The master narrative of media is powerful driving force in our lives. It influences us from our opinions regarding some minor event in our city all the way to how we view an entire culture or even a region of cultures. The Western narrative for the Middle east for instance is one which calls to mind images of violence, radicalism, and oppression. That is a huge blanket statement to throw over an incredibly diverse region of the world, it simply isn’t true. The reality is always more complicated and full of gray areas. Framing is the issue, the framing by which our news sources use to tell us what is going on these parts of the world. No sizable effort is being made by the Western media to frame the discussion differently and challenge the master narrative. However, we do see the challenge being taken up by many Mid East writers such as Orhan Pamuk. He is a native of Istanbul and has lived there all his life. Most of his writing focuses on his city and he strives to show the world the city he has loved his entire life. Pamuk bucks the narrative with his work, depicting a modern city like any other but with its own unique culture and history. Through his writing we find a very relatable Middle East that has nothing to do with violence, radicalism, and oppression, but also establishes its own identity.
Pamuk’s story To Look Out the Window tells of a family living in Istanbul. Two parents and two sons, the protagonist is the youngest. He is grade school young and the story is from his perspective which allows us an innocent view of the story. The story opens with the father taking the two sons to a football game and then on the way home they get packs of chewing gum which include cards with famous people on them. “My brother got four Field Marshal Fevzi Calmaks, five Ataturks, and one Edison. We tossed the chewing gum into our mouths and began to read the writing on the back of the cards” (Pamuk 1279). Such a simple aspect of childhood which many Western readers would realate to I’m sure. But it’s also re-appropriated for Turkish culture, with figures like Ataturk and Fevzi Calmaks. The story takes a sad turn when the father leaves his family for another woman. The young protagonist is the only one who knows this has happened and must tell his mother; “’Daddy went to Paris,’ I said. ‘And you know what suitcase he took?’ She said nothing, in the silence of the night, we watched the rainy street for a very long time.” (Pamuk 1286). Pamuk gives us a story that challenges the master narrative of the Middle East simply by being a story about childhood and family troubles. That made it a favorite of mine of the region and one which I felt broke the mold in a strong way.
A Study of World Literature 