62 pages • 2 hours read
Elif ShafakThe Bastard of Istanbul
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A 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
Tea Glasses
Tea glasses figure prominently as a symbol in both the first and final chapters of the novel. The glasses symbolize Zeliha’s association of womanhood and femininity with fragility. In Chapter 1, “Cinnamon,” Zeliha is 19 and pregnant. Before going to her appointment to have an abortion, she buys a glass tea set from the market where she goes to buy cinnamon for dessert. Zeliha can never resist buying a tea set, despite having “at least thirty different glass tea sets at home, all bought by her” (8). She feels compelled, always, to buy another set because they are “[s]o damn fragile” (9), which infuriates her. She stockpiles them, always preparing for the worst, because she lacks faith in the durability of their design. It’s significant that Zeliha buys yet another tea set before setting off to her appointment. It’s an indication that she is trying to fortify herself against a possible break.
At the end of the novel, after her brother and rapist, Mustafa, has died, and she has told her daughter, Asya, that Mustafa is her father, Zeliha has become fortified by the truth. She takes her partner Aram a glass of tea, using one of the glasses that she bought long ago, and marvels at how sturdy it has remained after so many years. Zeliha is amazed by the strength of the glass; she is also subtly amazed at her own strength, and for how long she has persevered under the weight of her secret.
The Pomegranate Brooch
The brooch, which was originally intended to be a present from Hovhannes Stamboulian to his wife, Armanoush, is a symbol of life and rebirth. His daughter, Shushan, discovers the brooch and leaves it to her son, Levent, after she decides to move to the US with her lost Armenian family. She leaves the brooch in the hope that her son can retain some connection to his Armenian lineage, which he grows up knowing nothing about. When Banu decides at the end of the novel to give the brooch to Armanoush, it is an attempt to deliver the gift to the person for whom it was intended—in this instance, Armanoush Stamboulian’s namesake serves as a valid substitute.
Similarly, pomegranate seeds are also important in the novel. Auntie Banu uses them to decorate the ashure that she also laces with potassium cyanide to kill her brother, Mustafa. The pomegranate seeds appear on the traditional pudding as a source of nourishment, despite Banu’s intent to kill. They are also a source of rejuvenation, in that they will give the Kazanci clan a chance to start over. With the secret of Asya’s paternity spoken aloud, Zeliha and Asya are given a chance to generate a new relationship as mother and daughter, instead of a tentative one in which Zeliha is recognized more as another aunt.
Roads
In Café Kundera, there are photographs on the walls featuring roads in different parts of the world. During a debate with Asya’s circle about the Armenian Genocide, Armanoush is suddenly drawn to a photograph of a familiar road in Arizona and tells the group about it. The sight of the road reminds of her home and gives her a reference point in a place in which she is both a stranger and, moreover, one in search of something long lost.
In the novel, roads symbolize escape and paths out of difficult or uncomfortable circumstances. Armanoush is made uncomfortable by the dismissal of the Armenian Genocide, so she takes brief solace in the photo. Similarly, when the Dipsomaniac Cartoonist tells Asya that he’s divorcing his wife because he loves her, her eyes drift away from him and toward a photo in Café Kundera of “a rutted road” in Mongolia (323). In both instances, the young women want to get far away, which also indicates a tendency to be dissatisfied with the present, often imagining a circumstance or a place more ideal than the current one.
Rain
Rainstorms recur in the novel during moments in which characters do not yet realize that they are receiving blessings. The motif coincides with an adage that Shafak uses in the novel which warns against cursing things that come from the sky. At the beginning of the novel, Zeliha curses the rain that drips “from her dark curls onto her broad shoulders” because she has no umbrella (3). She is on the way to the gynecologist’s office, where she intends to have an abortion. She will later change her mind and give birth to Asya, whose future friendship with Armanoush, nearly 20 years later, will prove to be a blessing to the Kazanci clan.
In a sort of coda, it also rains at the end of the novel, after Zeliha has told Asya the truth of her paternity. The family cat, Sultan the Fifth, curses the rain that has interrupted his chance to take an outdoor nap. The presence of the cat, which symbolizes continuity, comes alongside Zeliha’s feelings of relief in the aftermath of her revelation. Rain, which is frequently perceived as an inconvenience, ironically becomes a source of nourishment to those who do not yet know what they need.
The Persian Cats
In the late-1920s, Petite-Ma brought a white Persian cat along with her after she became Reza Selim Kazanci’s bride. Her neighbors mocked her, assuming that this was the only dowry that she had. Ironically, they were right: the cats provide the only continuity that the Kazanci household has ever known. In the novel, the cats symbolize constancy and survival. Petite-Ma’s Persian cat one day left the family konak and mated with a “tawny street cat” (32). The kittens that resemble the Persian cat are named Pasha, while those from the free-spirited street cat’s lineage are named Sultan. In contrast to the Sultans, the Pashas are “aloof, needy, quiet types” (33). The cats are corollaries for their owners. However, among the humans, the men are the “aloof” and “needy” types, as indicated by Reza Selim’s need for assurance that Petite-Ma would never leave him as his first wife, Shushan, did; Levent Kazanci’s need for control over his children and absence of affection toward them; and Mustafa’s desire to feel sexually empowered by dominating women. On the other hand, the women in the Kazanci clan more closely resemble the Sultans. Auntie Banu is technically still married, but she comes and goes from her home as she pleases. Zeliha and Asya are determined to remain independent of the men with whom they are romantically involved. Thus, the cats indirectly represent how the characters live their varied lives across generations.
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By Elif Shafak
