Role of Olive as a Murderer in My Name Is Red - A Literary Essay Example

The conflicting visual ideologies raised by the miniaturists are a real crisis which needs to be dealt with immediately before more killings are experienced. The life and careers of the artists are full of competition, struggle and above all surrounded by jealousy. Every artist wants to emerge the best. Thus they are willing to eliminate their colleagues who they perceive as hindrances to their success. In a situation where the miniaturists are working on the same project, a crash is expected due to the differing ideas and visual representation identified by each member. In the book "My Name is Red, character Olive is later identified as the murderer of his colleague. The revelation draws the need to know the reason as to why he committed the murder. Olives character drives him into committing the crime with the intention of securing his drawing arts. He differs from the other miniaturist not only in ideology but also in actions.

Character Traits of Olive

Ambitious

Olive wishes to be the best painter across East and West, and he is willing to defend this by eliminating those who hinder him. As a court miniaturist, he is expected to be loyal to the master and work as per the master's guides and pace. He sees this as a block towards his ambitions. Again, he has to work with other court miniaturists Butterfly and Storks who have differing ideas, opinions, and character. His comment towards killing master Osman angers his colleagues who differ with his ideologies. Olives artistic desire was to be successful, famous and outdo the rest. As a Muslim, Olive is expected to be true to his work and his leaders. All his paintings are expected to go by the Islamic culture and above all his morals in work has been upright (Pamuk 82). The religion expectations conflict with the artistic work since most of them are self-oriented, money oriented and filled with jealousy. His selfish desires drive him into killing his colleagues thus losing the identity as a staunch Muslim. His friendship with other court miniaturists is damaged, and he is left a lonely man. In the end, he fails to achieve his desires as the artists.

Jealousy

The jealous character of Olive flows from the beginning to the end of the book. He is jealous of everyone who seems to outsmart him in the artistic work and also in famous. He killed Enishte and Elegant out of selfish. He thought that the Sultans portrait that Elegant was designing would make him more rich and famous. The only way he could have taken the task was by eliminating him. He also believed that Enishte was working on a blasphemous book that would render the miniaturist jobless once it gets published (Pamuk 80). According to him, the book would give the west a chance to compete with them. He believed the Europeans painters had more mastery which he lacked. Olive is also jealous of Black who has succeeded in winning the heart of Shekure. He tried to slaughter Black. His hatred and jealous towards Black was another reason that led him to kill Enishte. In the book, Enishte praised Black as an ambitious man.

Traitor/betrayer

All court miniaturists are expected to work as a team and support each other. Olive has differing ideology from the rest of the team. His desire to achieve high drives him into killing his colleague and stealing the sultan portrait he was working on. The other colleague's Butterfly and Storks never suspected the traitor was one of them. When the truth finally comes out, Olive is left alone feeling humiliated and lonely. He loses his identity as the court miniaturist as a Muslim (Pamuk 161).

Hypocrite

Olives secretive life and actions are that of a hypocrite. He hides in religion and pretends to be an Islamic follower yet he knows his real character. He goes ahead to boast that no one knows the real him until the truth comes out. This trait led him to trick his colleague before killing him. All the other colleague's Butterfly and Storks are straightforward and honest that why they were surprised by Olive's suggestion of killing Master Osman (Pamuk 322).

Arrogant

Work Cited

Pamuk, Orhan. "My Name is Red (trans. EM Goknar)." (2001).