Chingiz Aitmatov’s “Mother Earth”: Vital Power of Nature in a Relationship without Subordinating It

Cengiz Aytmatov’un “Toprak Ana”Sı: İkincilleştirilmeden İlişki Kurulan Doğanın Dirimsel Gücü

Abstract

Chingiz Aitmatov's book entitled Mother Earth, published in 1963, is one of the important works of him, in which people are addressed to with the forms of relationships they establish with the earth and their commitment to it. Handles a Kyrgyz woman Tolgonay who sent her husband and three sons into the battle fields during World War II, her relationship with earth through her faith in life and determination to struggle. Earth is in a position that she considers as a precursor. She cultivates it and calls it Mother Earth. Protective and omniscient power of earth, which is personalized and finds voice in the novel, shows Tolgonay’s, accordingly Kyrgyz people’s view of nature and its elements. Nature, when a relationship is established with it without degrading or subordinating it, is able to provide human beings all required material and non-material powers, and it can make them feel their presence and vitality. Thus, existence of nature is not positioned in the novel as less valuable than existence of human beings. Both the nodus and the settlements of the novel will be handled according to relationships between primitive life and nature, which are suggested by Claude Lévi-Strauss in his work entitled The Savage Mind. It will be revealed that, despite all the deprivations caused by the war, the survival struggle and hope of the human being are closely related to the approach of human beings to the nature. Hence, as a woman, Tolgonay's equitable relationship with the land gives her the courage and wisdom to resist many cultural stereotypes and sexist regimes. In this context, primary reason of frustration of the modern attitude, which shreds and categorizes, must be searched at the condescending distance that it places towards nature.

Özet

Cengiz Aytmatov’un 1963 yılında yayımlanan Toprak Ana adlı eseri, insanın toprakla kurduğu ilişki biçimlerine ve ona olan bağlılığına temas edildiği önemli eserlerinden biridir. II. Dünya Savaşı sırasında kocasını ve üç oğlunu savaşa gönderen Kırgız kadını Tolgonay, hayatının bütün evrelerinde yaşama dair inancını ve mücadele etme azmini toprakla kurduğu ilişki üzerinden inşa eder. Toprak, bir Kırgız kadını ve annesi olan Tolgonay’ın ekip, biçtiği, onu kendisine öncü olarak gördüğü bir konumdadır ve ona “Toprak Ana”diye seslenir. Romanda kişileştirilerek dile getirilen “Toprak Ana”nın muhafaza edici, bilge gücü, Tolgonay’ın dolayısıyla Kırgız halkının doğaya ve ona ait unsurlara dair bakış açısını ortaya koyar. İndirgemeden, ikincilleştirmeden ilişki kurulan doğa, insana istediği maddi ve manevî gücü verebilecek, varlığını ve canlılığını hissettirebilecek donanımdadır. Dolayısıyla romanda doğanın varlığı, insanın varoluşundan daha az değerli bir yerde konumlandırılmaz.