Ince Memed (Memed, My Hawk) Analysis and Summary

Eren Korkmaz 21301472 SOC101-4 Hasibe İnci Rösch 09.12.2013 ANALYSIS OF İNCE MEMED 1 The novel that written by Yaşar Kemal in 1955, “İnce Memed 1”, is the first book of the İnce Memed Trilogy. The book argues the social structure and stratifications of the Turkish people in the past, their life in bad conditions and the injustice among them. The main characters of İnce Memed 1 are: Abdi Ağa, Hatçe, Cabbar, Sergeant Recep, Ali the Lame, Döne, Iraz and Ali Safa. The story takes place in southern Anatolia, Çukurova region and in the story tells how did İnce Memed become a bandit and how did he live. This book of Yaşar Kemal clearly shows us the social stratification, gender issues and the change in society. Banditry was a bad act among the people’s mind, the bandits were evil. In the story of İnce Memed, the main character İnce Memed, becomes a bandit, a revolutionary against the tyranny of owners of their lands. There is a system called squirarchy in those territories, land owners also have got the people in it. So, those people in those lands suffer from their landlord’s tyranny but as a result of they belong to their land owners; they have got no chance except obeying to the landlord. They see their land owners as a savior. Land owners also represent the people of those villages and lands, they report all of the issues and the conditions to the state, or they force them to say the words that land owners said to them, and as a result of that those people who live in a village have no right and no chance to say his words to the state. Those villages and lands become alike autonomous states: the main state has got a power but for instance, in this book Abdi Ağa is in the charge of most of things, such as security, law making, economy… etc. The people who oppressed by their land owners, start to become alienated and isolated from their people, their self consciousness and their role in society. While they are suffering from hunger their land owners gets richer with the products which they produced. But, those land owners uses the ignorance of those people to oppress them. They are like prisoners of that area where they belong to, because they even cannot go out of their village. So, the main character, İnce Memed, becomes a bandit in order to emphasize the injustice of this situation. Indeed, he became a bandit but he was different from the other bandits, he was fighting not for money, but for the rights and freedom. The book also mentions family relations and the strong connection between the members of those families in some events and situations. The woman Iraz who met with Hatçe in prison was in there because of she wanted to take revenge of his son who grew up by her in the worst conditions. She burnt up the house that belongs to murderers of his son. We can see in this part of novel mother’s altruistic characteristics here. As a similar example of the main character İnce Memed has got nearly the same situation with his mother. When he ran away from his village, he could not stop thinking of the thinking that he left his mother behind, so he felt guilty and the reason for his returning to his village was the land owner Abdi Ağa killed her mother. He had sworn to take her revenge. Also there is one more example that also relates with gender relations: Hatçe and İnce Memed. They were also a family and we can see that the powerful effect of the son of İnce Memed on him. Gender relations are maybe the most successfully emphasized issue in the novel. Because with just one example, we can figure out that whole story is shaped. The reason that Hatçe runs away with İnce Memed, because of she even cannot choose the man who will love. They were like a property that can be used for a purpose; those women had no right to be an individual. This inequality is really emphasized clearly and successfully in the story. In fact, this situation was the same in almost every rural place in those times in Turkey. In the examples of Yaşar Kemal, we can find various types of social change but there is one that is most important. Firstly, even the thought of death of the land owner, Abdi Ağa, made the peasants more courage to produce and disobey to the land owner. İnce Memed was the founder of this social change because people felt that they have a protector and they will have no suffer anymore. They produced more, no one gave his / her product to the land owner, they encouraged more and more. In the end Abdi Ağa gets killed by İnce Memed, as expected, and with this death those people got their freedom and their self consciousness. With all of these issues, we can clearly observe that Yaşar Kemal shows an informative portrait of Turkish people in early republic. He mentioned a lot of issues that are the most important problems in Turkey as argued and if we can see, he comes up with some advices and solutions. This book will be not just a story but will be a document that illuminates the problems and the conditions of those suffering people in the past and still. REFERENCES Kemal, Yaşar. İnce Memed 1, Yapı Kredi Yayınları. İstanbul 2012 Korkmaz 3