The Black Book Analysis

Pamuk’s novel The Black Book was published in 1990 with prominent themes of identity crisis and love. Pamuk’s main concern in the novel is that everybody wants to become someone else whom s/he thinks an ideal. The main contention is whether people are happy with their existing self-identities. It is a general truth found among people that they try to imitate someone else’s self and forget their own. In other words, people try to become someone else that they are not. The reasons may be different for this mindset as depicted in the novel The Black Book. The main characters in the novel show their dissatisfactions with their existing identities. Galip, Ruya and Celal are the main characters who try to switch their identities into others. The

He goes through the old columns written by Celal, so that he can act accordingly. When he looks into the mirror, Galip comes to know that he has been changed a lot since he came to Celal’s flat. After going through several past columns written by Celal, Galip decides to write columns on the name of Celal Bey. He begins his first column with the words which show his excitement to become Celal: “I gazed into the mirror and read my face…I dreamed that I had at last become the person I’ve always longed to become” (Pamuk, BB,

Galip talks to the person and seeks every detail of the past columns of the writer. He collects the information given by the caller which he uses to play the role of Celal Bey. Galip in disguise of Celal’s identity answers to the caller. He also answers to the phone call of woman who calls herself Celal’s beloved twenty years back. While being Celal, Galip has dissemblance to have forgotten his past.
Galip’s Interview to English Journalists in Guise of Celal: Gailp assures his friend Iskender that Celal would be available for the interview to be taken by the English journalist. But failing to reach Celal’s address, Gailp convinces Iskender that he will face the journalists holding Celal’s identity. By then, he has completely changed his self-identity into Celal’s. To convince Iskender, he says:
“No one is ever himself” Gailp whispered, as if divulging a secret. “None of us can ever be ourselves. Don’t you wonder if other people see you as someone other than the person you really are? Are you so very sure you are your own person? If you are, are you sure that the persons you are you are sure you are really you? ” (Pamuk, BB, 413)
Gailp is introduced with the identity of the famous columnist Celal. Galip skillfully clarifies the doubts of one journalist that she has not seen him at the club because he never gets there.
Ruya’s Identity Crisis in The Black