by extension the theme of their dramatic works of art, the use of literary devices is commonly employed. As such, Orhan Pamuk in his literary work, My Name Is Red, uses various literary devices to deliver powerful narration that epitomizes his themes. Among the literary devices that are applied include: personification, indirect characterization, and aesthetic distance.

According to Murfin and Ray (2009), personification is a literary device which confers human attributes to inanimate objects, abstract ideas, or animals. In ‘I am a Dog’ and ‘I am a Corpse’ the author gives the dog and the corpse human voices, thoughts, and mannerisms, as they try to make their cases: the dog arguing why dogs are important after all and shouldn’t be despised and the corpse demanding for justice. As such, the function of personification in any literary work is to confer human features to a concept or object that enables the author to describe its qualities, behavior, emotions or character. Personification can be found in poetry, prose, music, as well as speech. In real life, dogs do not and cannot speak, and neither can dead people. In his work, Orhan depicts dogs, trees, and a corpse as able as capable of speech. For instance, the dog says thus ‘I’m a dog, and because you humans are less rational beasts than I, you’re telling yourselves, “Dogs don’t talk.” Nevertheless, you seem to believe a story in which corpses speak and characters use words they couldn’t know, Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen’. By giving dogs, corpses and trees human voices, the readers, by hearing from the horse’s mouth as it were, are able to understand the character first hand, know what they stand for, their beliefs, and personality. Therefore, personification is a powerful literary tool in the creation of a character’s image in a piece of literary work.

Another literary device that is employed in Orhan’s work is indirect characterization. Characterization enables the readers to empathize with the characters in a story and to see the events in the story through the lives of these characters. In a way it brings about a semblance of living reality to the readers through the plots created by the characters. Whether it’s through dialogue or thoughts written in prose, characterization brings to the fore the aspirations, motivations, and personalities of the portrayed characters in a story. Indirect characterization is where the author, through the characters thoughts, perceptions, speech, actions, and relationship with others define who they are through inference. For instance, In ‘I am a Corpse’ ‘I will be called a Murderer’ ‘I am Esther’ and ‘I am a tree’ the characters through their thoughts and actions respectively offer the readers an opportunity to understand their circumstances and the events that led to it. This is indirect characterization.

Orhan’s work also uses aesthetic distance to draw his readers to his work. The use of the first person narrative and their powerful narration ensures that the reader closely identifies with the characters and they are fully ‘involved’ with the happenings. Through this literary device, the ‘image’ of the character is developed as the story unfolds

As a result of use of various literary devices, literary writers are able to build the image of the characters in their works in the eyes of the reader.

Works cited

Murfin, Ross C, and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Boston, Mass: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print.