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Part 1, Chapter 5: Four Minutes
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Marginalization and Belonging
Time, Memory, and Transition
Gender and Power
Tradition and Change
Religion, Political Conflict, and Identity
Summary
Analysis
Sinan lives with his mother in a flat above the pharmacy. His father is a Turkish soldier who died of a heart attack the previous spring. Before his father passed, Sinan’s parents were a progressive, Westernized couple who believed in Turkey’s potential for “enlightenment,” hoping it could one day become like a “civilized” European nation. While Sinan’s mother is often judgmental of the “ignorant” Turkish citizens she serves as a pharmacist, Sinan is soft-hearted and empathetic toward everyone. He feels completely different from his parents, living in constant fear he will inevitably disappoint his mother.
The Lady Pharmacist, a widowed, educated single mother, is an outlier in Leila’s conservative community. Her rigid worldview leads her and Sinan to live a quiet, principled life, largely separate from their neighbors, except for work and school. Though she looks down on those she considers less “enlightened,” she serves everyone indiscriminately. Raised under her judgmental gaze, Sinan grows up anxious and fearful—traits that will remain with him for much of his life.
Themes
