Matteo Lupatin

Final Assignment Osayande

Book Report: My name is red

By Orhan Pamuk

BACKGROUND

Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul in 1952 and grew up in a large family, in the wealthy westernised district

of Nisantasi. As he writes in his autobiographical book Istanbul, from his childhood until the age of 22 he

devoted himself largely to painting and dreamed of becoming an artist. After graduating from the secular

American Robert College in Istanbul, he studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University for three years,

but abandoned the course when he gave up his ambition to become an architect and artist. He went on to

graduate in journalism from Istanbul University, but never worked as a journalist. At the age of 23 Pamuk

decided to become a novelist, and giving up everything else retreated into his flat and began to write. My

Name Is Red, about Ottoman and Persian artists and their ways of seeing and portraying the non-western

world, told through a love story and family story, was published in 1998. Orhan Pamuk received the 2006

Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the second youngest person to receive the award in its history

CHARACTERS

The book is composed of twenty different voices, with twenty different points of view. Each chapter of My

Name Is Red, which is set in late 16th-century Istanbul, has a heading that tells us who will be speaking. The

story begins with a chapter, called I Am a Corpse, then it changes to I Am Called Black, then to I Am a

Dog, and I Will Be Called a Murderer, I Am Your Beloved Uncle, and others like I, Shekure, I Am

Called Butterfly and so on. In the first chapter, I Am a Corpse a corpse narrates what he feels in the

afterlife, how he came to be a murdered man and what he feels about his murderer. This unique first-person
point of view continues throughout all the chapters. The novel's main characters tell a part of their own

stories. What is peculiar is that some of the narrators are not living people, and some are not human

characters at all like one dog and a tree. Nevertheless, the narrative begins with a murder and the story

courses forward. In the initial stages, the story focuses on the death, and then introduces, a principal

character Black a man, who calls himself a connoisseur of decoration and illustration, writing and other

tasks, in the book. He has returned to Istanbul, after 12 years. The plot usually follows his actions, and he

has the narrative voice in several chapters.

Protagonist:

BLACK

He is thirty-six years old. After an absence of twelve years where he traveled a lot, he did different jobs like

secretary; afterwards, he made books in the service of the pashas. He came back to his home town, Istanbul,

because he is going to illustrate a secret book for the Sultan as a miniaturist; however, he is going to meet

his uncle Enishte, under whose patronage, he had lived as a youth, learnt about the art of book illumination

and while in his house, had also fallen in love with his beautiful daughter, Shekure, and had declared it, too,

at the time. His uncle hadnt thought him suitable for her and she hadnt either, and Black had to leave

Istanbul. After many years, Black sees his Uncle and widowed Shekure with her two sons, Orhan and

Shevket. He has dynamic character because his personality evolve with the story.

ENISHTE EFFENDI

He is Black maternal uncle. He is designated by the Sultan to make a secret illustrated book, to give to the

Venetian Doge. However, he has to recruiting some most talented artists, because they have to represent

Sultans entire world, but not only material objects, like Venetian masters. In contrast the Venetians, he wants

his miniaturists team to paint emotions, like joys and fears, and tell a story at the same time. When he will

be kill, Enishte, the master of the miniaturists, we hear first-hand from the victim about being killed. It does

not stop there. "My funeral was splendid, exactly as I'd wanted," Chapter 37 begins. Enishte surveys the

friends and foes who come to see him buried and notices his murderer among the mourners. these dead men
give slightly comical accounts of life after death. Indeed, he is so concerned to do so that he is neglect to tell

us anything useful about his murder. His character is round, because he has a complex and strong personality.

SHEKURE

She is a housewife and a widow; her husband was a soldier. She is twelve years younger than Black. When

she was twelve years old she fell in love with Black, but her father didnt want them to have a relationship.

Now she has two children, Orhan and Shevket. She is still in love with Black. Afterwards, she married Black,

and she wants him to find her fathers killer. Her character is flat because she never change her behavior

during the story.

Antagonists:

BUTTERFLY

He is a miniaturist. He was engaged by Effendy for make the secret book. He is investigated by Black for the

murder of Elegant Effendy. He thinks that he is the best of all miniaturist. He narrated three stories, related to

miniaturists to Black. The first story established the style is imperfection, the second story established that a

perfect picture needs no signature, and the third marries the ideas of the first and the second, and thus

demonstrates that signature and style are but means of being brazenly and stupidly self congratulatory about

flawed work. Him character is static because he never change a lot during the story.

STORK

He is a miniaturist. He was engaged by Effendy for make the secret book. He is investigated by Black for the

murder of Elegant Effendy. He narrated three stories, related to miniaturists to Black. The meaning of the

first story is: no matter how talented a miniaturist might be, it is time that makes picture perfect. The second

story reveals that the only way to escape time is through skill and illustrating. The third story reveals how
time ends for person who forsakes the perfect life and perfect illuminating, leaving nothing but death. His

character is static.

OLIVE

He is a miniaturist. He was engaged by Effendy to make the secret book. He is investigated by Black for the

murder of Elegant Effendy. He narrated a story, related to miniaturists to Black, where the meaning, as Olive

said, is Blindness is a realm of bliss from which the Devil and guilt are barred. His character is static.

SETTING AND BACKGROUND

After twelve years Black came back to his home town Istanbul his uncle Effendy want him to work as

miniaturist on a new secret book with three other miniaturists. The Sultan want make a gift to Venetian Doge.

Black came back to live in uncles house where his cousin Shekure lives. When they were young they were

in love each other, but Elegant Effendy didnt want them to have a future together. Someone killed Elegant

Effendy and another miniaturist that worked for him, so Black has to inquire into who has murdered both of

them. The suspects in the murder are Butterfly, Stork, and Olive. Afterwards Blacks inquires , he will

discover, between those three subject, who have murdered his uncle.

PLOT

The story is located in Istanbul at the end of sixteenth century; the Ottoman Empire is surrounded,

geographically and culturally, by Europe in the West and the Persian Empire in the East. Meanwhile, Istanbul

is the territory of the fight between East and West, where the theme of the conflict is miniature art and the

value of images. The thread is Blacks search to find the killer. The meaning of the book is the motive of the

murder, and the cultural motivation that push murder. In the middle is a love story between Black and his

cousin Shekure.