THREE ALIENS WANDERING ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK

Year 2014, Volume: 11 Issue: 26, 53 - 69, 06.07.2014

Alpaslan Toker

Abstract

In spite of its distinguishable nature and obscurity, the term ‘alienation’ remains to be advanced as a primary concept outlining noticeable and remarkable features of life in modern communities. It reproduces an experience that many American authors are familiar with. Alienation is a feeling of not being able to fit or to belong anywhere. This feeling can manifest itself physically, mentally, religiously, spiritually, psychologically, politically, socially or economically. At one point or another in time, each one of us has experienced alienation in one way or another whether at school, at work, at home among members of family, in politics, and in society. Thus, alienation is the state of being withdrawn or isolated from one’s surrounding, events and activities through indifference or disaffection. The paper aims to explore and analyze the extent to which three Americans living in New York, J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Saul Bellow’s Tommy Wilhelm, fail to adjust themselves in their environments, feel alienated from fellow New Yorkers, from social institutions and members of their respective families, learn to accept their plights and come out of alienation in the end.

Keywords

Alienation, identity, estrangement, realization, freedom.

NEW YORK SOKAKLARINDA GEZİNEN ÜÇ YABANCI

Abstract

Ayırt edici doğası ve belirsizliğine rağmen, ‘yabancılaşma’ terimi modern toplumlardaki yaşamın göze çarpan ve dikkat çekici özelliklerini ana hatlarıyla çizen gelişmiş bir birincil kavram olarak devam etmektedir. Birçok Amerikalı yazarın aşina olduğu bir deneyimi meydana getirmektedir. Yabancılaşma herhangi bir yere uygun olmama veya ait olmama duygusudur. Bu duygu fiziksel, zihinsel, dini, ruhsal, psikolojik, politik, sosyal ya da ekonomik olarak kendisini gösterebilir. Öyle veya böyle, her birimiz gerek okulda, işte, evde ailemizin bireyleri arasında, politika ve toplum da bir şekilde yabancılaşmayı yaşamışızdır. O halde, yabancılaşma kişinin kayıtsızlık ve hoşnutsuzluk vasıtasıyla kendi çevresinden, olaylardan ve etkinliklerden geri kalma veya soyutlanma durumudur. Bu çalışma New York’ta yaşayan üç Amerikalının, J.D. Salinger’in Holden Caulfield’i, Ralph Ellison’un Invisible Man’i ve Saul Bellow’un Tommy Wilhelm’inin çevrelerine adapte olamamaları sebebiyle kendi emsalleri New York’lulardan, sosyal kurumlardan ve kendi aile üyelerinden uzaklaşmaları, kendi durumlarını kabullenmeyi öğrenmelerini ve sonunda yabancılaşmadan kurtulmalarını araştırma ve tetkik etmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

 

Keywords

Yabancılaşma, kimlik, uzaklaşma, farkına varma, özgürlük.

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