Colors in the Novel My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk - Essay Example

The of this book clearly suggests that color is an important motif in the novel. Subsequent chapters and character s reinforce this idea. Beyond some of the obvious meanings of color (for example, color is an important element of visual art), identify and discuss the symbolic functions of color in the novel. Write an argumentative essay on "My Name is Red" in which you explain how colors reflect or contradict certain characters' beliefs about themselves, one another, and the artistic process. You may wish to make an argument about which of the colors is most important and why. Color me Red, Color me Life With whatever artwork of whatever form, color plays a very important role. This is especially-and commonsensically-true with visual art; that colors define and make lines and boundaries, and that images are only ever more meaningful with the presence or absence of colors. Colors, when played around with, can communicate. Certain colors carry with them historicity, and ideologies that are naturalized and called into existence only through repeated use and the invocation of meaning. That is, conditioning. No artwork, therefore, is value-free, no color just simply a visual medium. Even when painting with words, colors are important or essential, even. Even with simple words, something is signified. A bell rings in one's head, and he/she sees the image clearly. The color wheel is one of the very first things children are taught in school, at times, even at home. Thus, the value of color transcends the visual and crosses over to the cognitive. The novel "My Name is Red" by Omar Pamuk revolves around the murder of Master Elegant Effendi, a miniaturist in the Ottoman Empire. Important to note though that while the first chapter is narrated by the Master, the novel's narrator changes in every chapter, and that several inanimate objects such as a coin, painting motifs and the color red are given voice throughout the novel. The novel showcases a mix of mystery, romance, and philosophical puzzles set during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III during nine snowy winter days in Istanbul circa 1591. The novel makes use of the resonance of color in almost everyone. For instance, it opens with a very visual paragraph-imagine the persona sprawled in a dark place, bathed in dark crimson, swimming in a pool of his blood. Not a hard thing to do, since we all have had an experience of blood, whether our own or others'. It is this same line of argument that fuels this novel's narrative. Starking images of intense color peppers the entirety of the story, and the title is only but a clue to this. In the novel, the importance of color in visual art is further reinforced. The horse, in his exposition on being painted by a miniaturist painter said the value of aesthetics in art so succinctly: Actually, those of you who pay particular attention to the grace of my midsection, the length of my legs and the pride of my bearing will understand that I am indeed unique. But these excellent features point to the uniqueness of the miniaturist who illustrated me, not to my uniqueness as a horse. Everyone knows that there's no horse exactly like me. I'm simply the rendering of a horse that exists in a miniaturist's imagination. Looking at me, observers frequently say, "Good God, what a gorgeous horse!" But they're actually praising the artist, not me. All horses are in fact distinct, and the miniaturist, above all, ought to know this. What follows is a discussion of different colors found and used as themes within the novel. Red For the Cherokee Native Americans, the color red is "East, the color of the Sacred Fire, blood, and success."1 How apt then, that red titles the novel which is set in Istanbul. Red is the color of passion, of blood, of love lost and regained, of childbirth, of revolution and change. As mentioned, the novel opens with this color. Blood is the immediate imagery invoked by the first exposition. Red, then, is the primary moving force in this novel. Fueling the narrative, the color red does violence-it leaves not a character, a scene untouched. It is so moving that it defines and reifies the different character-voices in the novel. Take for example, in the chapter narrated by the dog: I bit him so hard on the leg that my canines sank right through his fatty flesh to the hardness of his thighbone. For a dog, you see, nothing is as satisfying as sinking his teeth into his miserable enemy in a fit of instinctual wrath. When such an opportunity presents itself, that is, when my victim, who deserves to be bitten, stupidly and unknowingly passes by, my teeth twinge and ache in anticipation, my head spins with longing and without even meaning to, I emit a hair-raising growl. When violence is called into the picture, red, the color of blood is an important determinant. Of pain, of dissent, of trysts is the nature of red. Red as determinant of events, and vice versa is very much employed in the novel. Monuments in life that are usually connected with bloodshed often invoke the color red-childbirth: Before my birth there was infinite time, and after my death, inexhaustible time. In this line lies the fluid dichotomy of birth-death, both of which are achieved only through red violence. Birth is only possible through sex, passion. And of course, childbirth which involves a lot of bloodshed. Death is often thought of as an act of violence, against the self and against life in general. Of course, there is red as the color of love. Hidden in the pages of the novel is a love story, masquerading as a mystery. But what is love but not a mystery to the lover and the beloved The biological, physical heart pumps blood, thrives in blood-red. The figurative heart is often colored red-alive, breathing in pages and minds. Black "In Aztec culture, black represented war It was also the symbol of religion; priests wore no other color but black."2 Take