THE EFFECT OF POVERTY ON FAMILY ORDER IN THE NOVELS GERMINAL AND SEVGİLİ ARSIZ ÖLÜM

Abstract

In some societies, the individual who meets the minimum needs is not considered poor, while in some societies, the individual who cannot meet the needs such as entertainment and travel, other than their essential needs, can be considered poor. Thus, poverty emerges as a phenomenon with different definitions. Poverty can sometimes cause a social change powerful enough to change the destiny of a nation, as in the French revolution of 1789. Sometimes it continues to exist as a bleeding wound of society. But poverty, after a certain point, usually causes changes in the character of the individual. The fact that a person cannot meet his usual needs can reveal deep effects on his personality structure.

We will deal with this comparatively in the novels Germinal and Sevgili Arsız Ölüm that we will examine. first novel; 'Germinal' is a novel by the French writer Emile Zola, inspired by a true story, about a social structure in which the people were oppressed, the family institution collapsed, and corruption was seen due to the turmoil in the French economy in the 19th century. The novel, which made a lot of noise at the time it was written; shows with striking examples how the coal enterprises in the northern region of the country and accordingly the mine workers struggle to survive between wealth and poverty, and how the family structure is affected by this. It is important that the employers lead a luxurious life, while the mine workers work under difficult conditions by making many concessions about their stomach and their families, and that the damages in the mine come to the fore without even considering the dead workers, in terms of showing how humanity died. The other one is the novel "Sevgili Arsız Ölüm", written by Latife Tekin, one of the contemporary writers of Turkish literature, by approaching the events with a different style. In the novel, it is shown what kind of changes can happen in the family structure as a result of the loss of economic power of a family who migrated from the village to the city.