Dede Korkut functions as the figure who appears at each tale's end to compose the song, name the heroes, and fix the deeds in words so they outlast the doers. The mechanism is that a dedicated memory-keeper converts transient action into durable reputation, making the act of naming and singing the true preservation of a deed rather than the deed itself.
A boy among the Oghuz holds no name until he performs a qualifying feat, after which the elder bestows a name describing that specific act. Identity is therefore not assigned at birth but issued as a report on demonstrated capacity, so the name itself encodes the achievement that justified it.
In these tales events advance chiefly through the duties owed between father and son, husband and wife, lord and retainer: rescues, vengeance, and reconciliations follow from who is bound to whom. Reading the action as a map of reciprocal obligations rather than individual ambition reveals that each hero's choices are set by his position in a web of kin and loyalty.