The Idiot

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 1

Part 1, Chapter 2

Part 2, Chapter 3

Part 2, Chapter 4

Part 2, Chapter 5

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Part 2, Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary: “August”

Selin’s remaining time at the village passes uneventfully and before long she heads to Istanbul to meet up with her mother and other relatives. Her flight arrives in Istanbul, where someone from her aunt’s pharmaceutical company is supposed to meet her. However, Selin cannot that person and since her phone does not work in Turkey, she is unable to call. A young man approaches her and sells her a phone token in exchange for her foreign money. Selin calls the pharmaceutical company several times until they finally tell her the name of the driver, who turns out to be known to her.

After spending a few days sightseeing in Istanbul, Selin and her aunt join Selin’s mother and their other relatives in Antalya. Selin misses Ivan and does not fit in with her cousins. She is so unhappy that at one point she becomes physically sick, but eventually gets better.

There are a lot of Russian tourists at the resort and Selin tries talking to a man in Russian while both of them take a break from swimming on a floating platform. The man is a businessman who is interested in making money. Selin feels sexually attracted to him and worries that she is someone who can be seduced by money. The man also seems to be interested in her and asks Selin what she does at night. The way he talks to her, however, feels condescending, so rather than continuing their conversation, she goes back into the water.

Towards the end of their stay in Antalya, Selin and her mother visit a relative who recently bought a swampy golf resort in the area. They are shown around in a golf cart and the absurdity and ridiculousness of the situation awaken Selin’s humor. She becomes hopeful that eventually she will go back to writing.

The last paragraph concludes with Selin looking forward to going back to school. However, she believes that studying linguistics and philosophy has not taught her anything valuable, so she plans to change her major and no longer focus on language.

Part 2, Chapter 5 Analysis

The last chapter is the story’s denouement and recounts the aftereffects of Selin’s first love. It also presents the reader with a closer look at the protagonist’s extended family. Selin’s relationship and interaction with her various relatives reveals how different she feels and is perceived to be, even by her family. The sense of not belonging could be partially explained by the fact that Selin is still a teenager and, like many young people, feels misunderstood. However, the fact that others, such as her aunt, comment on her differences supports the idea that she is unlike her peers, regardless of whether she is in the US or in Turkey.

Selin’s unhappiness manifests physically as an illness, which is a testament to the depth of her feelings, even if they are not easy to define or categorize. The illness marks the true death of her relationship with Ivan – she can no longer even hope for some future meeting. She is mourning her adolescent self and embarking on a new stage in life.

The novel’s second part, which focuses on Selin’s summer, is also about physical maturation. In the last chapter, Selin experiences physical attraction for a stranger for the first time. Up to that point, she has occasionally expressed physical desire for Ivan when missing him, but not for a real-life person who is also present. In the last scene with the Russian tourist, Selin begins, for the first time, to think of her body’s inclinations and of herself as a woman.