Social Role Categories in The Stories Titled “The Rooster” (Horoz) and “The World’s Order” (Dünyanın Nizamı)

Abstract

In the stage of building a personal entity and collective identity, humans cannot act independent of social norms in their attempts to define the self and the other. These norms first arise under the categorizations based on biological sexes (male and female) and bring about the development of gender in the course of time. He ascribes power, intelligence, knowledge, reasoning and management skills to himself while charging subordinates with obedience. Woman is defined by meekness and weakness. This does not only apply to biological females but also to powerless males. Omer Seyfettin, who successfully reflects the behavioural norms of his society in his works, fictionalizes the self and identity perceptions in his works “the Rooster” and “the World’s Order” through men and women who bequeath the hierarchical order of gender roles to the next generations. Firstly he presents the dominance of men in the hierarchical relationship between woman and man by exemplifying non-human creatures. The representative value of the male complements the dominance of the rooster, which is shown as its symbol, in the henhouse and the father's dominance at home. Both stories depict the physical and psychological violence against women, man’s self-righteousness about being the head of the household and the justification of it by women. Secondly, the stories describe the man in power or father who introduces himself to a powerless man or his son and narrate that the latter can only claim manhood or power and women may approve of it only after his father or after he has his own home. In this article, it will be evaluated in the context of "masculinity/masculinity studies" by criticizing the fact that women and men present the current destiny as cultural heritage to the next generations rather than changing their social destinies on the axis of the stories called The Rooster and the Order of the World.