The Affects of Alienation on the Cultural Identity of Sibel and Cahit

Alienation is a powerful feeling that changes the way a person sees them self and the world around them. Because of the amount of influence alienation has on a person, it has an affect on a person’s cultural identity. This was exemplified in Sibel and Cahit, in the movie, “Head On.” Alienation affected Sibel and Cahit’s Turkish identity because of their time away from Turkey. The combination of alienation and their time away from Turkey has distanced them from their Turkish identity; however they are also alienated in Germany because they are Turkish and do not fit into German society in the same way as a German.

Alienation distances a person from that which should be natural to them. A person’s cultural identity should come naturally. It makes up an aspect of the persona. According to Woods, “[fundamentally], to be alienated is to be separated from one’s own essence or nature; it is to be forced to lead a life in which that nature has no opportunity to be fulfilled or actualized” (21-22). Alienation has nothing to do with whether what personal desires are fulfilled. It is whether or not a person’s life accomplishes their nature. Alienation “in this sense is not fundamentally a matter of whether your conscious desires are satisfied, or how you experience your life, but instead of whether your life objectively actualizes your nature” (Wood 21-22).When a person is separated from their country and their culture, they are separated from what should be natural to them. They will experience feelings of alienation because they are missing a part of them self.

Alienation separates a person from their cultural identity, two things that belong together, and this separation causes the person to struggle with their self image.

If a person is experiencing alienation the disjunction between them and their cultural identity will lower their self image and cause the person to lose their meaning of life. “The experience of alienation involves a sense of a lack of self worth and an absence of meaning in one’s life” (Wood 21-22). Social alienation disassembles a person and their cultural identity, causing that person to struggle with their self worth. It is a “social evil, characterized by one or another type of harmful separation, disruption or fragmentation, which sunders things that belong together” (Wood 21-22). These affects of alienation are serious and may eventually lead to a spiral into self destructive behaviors.

Both Sibel and Cahit were so immersed in German society that they were distant from their Turkish heritage. Against Turkish culture and tradition, they were immersed in Punk Rock and the Punk lifestyle. They partied to punk music and listened to it in their home. They even shouted sayings like “Punk’s not dead!” (Head On 41:29) Punk is a western style of music and their love for it and immersion in the Punk lifestyle distanced them from having a Turkish lifestyle. For Sibel, this was intentional. She did not want to “do the Turkish thing” and marry a nice Turkish man. She wanted to behave like a Westerner with freedom in her relationships (Head On 13:40). She accomplished this in part by marrying Cahit, who allowed her to do whatever she wanted. Sibel knew that although Cahit was Turkish, he did not adhere to the norms of a “traditional Turkish family.” Cahit did not speak Turkish very well. His Turkish was poor because he did not speak it very often, when asked what happened to his Turkish he said that he “threw it away” (Head On 22:20). He did not surround himself with people who spoke Turkish. He associated with people who spoke German. Embracing the punk lifestyle took Sibel and Cahit from their Turkish roots and imbedded them into a very western lifestyle. Sibel’s rejection of the Turkish tradition and Cahit’s rejection of the Turkish language drove them further from what should have been natural to them and closer to a culture that was foreign to them. This resulted in their alienation.

Cahit and Sibel had problems with their self image because of alienation which led to destructive behavior. Sibel tried to kill herself three times. The first time landed her in the hospital where she met Cahit. The second was after Cahit told her that he would not marry her, and the third was after Cahit went to prison (Head On 14:00, 1:07:30). Each time Sibel attempted suicide she was trying to escape the alienation that she felt. The first and second are the alienation brought by the pressure from her family to marry. She wanted to please her family but she wanted to please herself as well. The third was the alienation she felt after she found out that her husband killed someone because of what they were saying about her lifestyle. Cahit had anger problems that eventually cause him to kill someone, a crime for which he went to jail. After his first wife died, he became very angry