Daniel Lerner begins his essay “The Grocer and the Chief” by recounting the interviews of the Balgati by Tosun B., a young scholar from Ankara. Lerner is critical of Tosun in many regards, including Tosun’s ideas of modernity. Lerner is critical of the fact that Tosun’s notion of the village “was clearly more sensitized to what he saw than what he heard,” going on the claim that the “import of what had been said to him, and duly recorded in his reports, had somehow escaped his attention.” Lerner is critical of the fact that Tosun is basing his opinion of Balgat simply on what he sees- the lack of roads and electricity, for example- rather than the mindsets of the villagers. Tosun even develops a dislike for The Grocer, because he does not conform to Tosun’s notion of what people from a village like Balgat should look like, specifically regarding The Grocer’s propensity for wearing a necktie.

Lerner himself is also slightly guilty of judging the modernity of Balgat. When he visits the village, he notes the road and bus from Balgat to Ankara, the apparent addition of an electrical grid, and the opening of six new grocery stores as evidence of the “modernization” of the village. However, unlike Tosun, Lerner also takes into account the mindsets of the people. Lerner sees significance in the addition of a bus line because, just as The Grocer wished for, “the villagers were getting out of their holes at last.” No longer are the villagers staying in their little bubble and shutting themselves off from the rest of the world. The bus line not only signifies the ability of the villages to venture out of Balgat and experience new things, but also represents the villagers newfound receptiveness to new ideas, to new cultures, to change. Lerner’s conversations with The Chief further display the changes in Balgat and its people. Lerner notes that The Chief, “of a lineage that had always been Muhtars and land- owners-was no longer a farmer.” In fact, there are only four farmers left in a village that was once comprised only of farmers. As Balgat modernizes, its people transition from the ways of the past and start to explore new and more bountiful opportunities, a scenario similar to the American “utopia” that The Grocer longs for. Lerner is completely convinced of the modernization of Balgat when a few of the local villagers as “a prophet.” The Grocer saw long before others that the modernization of Balgat would be for the betterment of the people. He had a vision of Balgat that he believed would improve the lives of its people, and while he was not alive to see it, his vision eventually became reality.