Literature of the Picaresque – Writing

Andrea Sukhu

a.sukhu1

November 14, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Cover Letter

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0         Throughout this entire essay, I am trying to prove that because Mustafa did not have a relationship with his, mother, it affected his relationship with women in general and how he pursues them. Because he didn’t have a relationship with his mother, he didn’t know how to deal with a woman. The thesis that I arrived at was, “Because Mustafa never had a relationship with his mother, he would never be able to have a real relationship with any other woman because he doesn’t know how to, as he doesn’t know what real love is”. I think I managed to prove this throughout the entire essay as I analyzed my quotes, but I specified it more within my introduction paragraph and conclusion. My ideas developed because as I was reading the beginning of the book, I noticed that many people would have thought that Mustafa was a bad guy because he pursued these women by lying to them and making up stories. Although his lies were not necessary, instead of going against him, I tried to understand why he would do these things to these women. Especially because when I first started to read the book, I really like how he was very determined to go to school and pursue his education. After reading how smart he was and then reading the part when he started lying to theses girls, I questioned in debt why would such a smart guy lie to these women. It really shocked me and I really wanted to know answer, so when i started analyzing it and giving it some thought in my head, I then realized why, which was that he never had a woman figure in his life. Although i realized this, I also wanted my classmates to look at it in this perspective as well because maybe some of them might have looked at him the same way these women looked at him. I think that i might have to work on proof reading as I edit and maybe working on the CEA format in debt. I tried my best to keep up with it, but maybe i still have some paragraphs where i need to focus on it more depending on my feedback that i get from the workshops we conduct in class.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Season of Migration Essay

