54 pages • 1 hour read
Elif BatumanEither/Or
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Either/Or
The title of this text is also one of its primary symbols. Batuman borrowed it from Kierkegaard’s eponymous work of philosophy, and the character of Selin looks to this work in multiple ways in order to better understand her own life. The dichotomy implied by Either/Or is the choice between the “aesthetic” life and the “ethical” life, and in this narrative, it is Selin who is devoted to aesthetics, while her friend, Svetlana, is devoted to ethics. Selin wants to understand art, literature, and love, and she sees her own self-development through this lens. Svetlana, in contrast, is more interested in abstract reasoning, the “big picture,” and distinctions between right and wrong. Although each character is markedly intellectual, they approach intellect in divergent ways.
Despite her commitment to the aesthetic approach, Selin grows increasingly troubled by it as she realizes that much of the characterization of the aesthetic life speaks to men like the seducer figure in Kierkegaard’s text. She comes to wonder what the aesthetic life might look like for her in particular. This process of evaluation and re-evaluation is typical of both processes of individual identity development and the bildungsroman novels that narrate them. It is one way in which this novel situates itself within a broader tradition of stories of growth and identity development.
This symbol also speaks to the novel’s thematic structure. Selin’s interest in Either/Or is emblematic of the theme of Literary Analysis and Self-Examination. Selin’s reaction to this text is the first example given of her characteristic process of looking to the books she reads in order to understand her own life and the actions of those around her. She comes to view each of the people to whom she is the closest through the framework of Either/Or, and she will similarly adopt many of the other books that she reads to form new frameworks. Selin’s interest in Either/Or also speaks to the theme of Education Versus Learning. Namely, Selin’s response to the text is a reflection of how she approaches literature and literary analysis; her interest lies in the interplay between the text and her own experience rather than in the broader cultural implications of the ideas it describes. For her, the academic approach to literature, one that looks at the abstract rather than the particular, has little practical utility. Although a gifted thinker and a successful student, Selin has a distinct awareness of the difference between true learning and the kind of thinking that formal educational settings encourage.
The Library
The library is symbolic of Selin’s introverted, intellectual nature. She feels much more comfortable there than anywhere else on campus, and it is to the library that she retreats when she is overwhelmed. After becoming uncomfortable talking to her roommates during one early scene, she fabricates a homework excuse and abruptly runs off. After wandering around aimlessly for a while, she heads to the library to read. Once there, she notes the immediate comfort the building’s form brings her: “I felt relieved when I got to the library, a soundless concrete cube” (84). Although Selin does have several friendships, both close and superficial, and she is by no means an outcast, she is markedly ill at ease around her peers. Part of her developmental trajectory within this narrative is learning to be comfortable in social situations. Though she does make progress in that area, the character of Selin should still be understood as a fundamentally introverted individual. Even when she begins to be more comfortable around other people, she needs alone time in order to recharge her social battery.
It is at the library where she does much of her reading of Either/Or, which speaks both to her characterization as an introspective, analytical individual as well as to the theme of Literary Analysis and Self-Examination. In part because she does find social situations difficult, Selin looks to literature for analytical touchstones, and much of her self-understanding and her understanding of other people’s behavior comes from the relationships she sees represented in books. Her time at the library processing these texts also speaks to the theme of Education Versus Learning. It is more through her own self-directed reading and her unique interpretation of assigned texts (as opposed to the analytical responses of her professors and peers) that she comes to understand the world.
Books
Books are an important motif within Either/Or, and the list of texts that Selin reads, summarizes, and interprets within the narrative is long. The key texts that play the largest role in her identity development, self-understanding, and interpersonal analysis are as follows: the titular work by Kierkegaard, Andre Breton’s Nadja, Joris-Karl Huysman’s Against Nature, Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, Sigmund Freud’s Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way, Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady, and the short stories “My First Goose” by Isaac Babel and “The Lady With the Little Dog” by Anton Chekhov.
From each of these texts, Selin gains a better understanding of her own behavior, the behavior of others, and what constitutes typical or acceptable behavior. Because she is so ill at ease socially, she does not always understand what is expected of her and what “normal” human behavior looks like. She repeatedly notes that she is interested in understanding the “human condition,” and she develops that understanding from books much more readily than she does through actual interactions with her friends and family members. In this way, the motif of books speaks to the theme of Literary Analysis and Self-Examination. It is through books that Selin interacts with her world rather than through her relationships with people. The motif also speaks to Selin’s characterization: At heart, she is an intellectual. Much of her developmental trajectory is focused on intellectual growth. Her reading list, accordingly, reflects her intelligence and the extent to which her educational background has familiarized her with “high culture” and the literary works of the Western canon.
