Orientalism in the White Castle

           After discussing the preface of The White Castle in class today, I recognized the relevance of Said’s theory of Orientalism throughout Orphan Pamuk’s novel. Pamuk takes on a broad topic as he looks to illustrate the meeting of the ideologies of the East and West, in particular, the meeting of knowledge from both areas of the world. Said’s theory is quite explicit throughout the novel and in a manner opposite of what readers would expect; the Muslim Turks look to the Western world and the Venetian as the ‘other.’ The ideas of Orientalism depicted by Pamuk’s Turkish characters force readers to recognize the way in which the Western world categorizes and stereotypes Easterners in a similar manner, even when reading fictional novels. I found that Pamuk made the interactions between the Venetian and Hoja, the most relevant instances of Orientalism, as a Turk and an Italian struggle to understand one another.

            When Hoja is given complete control over the Venetian he is hopeful and believes he will learn many new things of the Western world. Hoja clearly sees the Venetian as a person different than him, he is fascinated with the other and the concepts of Orientalism which Pamuk makes clear as he refers to all Westerners as 'they' (54). Hoja fails to ever truly ask the Venetian about the Western world to learn the truth, instead, he desires to continually accept his beliefs towards these strange people. The concept of Orientalism exhibited throughout White Castle is an  opposite perspective as Hoja values Western thought and believes that the West is much more knowledgeable than the East, a concept that many Westerners believe to be true. Pamuk makes this idea ironic though, since Hoja comes from the Ottoman Empire during the 17^th century, which would be filled with some of the world’s best scholars. Instead of recognizing that the East and West are more similar than different, Hoja would rather believe in the idealized Western world.

              Pamuk also looks to reveal to readers the truth of Orientalism in a later scene between the Venetian and Hoja, in which the Venetian exaggerates about the Western world. Hoja asks the Venetian to explain why he is who he is and the Venetian jokingly insists that Westerners confront this question by looking in the mirror often (60). Hoja is quick to accept this answer but mocks it, offending the Venetian (61). This instance reveals to readers how Orientalism works; Westerners often believe anything they hear and could believe to be true about the 'other' whether or not it seems plausible or realistic. Pamuk just highlights this concept in a much more obvious way as an Easterner believes inflated stories about the West.

             Hoja's feelings about the differences between the East and West is made to be quite ironic by Pamuk since he creates two characters that are more similar than different, despite their origins in the East and West. Pamuk's two characters look exactly like one another and they both speak the same language, Turkish. The Venetian even recognizes that his knowledge is equal to that of Hoja's; when working together Hoja comes up with new and progressive theories while the Venetian just reminds Hoja of things he has already learned. Yet, despite this clear balanced sense of knowledge Hoja still believes that Western knowledge is much more developed and thorough than that of the East and desires to learn all that the Venetian knows (33). In Hoja’s mind the Venetian and his Western knowledge had to be much more advanced than his own, yet Pamuk sets up an image of two men who are exactly the same both in appearance and in mind to illustrate the biased prejudices Orientalism has created within society. Overall, the first half of White Castle forces readers to directly confront Said’s theories and how they read and understand the ‘other’ and it leaves readers wondering what boundaries and expectations will be crossed as the two men learn more about who they are.