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

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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


Cited: Head On. Dir. Faith Akin. Perf. Birol Ünel, and Sibel Kekilli. Wüste Filmproduktion, 2004. Wood, Alan. "Alienation," in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1995, pp. 21-22.
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