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0         The character, Mustafa, in Season of Migration, represents a true independent individual. Mustafa is considered to be a liar, deceiver, cheater, a pretender, and a trickster to many of the women he has come across. I believe that Mustafa doesn’t have any real morals because what he experienced is what he lived. He doesn’t know how to give love or to receive love because he was never taught to do so. He is solid as a rock. He is emotionless because he has always been on his own. His father died and his mother was nothing, but a person he walked the streets with. Everything Mustafa knows is from what he taught himself. He has never taught himself how to love or how to be emotional because he has never witness what love actually is. Growing up, Mustafa taught himself how to be successful, how to be educated, and how to motivate himself to be on top. Although he has lied and deceived many of the women he has dealt with, it is not his fault he turned out to be that way towards them, as he was never taught how to treat women. He was a loner throughout his entire life and grew up to be heartless as he never really had any support throughout his life. Although he betrayed women, there isn’t much that they can expect from him because he doesn’t know any better in how to express himself towards them. Because Mustafa never had a relationship with his mother, he would never be able to have a real relationship with any other woman because he doesn’t know how to, as he doesn’t know what real love is.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Mustafa is heartless because he grew up very rough and basically raised himself. Unlike many kids today, Mustafa grew up to be very determined in pursuing his dreams and always strived for the best. On page 21, there is a part where it describes how Mustafa signed himself into school. “When I told him my father was dead, he said to me: Who’s your guardian? I want to go to school, I said to him” (21). Although higher authorities questioned him on who his guardian was, he didn’t hesitate to inform them that his father passed and although he doesn’t have his dad, he wanted them to know that it didn’t stop him from still wanting to sign up for school. Mustafa was independent from a child and although he still had his mother, she was never really a mother figure to her son. It was as if, that was just a person he lived with. Mustafa never really had any support; his mother was more like a stranger to him. He never seen his mother emotional, he never really had a real conversation with her and they never spoke about anything. Other than having his mother, he had no one else in his life that he could call his family. “…I was different – I mean that I was not like other children of my age: I wasn’t affected by anything, I didn’t cry when hit…I was like something rounded, made of rubber: you throw it in the water and it doesn’t get wet, you throw it on the ground and it bounces back” (20). Because Mustafa had no one, he was always alone and doing things for himself that no other child his age was doing. Since he didn’t have anyone to guide him in the right path of life, he had a mind of his own. He had no choice but to guide himself, which made him very mature for his age. He mentions that he wasn’t like the other kids his age because of everything he’s going through such as supporting himself and being a mentor for himself. This quote describes in debt of how much he was immune to being an outcast or being different from everyone else he was surrounded by. He mentions that he was made of something rounded. The shape of something being round is a circle or an oval. Both, a circle or an oval does not have a beginning point or and ending point, it rotates forever. Mustafa is comparing himself to a well rounded person because he is someone that is very skilled, intelligent in many areas, and is good and focused in school, unlike the others that he is surrounded by. He also mentions, “you throw it in the water, and it doesn’t get wet”, “you throw it on the floor and it bounces right back”. Mustafa is indeed a fighter; he does not give up on anything and especially his dreams and education. Because he is very different from the rest of the children his age, it doesn’t bother him because he is so accustomed to being responsible, mature, and caring for himself that he is already numb to his lifestyle. It doesn’t affect him at all. He has no emotion towards it, nothing doesn’t phase him because he’s immune being independent. He was solid as a rock, his only goal was to be in school and obtain all of the knowledge he can. Mustafa chose to be in school for his own benefits and likes; no one ever forced him to go to school. He did it on his own because that is what he wanted. His lack of knowledge on women was because, women was never his interest. His main and only focus was in school and furthering his education, which is why when he got older, he was so careless when it came to women and pursuing them. All he knew was his books. He didn’t care to have relations with anyone. He was so accustomed to being alone, that he didn’t feel the need to depend or take any women seriously, which is why he constantly lied to them and only used them for his own pleasure.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 From a young age, Mustafa was forced to be a man. Mustafa’s entire life was based on decision making from a child. He always had to make his own choices. Every choice that he chose in his life, he had to go through alone unfortunately, without anyone’s input, advice or opinion. When Mustafa had the opportunity to pursue his education, his mother’s response was very unhelpful as if she didn’t have a voice when it came to her child. “…Do as you wish, depart or stay, it’s up to you. It’s your life and you’re free to do with it as you will” (23). Sometimes, the only thing a child wants from his or her parent is their support and guidance. In this case, Mustafa’s mother literally told him to do as he pleases, as if she doesn’t even care. In order for a child to make proper decisions, they need some sort of approval, recognition, good feedback, or positive energy just to uplift them to do better. Although Mustafa is capable of making right decisions, he still needs all of the support he can get from his mother to build his confidence and self esteem, in which she never really shows him. Even when Mustafa made the decision to leave and pursue his education, she still didn’t give him any kind of love and emotion when he left her. “That was our farewell, no tears, no kisses, no fuss. Two human beings had walked along a part of the road together, then each has gone his way” (23). They didn’t have a typical mother and son, or parent and child relationship. All they were to each other was strangers. They had no relationship, no bond with one another and never decided to build any relationship either. It was just two separate human beings that just knew who each other. Other than Mustafa being so numb, so was his mother because she never showed any emotion. He mentions there goodbyes were no kisses, hugs, tears, nothing. It just embraces how cold he was brought up and how he was never taught to show any sort of emotion towards anyone. If he didn’t show emotion to his own mother, then how could he show it to anyone else? Mustafa’s support system was himself. He learned to be alone from a little boy because he had no other choice. There was no one that he could rely on. Being that he didn’t have a relationship with his mom, he never really understood any woman’s sense of sensuality, reaction, opinion, sentiment, etc. He was never opened to their voice because he never even heard his mother’s voice. Mustafa didn’t comprehend how a woman was built. He doesn’t know their weaknesses, he doesn’t know their strengths, and he doesn’t know how to treat a woman because he wasn’t taught to deal with them.

