Plot Summary

-Ka returns to Kars to investigate suicides by Muslim girls and try to restart things with Ipek.
-Ka goes around Kars interviewing town figures and people that live in Kars to start learning more about the suicides.
-Ka meets Ipek at the Life Pastry Cafe and there they witness the shooting of the Director of Education.
-Ka goes and talks to Muhtar and they are both brought down to the police station to tell about the shooting Ka witnessed.
-Ka starts questioning his beliefs in god and atheism.
-Ka meets Blue for the first time and Necip.
-Ka has dinner with Ipek and her family at the hotel.
During dinner, they convince Ka he has to go to the national theater.
-Ka meets Necip in the bathroom and Necip gives Ka his letters to Kadife.
-Ka reads his poem.
-The shooting at the national theater begins.
-The coup has started and there is a curfew on Kars.
-Ka visits Blue in Jail.
-Z Demurkuk tells Ka about Blue and Ipek.
-Ipek and Ka have a long talk in the hotel about them.
-Kadife goes to the national theater for the second show; she is performing in the show.
-Ka is sent to convince Kadife not to bare her head.
-Kadife refuses to leave and she and Sunay put on the play.
-Ka leaves for the train station.
-Ipek is told that Blue and Handle are killed and she blames it on Ka. She thinks Ka betrayed them and told the military where they were hiding. So Ipek decided to stay and not meet Ka at the train station to go to Germany with him.
-Kadife shoots Sunay in the show.
-4 years later Ka is murdered in Frankfurt. Orhan goes to talk to Ipek on how he never forgot about her and wrote many unsent letters to her. Ipek still hasn’t forgiven Ka.

Biographical And Historical Infomation

Biographical Information
Orhan was born in Istanbul in 1952 into a large family. When growing up his dreams were to become an artist. He graduated from the Secular American Robert College in Istanbul. Then, he went to study architecture, but soon he dropped that to study journalism. He never actually became a journalist though, he decided to drop that as well and write books instead. Snow was the seventh book that Orhan wrote and the fifth one that was translated into English.


Historical Information
-This book covered most all religious and political conflicts such as socialism, communism, atheism, political secularism, ethnic nationalism and the Islamist fundamentalism.
-One of the main conflicts was the Radical Islam’s wearing headscarves during this time and during this book. The government was trying to put a stop to the Radical Islam’s and by doing this they did not allow them to wear headscarves. This led to some of the girls committing suicide.
-The government in Turkey was taken over by the military. The military did things like have the coup that they did at the national theater to keep their power.
-Kars comes from the Turkish word snow.
-Kars is located in the northeast corner of Turkey and was once a trading route between Turkey, Iran, Armenia, and Soviet Georgia.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,12700,1376944,00.html
http://www.orhanpamuk.net/

Setting

Kars, Turkey is the location in which this book takes place. It is one of the poorest cities in all of Turkey and it is very isolated. There is never anyone walking in the streets and if there is they are usually being watched. The novel takes place in the heart of winter. There is snow everywhere. Infact, on Ka's bus ride into Kars from Germany he got delayed because of all the snow and the train station was closed for four days due to the weather conditions. "[...] that one could hear the whistle of the first train to leave Kars in four days".(page 395)

Poetry

Poetry is a big part of this novel. Ka, the main character, is a poet. Upon returning to Kars, Turkey Ka hadn’t been able to write a poem in a very long time. Once settles in thought, he started writing. "Before i got here, I hadn't written a poem in years," he said. "But since coming to Kars, all the roads on which poetry travels have reopened".(Page 327) Poems would come at all different times throughout the novel. Ka would stop everything that he was doing and take out his green notebook and begin writing. Poetry had a lot of meaning in “Snow”. During the time of this book your opinion was not allowed. Writing poems was Ka’s way to get his ideas and feelings out in a way that was socially acceptable. If Ka had said he wanted to make a speech on a topic that was controversial at the national theater he would have been arrested, beaten, and possibly killed. Through poetry Ka was able to get his personal message out on live TV at the national theater. In fact they signed him up to read a poem before he’d even written in. Being a poet was a great accomplishment that many people wanted. So I believe Ka had an advantage in Kars. He was able to voice his opinion and use what we do now, freedom on speech, through poetry. You need poetry in your life to speak in a socially acceptable manner in this book.

Ka's poems he wrote:
1.Snow
2.Hidden Symmetry
3.Stars and Their Friends
4.The Chocolate Box
5.The Place Where God Does Not Exist
6.The Night of the Revolution
7.Dream Streets
8.Suicide and Power
9.Privations and Difficulties
10.I,Ka
11.I Am Going to Be Happy
12.All Humanity and the Stars
13.Heaven
14.To Be Shot and Killed
15.Chess
16.Love
17.Dog
18.Jealousy
19.The Place Where the World Ends

This list came from the last page in the book. The page did not have a number.

Religion

Religion plays a significant role in the novel Snow. One of the main reasons for Ka to go back to Kars is because Muslim girls had begun a spree of suicides. What makes the suicides so intriguing is that the Muslim religion doesn't allow suicides, and yet these girls are committing suicide, and for mysterious reasons (not being able to wear a scarfs over heads). Another way religion plays a role in Snow is in Ka's development as a character in the novel. Ka holds atheistic views on the world throughout most of the book, but his beliefs change after staying in Kars and talking with different people (Muhtar and the Sheikh) he and he accepts that God is around him.