Snow lures readers into the distant land of Turkey. A country rampant with poverty and political turmoil. While snow drifts into every chapter of the novel, our heroine, Ka, relates his emotions and ideas with snow. Snow represents the good and bad emotions Ka encounters during his short stay in Kars. The endless snow surrounding Kars is a nuisance to the inhabitants of the city, but to Ka the sight of pure white snowflakes falling from the winter sky reminds him of God. Snow can epitomize some of the darkest and saddest emotions man can have. Orhan shrewdly uses snow to not only paint Ka's thoughts, but also illustrate the dark feeling abused citizens have against their heartless government.
Even though this book is based in the early 1990's, the issues addressed in the novel are very relevant today. Currently, Turkey is struggling economically and politically. The Islamic party grows ever stronger, while the Liberal Party attempts to suppress the Islamic religion and westernize Turkey. "Tension between the secularism" (Updike) and "rise of political Islam"(Updike) show the ever growing instability of the country's government. In his late twenties, Ka left Turkish politics and media, and exiled himself to Germany for twelve years to pursue happiness in poetry, and after many years of seclusion, Ka returns to Turkey to attend his mother’s funeral. After arriving into his hometown, Kars, for an investigation, a snowstorm hits the city and traps Ka. Secretly, Ka is pleased and excited to finally be able to return to his homeland, but small eruptions of fear swallow Ka's mind while he watched the unrelenting snowstorm harass his bus ride. As Ka ponders the snow that is quickly blocking his exit, Ka remembers the excruciatingly ha...
... middle of paper ...
...iolence and failure as the blizzard produced by illiberality and indecision.
Pamuk's modesty as a writer, his refusal to write as if he knows what is happening, is one of his finest qualities. There are episodes in this novel--such as the conversation in a coffee shop between the director of the education institute and his assassin about the state's banning of head-scarves--that illuminate the confrontation between secular and extremist Islamic worlds better than any work of nonfiction I can think of.
One of Ka's interlocutors, a theologian named Blue, complains that because the country has fallen under the spell of the west, it has forgotten its own stories. This may be true. But Pamuk shows decisively that the European novel (here superbly translated by Maureen Freely) remains a form, and a freedom, for which we have reason to be thankful.
Evans, Julian
Snow Writing When this project first came to my attention, I thought long and hard about what I would use to write and write on. I was sure I could come up with something creative and different. After a half hour of deep, deep thought, I came to the conclusion that I was going to take the easy way out and just write in snow with my finger. I was ashamed, but it needed to be done. It’s hard to imagine walking up to a large open field in the bitter cold to write or read the latest Hunter
The Snow Games Let me tell you a tale of three unique snowflakes. It started like this… I was created by a woman named Elsa. She made me into a snowman named Olaf. There I meet two snowflakes named Alyssa and Haleyanna, but most snowflakes just called her Haley. Two elderly snowflakes named Christian and Mitchel said that evil snow was terrorizing a dimension that nobody knew how to get to! Everyone looked around and saw the adventure in Me, Alyssa, and Haley’s eyes and knew instantly that we
A Winter Snow When I think back upon the memories of my childhood, I clearly recall a specific winter afternoon at my grandmother’s house. It is an especially cold day, I remember. I am dressed in two pairs of thick socks, two sweatshirts, a heavy winter coat, and my bright pink rain boots. I am nine years old, and to me, winter snow is pure magic. As I step out onto my grandmother’s back porch, I remember losing my breath, not only from the bitter cold, but also from the captivating scene. I am
What kinds of snow crystals fall from the sky? Before answering this, it is useful to define what a snow crystal is. Types of frozen precipitation include: Snow crystals -- Individual, single ice crystals, often with six-fold symmetrical shapes. These grow directly from condensing water vapor in the air, usually around a nucleus of dust or some other foreign material. Typical sizes range from microscopic to at most a few millimeters in diameter. Snowflakes -- Collections of snow crystals, loosely
sort of dream that cannot be brought over into daily life. Old mists may be banished, that is true, but the alien chemical agent forms another mist maintaining the separation of the 'I' from the true experience of the One.1 This passage comes from The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen. In this passage Matthiessen describes what he has learned from the experiences he had with hallucinogenic drugs, such as ayahuasca, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. He is concerned mostly with the spiritual nature of such
