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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
As Tequila Leila lies dead in a garbage bin somewhere just outside of Istanbul in the early morning hours, her mind continues to race with thoughts of her former life and friends. She is surprised that her brain activity persists even after her heart has stopped beating, and she reflects on the thin line between life and the afterlife, seeing the transition into death as just another adjustment. Leila anticipates the moment her five friends learn of her passing, as she knows they will honor her with a beautiful funeral service.
These first pages establish that Leila, the protagonist, is already dead, yet she continues to think and feel as though she were still alive. Already, she’s begun to observe her life from a distance, accepting her post-death consciousness. This opening also introduces Istanbul as the primary setting and highlights the significance of Leila’s five friends to her life story. The subjects of time, memory, and friendship that emerge in these pages are core motifs that will continue to reappear as the events of the novel unfold.
Themes
A group of four teenage boys scavenging for food and other items in nearby dumpsters approaches Leila’s body, and she’s desperate for them to find her so that her friends will know she’s dead. One of the boys steals the locket from around her neck, inspecting the old photo inside. He pronounces her dead, smugly informing the rest of the group that “she’s a whore.” Boasting that they’ll be famous for finding her body, the boy tells his friends he’ll do all the talking when the reporters arrive.
This section emphasizes Leila’s continued dehumanization as a sex worker, even in death. The boys steal her belongings, more interested in the idea of fame than in the reality of her discarded corpse. Their casual reaction reflects the indifference of Turkish society toward violence against women and the marginalized, and its general desensitization to human suffering.
Themes
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