The Gaze by Elif Shafak chronicles the narrator's experience in late 20th century Istanbul as an obese woman navigating her existence as a spectacle for the gaze of those around her. Throughout the text, Shafak asserts to the reader that the narrator's tribulations are a legacy of the eternal human story of assuming power by looking at others or manipulating the gaze of others. The most prominent motif of the gaze in the text is the “Dictionary of Gazes” (DG), a series of epigraphic entries that document how the gaze and the power play associated with it pervade factions of human existence. These voices appear scattered throughout the story, taking on the structure of a word followed by its definition in relation to the idea of ​​sight and gaze. This essay will explore how Shafak employs DG to assert the concept of power play. He describes it as a lexicon of gaze, a tool of suppression, and ultimately an entity with the will to undermine and aid the narrative. The DG is presented as an effort by BC, the narrator's romantic partner, to demonstrate that "everything has to do with seeing and being seen" (91). Throughout the text, the voices form a lexicon of gazes, affirming that the gaze is incessant in the game of power. Shafak does this particularly through cultural and intertextual allusions within the entries. This establishes the universality of the gaze and affirms the idea that the gaze and power play and are strongly associated. For example, the entry “Zahir” (76) names God “he who cannot be seen” (76). It is based on the Islamic tradition in which “there is no image of God” (Green, 2015). The voice exposes the idea that power is attributed to the inability to let oneself be looked at. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayWhile the entry "armor" (86) proposes greater security when the body is hidden from external gaze. Although the former is an allusion to supreme knowledge and the latter a reference to an everyday entity, both entries present the idea that power is relegated to being made visible to the gaze of others. This recurring technique of relating a melange of allusions presents the universal relationship between power and gaze. Furthermore, the voices possess a disembodied tone, enhancing a sense of authority within his knowledge. The tone of voices is told from a third perspective. This presents the reader with the knowledge that the body behind the voices is omniscient and objective. This is accomplished through profound sentences that are often ambiguous in their interpretation. They point to a higher form of understanding that connects the voices, which is sometimes out of the reader's reach. An example of this is the ending of the entry about the hunger god eating himself. The last line of the entry is "it was not their stomachs that could not be filled, but their eyes" (108). While there is no mention of sight within the entry, the final line brings up the idea, creating ambiguity as to what the entry was trying to put forward. Although he allows the reader to interpret the voice, Shafak uses this technique to create a sense of incomprehension in the reader. In doing so, it demonstrates that the DG has knowledge that goes beyond the reader. Thus allowing their message of power and gaze to be considered and accepted to a greater extent by the reader. Shafak then presents the DG as a lexicon of gazes that demonstrates the universality of the relationship between gaze and power, reaffirming this idea by giving the voices an omniscient tone. Later, the DG is revealed to be employed by BC as a tool of suppression towards others who watched it.BC is a dwarf and, like the narrator, is 'trapped in a state of invisibility; just like many people who are put on display' (233). This sentence reveals his position in the society where excessive visualization has silenced him. It is revealed that BC's writing of the DG is an exploitative process in which he has "collected material from every possible source", implying a sense of insatiability regarding the method of his collection. Furthermore, his way of relating the material was to 'take fragments of my stories and other people's stories and mike them all together', this describes the reckless attitude that BC embodies towards those who view the material. The word "fat" carries a significant emotional burden for the narrator, yet she gives voice to that word, describing her emotional insensitivity to it. The voice is superficial and the title is an offensive slur that violates "an unspoken commitment" (186) between the narrator and BC not to mention each other's appearance. Furthermore, his ability to condense and summarize it in one voice gives him directive power over his narrative. Therefore, he uses the dictionary to subjugate the narrator and make her serve his purpose as material. His reluctance to understand her complexities reveals that BC is using the DG as a record of her gaze, manifesting it as a tool of repression. This character of his gaze reflects the way he was looked at by traditional society. Thus, implying that BC has internalized the exploitative gaze of his society and is subjecting the narrator to it. Thus the DG divulges the power play between the characters, describing BC's writing of the DG as a means of asserting power through his gaze, suppressing the exploitative gaze of his society. narrator. However, Shafak does not allow the DG to be abused as a tool of repression to deny his authority. It does so by demonstrating that the DG is beyond BC's control. This is seen when instead of simply suppressing the narrator, the voices possess the will to both aid his narrative and distract from it. The DG helps the narrator by expanding the reader's textual understanding in order to strengthen his narrative. An example of this is the entry “Elsa's eyes” (107), defined as “the residue of sadness” (107). When the narrator is physically attacked and forced to perform Fellatio, a cat named Elsa watches. By connoting a deeper meaning to the cat's name, the DG creates a sense of intimacy between the reader and the narrator, providing us with background knowledge that further contextualizes the act. This results in a deliberate appeal to the reader's sense of empathy for the character. The sadness in the cat's eyes is presented as a model for the reader to follow after witnessing the attack. In doing so, Shafak frees the DG from using BC as a tool of suppression as it is shown to aid the narrator's story and create empathy for his tribulations. However, Shafak states that the DG is objective by presenting it with volition. weaken the narrator. This is done by portraying the voices and the main narrative in contrast to each other, presenting the voices as interruptions to the linearity and tone of the narrative. This is seen when the narrator is attempting suicide and her narrative builds towards her declaration of freedom, “For I… have finally become a floating balloon” (257), but she is cut from a dictionary entry titled “ alien". These voices fragment the linear structure of the narrative and create an emotionally alienating effect for the reader as they were constantly reminded that they were reading a constructed work of fiction. As such, the reader could never be.