Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Mustafa, the "man"

What I found interesting in the reading so far is that of how women respond to Mustafa. I’m sure we’ve all met a guy who comes off the same as Mustafa, but have that many women committed suicide in today’s world? I can definitely understand women going  into a depression, but three women having the same consequences…not that just doesn’t make sense. Are women that self conscious that they can’t accept themselves for who they are unless their significant other approves of them? Although I don’t understand this concept, I can still see it relate in today’s society. There are women out there who will always strive to be someone who they really are not just to try impress some man. How did society get to the point where women have become completely dissatisfied with themselves that they will go to certain extremes to try and make it different? If Mustafa would have reacted differently, or would have at least tired to care about the women he was with, I think that he might have been able to save some lives and even want to stay in Europe. On the other hand, I think that Mustafa should feel guilty about the deaths of the women and that because of that, it shaped him into the man that he is today. Because the reader doesn’t know how Mustafa died, it could be possible that he did kill himself has a result of everything that he done in past years.

3 comments:

  1. Mustafa actually reminds me of someone I knew. He couldn’t stay with one woman for very long. He also changed how he acted to what he believed that person wanted in a relationship. It was also never his fault when things ended badly and he never did anything wrong. Mustafa’s attitude when told about the suicides reminded me of that especially. It was unrelated to him in any way even though all these women killed themselves after he left them. But the interesting comparison that I was able to draw was that this person I knew was so insecure in himself that he was scared to truly let anyone in and get to know who he was because he didn’t know who he was or if he even liked who he was. So perhaps Mustafa had some self-esteem issues as well and that caused him to be so callous with the women in his life. As was mentioned in class he had a knack for finding the women that were in a bad place emotionally and maybe self-consciously he sought them out because they were more messed up then he was and it made him feel better about himself to be around them. Something to think about at least.

    (Google is being very odd, so this is Jill Friel, if it doesn't show that properly)

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  2. I also really noticed this part. It seems kind of outrageous that this guy was SO awesome that life without him is unbearable for at least three women. At the same time, it's almost more outrageous because things like that tend to actually happen. Granted, it's to a certain kind of person, with a certain set of insecurities, but the notion is kind of inconceivable to me. It was really interesting how sociopathic he seemed with these women. He knew just what to say, but his story states that he had no emotions behind the things he said or did. He just convinces these women to love him, and then leaves them abruptly once the chase is over, like some sort of game and he just reached the finish line. The question of guilt and blame is also an interesting one. What he did to these women was horrible, but he didn’t kill them, he didn’t really even blatantly break any law. He was just rude. Should he feel guilty? Yeah, probably. Was he responsible for their deaths? That’s a trickier question. A lot of times, people who commit suicide are unstable to begin with, and it’s not always anything so significant that can set a severely depressed person over the edge. Personally, I don’t think we can hold Mustafa legally responsible for their deaths, and not even totally morally responsible. We can’t fly off the handle every time somebody does something desperate after a bad break up and blame the bad boyfriend or girlfriend. In the end, I think people’s choices are primarily their own responsibility, even in this case.

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  3. Given the allegorical and symbolic levels at work in the novel, think about what types of people these women might represent and what Mustafa's infection (of suicidal desires?) might mean.

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