the two sentences together, black is the war of religion. Within every faith lies dissent and disbelief. An important theme to explore in this book is religion, Islam in particular. A lot of the existential grief that fuels the story comes from the uncertainty in and discourse on the Islamic faith. One of the major characters in named Black, and throughout the novel, we learn that he is a miniaturist and binder. Black connotes darkness, the night. And in his introductory statements, he alluded to this symbolism: After an absence of twelve years I entered Istanbul like a sleepwalker. "The earth called to him," they say of men who are about to die, and in my case, it was death that drew me back to the city where I'd been born and raised. When I first returned, I thought there was only death; later, I would also encounter love. Love, however, was a distant and forgotten thing, like my memories of having lived in the city During the sixth year I spent in the East, traveling or working as a secretary in the service of pashas, I knew that the face I imagined was no longer that of my beloved. Later, in the eighth year, I forgot what I'd mistakenly called to mind in the sixth, and again visualized a completely different countenance. In this way, by the twelfth year, when I returned to my city at the age of thirty-six, I was painfully aware that my beloved's face had long since escaped me. Here, we saw the bold turn of color, emotions and images. The negativity of black for the supposedly inherent passion of red. Death for love, love for the death of love. The melancholy is apparent in the verses, as if calling out a desperate complain to no one in particular. Black then really deserves his name. All throughout his narrative is the reinforcement of the reality that he is named Black, and in blackness he lived and continues to live. The color black is not exclusive to the character named Black, though. Master Elegant Effendi's tale of his birth and death is tinged too with this color ("I never thought of it before: I'd been living luminously between two eternities of darkness.") The dichotomy between black and white-and in this case, death and birth or black and white-is so pronounced. After all, traditionally while "white projects purity, cleanliness, and neutrality,"3 black evokes a feeling of emptiness. Black and Red, together But less pejoratively, black is also the color most associated with sophistication. A lot of traditions associate this color with the West, as opposed to the East, whose color red connotes mystical passion. In fact, Richard Eder (2001) writes, ''My Name Is Red,'' is by far the grandest and most astonishing contest in Pamuk's internal East-West war. Translated with fluid grace by Erdag M. Goknor, the novel is set in the late 16th century, during the reign of Sultan Murat III, a patron of the miniaturists whose art had come over from Persia in the course of the previous hundred years. It was a time when the Ottomans' confidence in unstoppable empire had begun to be shaken by the power of the West -- their defeat at Lepanto had taken place only a few years earlier -- as well as by its cultural vitality and seductiveness. Truly, red coupled with black describes such a disruptive visual image. It would seem that Pamuk's target is not so much to produce a viable murder mystery, or even deconstructing a good murder mystery. Rather, it is Islam's conception of itself vis--vis the West as seen through a murder mystery. Not to be taken literally at all times, "My Name Is Red" is a commentary of the violence and death that fundamentalist Islam effects on its followers just to keep Western away. Like many other progressive Muslim intellectuals, the author seems to propagate the idea that this attitude will bring about an implosion and will devastate Islam from inside. Truly, Islam must be selective in the adaptation of Western idea; that is to say, to keep the balance of red and black afloat. The Question of Color in Art and Life "I was responsible for painting and embellishing books. I illuminated the edges of pages, coloring their borders with the most lifelike designs of leaves, branches, roses, flowers and birds. I painted scalloped Chinese-style clouds, clusters of overlapping vines and forests of color that hid gazelles, galleys, sultans, trees, palaces, horses and hunters. In my youth, I would decorate a plate, or the back of a mirror, or a chest, or at times, the ceiling of a mansion or of a Bosphorus manor, or even, a wooden spoon."4 Admittedly, color is just one of the many elements of art. But it is one that is emphasized miniaturist art. For when other details can be ignored, what remains to be starkingly seen is the color-the blends, the outlines. In fact, much of the detail is spawned by color. Ending this lengthy exposition on the book's use of color and beyond, I would like to quote, Pamuk compares illustrations with the afterlife in the sense that people aspire to achieve a sense of eternity through both. Thus Shekure imagines to speak to us readers like the women on illustrations look at her. ... just like those beautiful women with one eye on the life within the book and one eye on the life outside, I, too, long to speak with you who are observing me from who knows which distant time and place. The murdered Elegant Effendi accused his murderer of sacrilegious illustrations offending Allah or God. Is true art an expression of the individual artist or is true art a close to perfect representation of the divine in which the individual artist has succeeded to overcome his personal vanity This question becomes a question of existential meaning in Pamuk's tale. And lie the truth and the answer to this question in reality or in our imagination Truly, this is more than an inquiry into the Islamic religion. It forces us to re-examine our worldviews and beliefs and in doing so, shatters conceptions of norms. My Name is Red is a kaleidoscope of the journeys of art, love, power play and religion. Read More