Phrase chosen: "The whole of the journey I savoured that feeling of being nowhere, alone, before and behind me either eternity or nothingness" (Salih, 24).
Unpacking the phrase: I think that this phrase says so much and is so deep in many different ways. This person, who grew up with literally no one to love him, or no one that he noticed to love him, no father, a mother who was more like a stranger, people who wanted him to succeed but he did not care what they felt for him... and the only way he felt something that he had always longed for when he was alone and nowhere, which was some where in actuality. The whole point of his journey, that had been magically layed out for him, was to have and endure this feeling of being alone and not knowing where he will end up next, or what "bigger mountain" he will come across during his journey. I feel like another story that this phrase is opposing is how utterly lonesome this poor boy is, a 15-year old boy, who does not even know what it feels like to be loved or wanted, and so by not knowing anything different, this is the greatest feeling he wanted to achieve, the most alone he could possibly be. I feel like it is such a sad phrase, even though it states that this is what his whole journey was meant for, it seems as though this is the most alone he has ever been and that he is so lost as to where his life will go and does not know where he belongs in his own life even. The way that it functions to me is when it says that he is "nowhere" instead of being "somewhere" and that he does not know if it was "eternity or nothingness" before or behind him. It works so well because it is so incredibely deep, and makes you realize that when you think that you are some where, you can actually be no where, and that we all do not know what has been behind us or what will come before us, but we at least are loved and have someone with us. This man had no one and is trying to keep his life so secretive and non-important when he actually does have an amazing and interesting past and present. So it just shows that the people who seem like the most regular, keep to themselves type of people are actually full of wonder, but then we all are to some degree.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Some of the other reasons why he felt alone is his natural thirst of knowledge, his talent, and eagerness to understand the world. As we read farther we learn that he did not have any friends in school and college:"Isolated and arrogant, he spent his time alone, either reading or going for long walks. He felt nowhere, because his thirst for knowledge has brought him to dissappointment.. He started a new life in the village among simple and happy people, hoping to find peace in his soul, "But mysterious things in my soul and in my blood impel me towards faraway.."
ReplyDeleteHe (Mustafa) was was very gifted and yet very unhappy man. He felt nothingness before and behind him, because everything he did made him unhappy. Maybe, he was unhappy, because he could not change things he wanted to change. He was unhappy and felt that his life became meaningless, because his lifetime goal lead him to disappointment. As he says later in the text:"How sad it would be if either or both of my sons grew up with the germ of this infection in them, the wanderlust."
ReplyDelete