THE GAZE

Description

The Gaze” is a stunning, thought-provoking novel by Elif Shafak that explores identity, beauty, body image, and the power of perception. A tale set in contemporary Turkey, drawing much attention to how one perceives themselves and others, particularly highlighting common standards of societal beauty and the concept of a gaze—how we are perceived by others and how we perceive ourselves.

This story revolves around two main protagonists:

An overweight lady, body-conscious, and downgraded by society for her physique.
A short-statured dwarf man is also degraded.
The couple shares a deep emotional bond, but their lives are molded by how the society looks at them, or rather, by “the gaze.” But it goes deeper into the psychological impact of this sense of being watched constantly and constantly judged on physical appearance and, consequently, affecting perceptions of self and self-esteem.

Overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, a woman starts writing the novel about a peculiar 19th-century doctor who is obsessed with documenting various ways people look at each other. And so, Shafak explores, through this technique of a story within a story, the historical and cultural context of the glance, bringing reality into fiction and the past into the present.

“The Gaze” tells very serious things through elements of magical realism, through humor, and storytelling. Shafak puts against the beautiful face of love and friendship really important questions regarding where it’s defined what beauty looks like, how morality in society draws the line for our identities, and how alienation comes from objectification itself.

This ultimately puts the power from looking to being looked at; it shows how one can take back their sense of self from others’ gazes.

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