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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
At last, they locate Leila’s grave. After Zaynab122 performs a ritual around the burial plot, Nostalgia Nalan, the strongest, quickly begins digging. As she works, she recalls a time when Leila suggested Nalan write a letter to the bride she’d abandoned when she ran away from home, to explain herself. She never wrote that letter. Meanwhile, a drunk Sabotage Sinan gazes at the moon, insisting he can see his face in it. He broods over how his friends don’t truly understand him, disappointed they can’t read the thoughts hidden within his silences.
As Nalan recalls Leila’s advice about writing to the bride she abandoned before her transition—when she was still known as Osman—she realizes that she never wrote the letter, a regret now amplified by Leila’s death. Meanwhile, Sinan’s drunken reflection on feeling misunderstood reveals his internal isolation, which has only been deepened by Leila’s passing.
Themes
Finished digging up the grave, Nalan organizes a plan: she’ll tie a rope around the body while the others haul it up from above, with her assistance from the inside of the grave. Sabotage, still drunk, peers into the grave and, now seeing his face reflected in the dark shroud covering the body, he falls in. He panics, convinced it’s a sign that he’ll be the next of them to die, and his claustrophobia sets in. Nalan soon retrieves him, and the group exhumes the body—only to discover, to their horror, they’ve dug up the wrong grave.
Sinan’s intoxicated, accidental fall into the grave and the group’s subsequent realization that they’ve exhumed the wrong body injects dark humor into an otherwise solemn scene, underscoring the chaotic nature of the five friends’ mission.
Themes
Embarrassed, Nalan explains that Kameel Effendi’s handwriting was almost illegible, and she misread the number 7053—Leila’s burial plot—as 7052. The friends quickly get to work unearthing the proper grave this time, and soon, their friend’s body lies before them. Transporting her back to the truck, they unexpectedly encounter a pack of threatening dogs, but they are able to create a diversion and escape.
Continuing the darkly humorous mood—one that Leila, if she were still alive, would have appreciated—Nalan is embarrassed for misreading the plot number Kameel Effendi had written down, as she’s usually more organized and attentive. Still, the group’s persistence in carrying out their task despite numerous setbacks emphasizes their dedication to Leila.
Themes
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