Microsoft Word 1 Arif thesis cover final doc

CHAPTER 6 – VURUN KAHPEYE 
197 
life, for her country. Two are the enemies that she fought against and conquered: the 
real external enemy and the reactionary, conservative forces among local people. 
Until the end she kept her promise by which the novel starts: “Toprağınız toprağım, 
eviniz evim; burası için, bu diyarın çocukları için bir ana, bir ışık olacağım; vallahi 
ve billahi.” (Your land is my land, your house is my house; for this place and for his 
country’s children I will be a mother; in the name of God). Throughout the novel this 
promise is repeated and from it she draws the courage to take vital decisions for her 
country and for the nationalists who fight for it.
It is worth noting that, while the novel is vehemently against what it portrays as 
superstition, it uses and sympathetically describes certain religious sentiments. In the 
sixth chapter there is a long and detailed description of an annual memorial service to 
remember the two sons of a local notable who both died fighting in Çanakkale
. 
The 
memorial service is performed in the mosque with explicit elements of mysticism. 
The novel employs a theme which springs from social conditions of its time: the 
interaction between an educated and by the standards of the time emancipated young 
woman and the traditional society of her own country. The choice of a heroine as 
opposed to a hero as the central figure is intended to make the contrasts in that 
interaction sharper. The reader’s sympathy is clearly meant to be with the heroine. 
Vurun Kahpeye
is written as a didactic work which projects an obvious sense of right 
and wrong in the light of which the characters are fairly crudely arrayed.

---

CHAPTER 6 – VURUN KAHPEYE 
198 
The novel can certainly not be classified among the masterpieces of modern Turkish 
literature. However, in the light of the time in which it was written and the purposes 
which it served, it is significant.
A number of points can be stressed regarding the significance of the writer and this 
novel: in a simple language which clearly seem to be nearer to the language spoken 
by ordinary people it promotes a female character whose role in the new society does 
not contradict the main and well accepted role of a woman: the woman leaves the 
house and without neglecting a traditional female role in particular motherhood and 
always respecting some of the old ways she goes to an unknown place to work as a 
teacher. For example, when appropriate that the heroine covers her head when she 
thinks that she would cause disrespect otherwise or that she is threatened. The 
motherly character of the woman and her essentially leading role in a family is still 
promoted as the core of the developing society. Aliye has a special relationship with 
children beyond her position as a teacher; she is very close to Durmuş who, when 
needed, gave his assistance like a grown up hero!
In matters of religion a sympathetic view is expressed as long as it does not result in 
fanatical ignorance which leads to all kinds of disasters. Halide Edip even uses the 
word mukaddes (holy), a word with clear religious connotation hence the purification 
of it in the simplified edition. She does not promote the idea of an abrupt cut with the 
past.
A new theme comes into the fore: that of the unknown provinces of Anatolia. Very 
few people from Istanbul knew the grim reality of backwardness and poverty of 

---