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 As the years went by and Mustafa started to become older, he started to find himself as far as his sexuality at the age of twelve. As a boy, turning into a man, he never took the time to analyze and recognize a woman’s physical features to fully understand how it affects him. The only woman he was ever around was his mother and he never looked at his mother in such way as it isn’t normal to do so. “…all of a sudden I felt the woman’s arms embracing me and her lips on my cheek… arms around my neck, her mouth on my cheek, the smell of her body – a strange, European smell – tickling my nose, her breast touching my chest, I felt, – I, a boy of twelve – a vague sexual yearning I had never previously experienced”. (25) Mrs. Robinson was the first woman to portray sexuality for Mustafa. Although she was much more older than him, it was his first time him experiencing these feelings as he was innocent to what he was experiencing at the time. He was now finding himself. This was the first step of some sort of emotion that he was encountering within himself; his sexuality, because he was so accustomed to being numb by everything that when Mrs. Robinson gave him these mixed new feelings, that he’s never felt before, he was astonished and didn’t really understand what he was feeling. When that incident happened to Mustafa, he then began putting things together and started realizing more of his sexuality and masculinity. “My knowledge had increased and several minor incidents had happened to me; a fellow student had fallen in love with me and has then hated me. You’re not a human being, she had said to me. You’re a heartless machine” (28). Mustafa was never open to love, although this particular individual fell in love with him, he didn’t care because he wasn’t accustomed to what she was feeling for him. Love never mattered in his life as he never received any love from anyone. The student fell in love with him and then began to hate him because he didn’t know how to accept her love and how to love back; he was just not interested at all. She refers to him as a heartless machine because he had so much of a lack of interest in pursuing her. After coming across Mrs. Robinson, The only thing Mustafa understood about women was there physically features and how it made him feel. It made him yearn only for their physical appearance and sexual needs rather than their personalities. Although it took time, just like everything else in Mustafa’s life that he learned to do on his own, he also had to learn how a female’s existence affects him, which he still doesn’t really know too much about because no one is there to teach him.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 Mustafa’s sense of feeling is far from an ordinary person’s sense of passion and sensation. Because he has no emotion for anything or anyone, it is hard for him to deal with someone else in his life. On page 40, he describes the setting of him and a girl, but as she spoke, he didn’t care about anything she said. He only wanted to pursue his sexual needs. “I pictured her obscenely naked as she said: Life is full of pain, yet we must be optimistic and face life with courage” (41). While this woman is telling Mustafa about her sorrows, all he thinks about in his head is getting into her pants. He is not considerate of anyone else’s feelings or hard aches because no one ever cared for his. He’s not accustomed to hearing other people’s sorrows because he doesn’t feel the need to help. Just as his mother never cared about anything and never gave him her insight, he does the same to women because that is what his mother taught him indirectly. He isn’t able to have open discussions without lying and deceiving women because he doesn’t care to tell them the truth in who he really is. He has no intentions in getting to know these women besides having sex with them. His mission is to get in their pants and to move on. He doesn’t get involved too deep with women because he doesn’t feel the need to have a relationship with them as he never knew what it’s like to have one. He never had someone that stood beside him through anything; everything he has been through was on his own. It’s not his fault that he looks at women this way because he doesn’t know any better, that’s just how he grew up. Mustafa mentions, “…the child plays water-polo in the river with the crocodile, until that time of happiness and love comes along, I for one shall continue to express myself in this twisted manner” (41). He uses figurative language to describe exaggeration and doubt. He compares a child playing with a crocodile without being harmed to when he will arrive at happiness and love. A child and a wild animal would never in a million years play together, which means that Mustafa is trying to say that he will never find love or happiness. Until a crocodile plays kindly with a child, he will then stop fooling these girls. The keyword “twisted” in this quote is very important as is portrays that he is aware that the way he leads these women on is wrong. Its some sort of realization that his lifestyle of confusing. It’s obvious that he doubts that he will ever find love or happiness. Life for Mustafa was different from everyone else. The author’s figurative speech of exaggeration specifies that Mustafa’s happiness and love is empty. In which, he might never receive love and happiness as that’s just the way he was brought up. It proves his lack of understanding and emptiness for his emotions.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 Mustafa never knew what real love was. He was never loved or able to love someone else. He was never able to show a woman his feelings because his mother never showed her feelings to him. The book describes how solid and distant she was. He never had a relationship with his mother. His independency took him a far way with his education but not with love. He didn’t know how to treat love or how to deal with it when it came his way. Although he fooled many women, it is not his fault that he did so because if he were to have a real and better bond with his mother, I’m pretty sure he would have learned how to treat a woman. Also, his father died so he wasn’t able to see how his father treated his mother and he wasn’t able to experience what a real family was. The only thing that mattered to Mustafa was his education, which was his priority in life. He was never dependent on woman or friends because he grew up to always be alone and independent. He never found the need to understand the importance of a woman’s existence because he was never a dependent person. He did everything on his own and never needed additional help with anything. He never received help from anyone or support, so having it come so late in his life would have been hard to adapt to. Because he grew up to be alone and independent, he naturally became heartless and emotionless. Mustafa’s mother should have been there for him to guide, protect and give her son all the love, support and knowledge he needed, but she didn’t. Mustafa was his own mentor and his own supporter; he never gave up on his dreams. If he had a relationship with his mother, he would have treated women differently, but unfortunately, he didn’t, so we can not blame him for lying, deceiving, and pursuing women the way he did.

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