Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber"
    A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber"
    A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber"
    Ebook34 pages22 minutes

    A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 28, 2016
    ISBN9781535836043
    A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber"

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Jung’s Vision

      Jul 26, 2022

      Jung’s Vision
      3 min read

    • Article

      Treading The Sufi’s Path

      Nov 26, 2022

      Treading The Sufi’s Path
      2 min read

    • Article

      What Mind Is Made Of

      Jan 22, 2019

      What Mind Is Made Of
      7 min read

    • Article

      What Are You Looking At?

      Nov 23, 2021

      What Are You Looking At?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Lost Connections

      Mar 7, 2022

      Lost Connections
      4 min read

    • Article

      Perception

      Nov 7, 2020

      Perception
      1 min read

    • Article

      Karma

      Mar 2, 2023

      Karma
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Higher Purpose

      Aug 22, 2021

      A Higher Purpose
      2 min read

    • Article

      Queen Rania

      Feb 3, 2023

      IT WAS never on the cards for her to be queen. Yes, she was a princess, and yes, her husband’s father was the king – but the line of succession wasn’t meant to come her family’s way. Then it did. King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of the Hashemite dynas

      5 min read

    • Article

      We Can Be Heroes

      Dec 13, 2023

      We Can Be Heroes
      18 min read

    • Article

      Joanna Macy

      Nov 23, 2021

      Joanna Macy
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Secret Is Mind

      Mar 24, 2020

      What’s the secret of life? That’s a question that seems trite and clichéd. But actually, it’s what we all want the answer to. What’s the one thing that makes all the difference? Our mind. That’s what the Buddha said. Mind is the ultimate cause of our

      2 min read

    • Article

      Walking With The Sufis

      Oct 7, 2020

      Walking With The Sufis
      4 min read

    • Article

      “Yoga Leads To A Life Of Real Love”

      Jun 20, 2020

      Q. What is the scientific and medical rationale behind yoga’s longterm health benefits? Yoga works holistically at all levels—body, prana, mind, emotions, intellect and bliss. These levels of human personality are called annamaya kosha (physical),

      1 min read

    • Article

      Still A Mystery: How Does The Brain Make The Mind?

      Jun 28, 2018

      How do molecules, cells, neurotransmitters, and other brain “stuff” create the abstract experience of self-awareness? Despite massive breakthroughs in the field of neuroscience over the last century, this question continues to baffle both scientists

      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Are Gasoline Prices So Volatile?

      Mar 29, 2022

      Why Are Gasoline Prices So Volatile?
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Nazim Hikmet's "The Cucumber" - Gale

      12

      The Cucumber

      Nazim Hikmet

      1960

      Introduction

      The Cucumber by the Turkish communist poet Nazim Hikmet is one of the most commonly anthologized works in collections of world poetry. It was written in 1960 while the poet was in exile in the Soviet Union. Its beauty and seeming simplicity in its praise of the beauty and hope contained in a simple wonder of nature like a cucumber accounts for its popularity. However, this attractive glistening surface is only a cover for a much brighter light that comes from the poem's allegorical or hidden meaning, as an expression of Communist ideology and Marx's dialectical reading of history. Mirroring Marx's removal of the mythological foundation of Hegel's philosophy to produce his theory of dialectical materialism (which maintains that while economies grow to their best efficiency they are also setting up conditions that lead to its decay), Hikmet grafts diverse sources in Russian folklore and ancient religion onto a Marxist interpretation of history to create a new allegorical myth.

      Hikmet is one of the least-known great world poets of the twentieth century in the West, both because of the relative obscurity of Turkish culture and because of the political difficulties connected to his outspoken embrace of communism during the Cold War, but the shining green gem of The Cucumber will richly repay whoever plucks it from the vine. Hikmet shows himself a master of the modern lyric form (which he introduced into Turkey), as well as of the difficult subject of Marxist philosophy and a breathtaking command of literary sources. Hikmet won an International Peace Prize, the ersatz Soviet propaganda copy of the Nobel Prize. It is widely thought that he would almost certainly have won an actual Nobel Prize for literature had he not died at the relatively young age of

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1