{"id":3542,"date":"2017-08-25T11:42:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T06:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fableandi.com\/?p=3542"},"modified":"2020-03-10T16:48:28","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T11:18:28","slug":"red-haired-woman-orhan-pamuk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/red-haired-woman-orhan-pamuk\/","title":{"rendered":"The Red Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk \u2013 The Battle between Fathers and Sons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cem Celik is a high school student, working as an apprentice to a well digger, Master Mahmut, in Ongoren in the 1980s. He finds love in a beautiful red-haired older woman and care in a father-like figure to replace the birth father who abandoned him. However an accident that has disastrous consequences causes him to flee from the place. But the memory of the red haired woman and Ongoren haunts him throughout his life.<\/p>\n
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The Red Haired woman<\/em> compares the two ancient myths that are milestones in the literary growth of two different civilizations \u2013 Sophocle\u2019s Oedipus Rex<\/em>, a story of patricide, and Ferdowsi\u2019s story of Rostam and Sohrab, a story of filicide. In the Greek myth, Oedipus marries his mother and kills his father, unaware of the fact that they are his parents. When he comes to know the truth, he\u00a0 is shattered. In the Persian story, Rostam meets his son, Sohrab, on a battlefield and kills him to maintain his reputation. It is only later he realizes that Sohrab was his own son. It was very interesting to see the comparisons between the two ingrained in the main plot, which I attributed to Orhan being a Professor of Comparative Literature.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are different fathers in the book \u2013 the one who abandons family; the one who becomes like a father; the one who has a father-like approach to his business and the one who misunderstands. I loved how the different forms of fatherhood portrayed themselves in the different characters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n