📝 Abstract
Why would anyone want to live far from their homeland, in another geography or in another society, and in a multicultural society? While most reasons are attributed to necessity, the Turks’ desire to live far from their homeland, in a foreign society, is based on economic and, in part, academic reasons. The idea of overcoming problems led them to leave behind much; even if they didn’t want to, they risked purgatory. Living in purgatory means not being able to fully belong anywhere. Between two extremes, identity, belonging and orientation, makes it uncertain whether a person can return to their own culture or fully adapt to the new structure. Moreover, the uncertain dilemma causes deep inner conflict, alienation and often silent loneliness. The second generation Turks in Germany have experienced this victimization deeply and have been the subject of literary works with their multifaceted problems. One of these, the novel Strong Tea with Three Sugars, which mocks the Westerners’ ideas about foreigners, resembles the panorama of a Turkish woman who immigrated to Germany and encounters a foreign society, understanding and culture. The ‘updating of anti-Turkish discourses’ (Akpınar, 2006), which is mostly accepted in the othering mechanisms of Western societies, has reduced the picture to an individual level in order to be understood and increased the isolation reaction so that cultural duality was reflected in the sections of the novel and in the words and behaviors of the characters. Fatma Saglam presents it with a cultural comparison. According to her; ‘The East-West, Muslim-Christian opposition doesn’t coincide with the comprehension because of, the liberation in a new world is only possible by getting rid of the memories of a world’ (Saglam, 2006). While Turkish society has been living in a spiral of assimilation and integration since the 1970s; the transformation of nomadism into indigeneity and the evaluation of education and social environment have been reflected in different types of works. Our article bases on analyzing of dilemmas, images of time, despair and homeland. The name ‘tea with three sugars’, which isn’t preferred by the German community, is a specific habit for Turkish culture and its taste can only be felt in Turkey. Although not given much importance in the West, ‘brewed tea’, which is valued in every corner of Anatolia, essentially gives meaning to a passion. Even though it is a simple perception, an understanding, when sipped in Turkey, it is understood that it welcomes people sincerely, connects them and unites them.
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