Snow. Many people see it as an opportunity to have fun but other people like me, see it as an opportunity to make money. Specifically getting paid to plow snow. Every year i make a little money doing it along with others. People have the ability to make bank on snow if they know what to do with it, most people just choose not to do anything with it and i guess its there loss. Unfortunately this year has been an awful year for snow. As most people are used to michigan getting a lot of snowfall. A
to live their lives to the fullest. We want them to have a life worth living in spite of whatever physical difficulties they possess. There are many ways to accomplish this, but one of the lesser known is adaptive snow sports. The O & P field has had a connection with adaptive snow sports from its beginning. The “Grandfather of handicapped (adaptive) skiing” as he is referred to by the Skiing Hall of Fame is none other than Paul E. Leimkuehler, CPO. He had such an impact on the sport that in1981
In this story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, the author Ernest Hemingway has basically two main characters, Harry and his wife, Helen. Throughout the story Harry has an infected leg, which seems to be seriously bothering him, it is actually rotting away. The author writes about Harry’s time on the mountain with his wife just waiting for his death. In his story, Ernest Hemingway shows a great deal reality and emotion through his main character Harry, in the books themes, and its symbols. The author’s
The novel Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson explores life of Japanese- Americans during the first half of the 21st century on the island of San Pierdro, a small island off the shore of Seattle. The novel opens on the trail of Kabuo Miyamoto in 1954 and focuses on his wife Hastue and the local one-armed reporter Ishmael Chambers. Later in the story Hastue and Ishmael, a white man had a secret romance in high school. Yet after the bombing at Pearl Harbor their lives will change forever. Kabuo
Love in a Snow Globe Packing for college is a normal and exciting event in many newly turned legal adults’ lives. It is the first time they get to live with peers in place of nosy parents. Some items are packed are out of necessity, such as clothes, and others are to decorate the bland white walls and wooden desks to show some personality, which are all the things every teenager tells their parents they “need” to bring. When it was finally my turn to pack for college, there were many boxes
about snow and what it truly is. Especially in a place like Colorado, snow is not unheard of and many people do not know what it truly is even if they are accustomed to it. Snow is common, people step on it and don’t react to it much if it is falling from the sky either, but why aren’t people alarmed that white flakes are falling from the sky? Snow is a mystery to many but it is just another element that doesn’t seem to have an impact on the human body other than being cold, so what is snow, how is
Snow Storm Baby The year was 1992; a cold December arctic wind had brought a chance of snow to the area. It was the weekend and time to relax after a long hard week at work. The weather service had predicted several inches of snow to blanket the region by the next day. Not to worry: it was the weekend and traveling was not a necessity. At the time, my wife Jeanne was pregnant with our soon-to-be daughter Tahlyn. We had waited eight long months for her to arrive, and finally her due date was
going to be. I had to determine whether I would go to work or stay home. My heart sank as I pulled back the living room curtains and saw that the snow had already started to fall. I decided that it would be in my best interest to call into work and prepare for the several hours of back-breaking shoveling that faced me during the day. As I watched the snow pile up I decide it was time to get dressed and get outside to find the shovel and get ahead of what was to be a significant snowfall. I hated to
The term snow is usually restricted to material that fall during precipitation in the form of small white ice crystals formed directly from the water vapour of the air at a temperature of less than 0°C and has not changed much since it fell. A fall of snow on a glacier surface is the first step in the formation of glacier ice, a process that is often long and complex (Cuffey and Paterson, 2010). The transformation of snow to ice occurs in the top layers of the glaciers and the time of the transformation
some events will ever happen to them -- until it does. It was a snow day, but I had a package that had just come in the mail. To get my package I had to persuade my mom, I did! I was now on my way but had to go slow due to the icy roads. I’m not sure how it happened or why; but on my way to get the package, it never occurred that this wasn’t a good idea at all: I never made it all the way there due to the wreck. Although it was a snow day, I still wanted to go get my package. I had just found that