In Sabahattin Ali’s novel, Kürk Mantolu Madonna, Raif Efendi, living as a civil servant in 1940s Ankara, is often described as a “withdrawn, inconspicuous man”. However, he is not merely a silent character; he is a symbolic figure embodying the emotional repression of society and the inner loneliness of the individual. The loneliness Raif Efendi experienced back then perhaps stands before us today in a more widespread, invisible, and profound state.
The modern age, while seemingly bringing people closer together than ever before, actually isolates them more than ever. We may have hundreds of followers on social media and dozens of conversations in our inboxes, but what about that silence we are left with when the screen goes dark? Every sentence Raif Efendi wrote in his diary echoes the inner voice of many of us today. The act of expressing ourselves has been replaced by the act of masking ourselves.
Feeling lonely within crowds is no longer an individual issue; it’s a societal problem. People suppress their emotions, and no one wants to appear weak. Silence is not actually a weakness; often, it is perhaps the loudest scream. Everyone is saying something, but no one is listening to anyone else.
Perhaps this is why Kürk Mantolu Madonna is among literature’s beloved novels, because we see ourselves in that book. It mirrors the emotions we cannot see or from which we escape. We know that Raif Efendi is still among us, continuing to breathe somewhere within the crowds.
