54 pages • 1 hour read
Orhan PamukSnow
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Ka with Sheikh Efendi”
After drinking liquor, Ka visits the sheikh, where Ka airs his inner troubles. He is torn between a desire to believe in God and a desire for solitude. Ka admits that pride and his Western ideals are barriers to belief in God. The sheikh reassures him, telling him that pride is dangerous but that a man with his sincerity is off to a good start. As other men begin chatting, Ka feels peaceful, and another poem comes to him, which he calls “Hidden Symmetry” (100).
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Sad Story of Necip and Hicran”
After leaving the sheikh’s home, Ka feels the urge to write a poem and stops at a teahouse to do so. Here, he encounters Necip, who tells Ka that he wants to be a science-fiction writer. He reads Ka an excerpt from his story about a futuristic world where two friends, Necip and Fazıl, fall in love with the same girl, Hicran. After Necip finishes reading the story, Ka asks him questions about the characters. Necip tells Ka that Hicran is based on a real woman. He says that she was once an atheist and model in Istanbul but that when she came to Kars, she quickly became a Muslim and the most inspiring leader of the “head-scarf girls” (109). As Necip and Ka talk, Necip notices “Hicran” outside the teashop.
Chapter 13 Summary: “A Walk Through the Snow with Kadife”
The character Hicran in Necip’s story turns out to be based on Kadife, İpek’s younger sister. Ka and Kadife converse about the suicides. Kadife tells Ka that the rumors the boys at the religious high school tell about her aren’t true. She argues with Ka about religion, stating that the young Muslim women have been taught their whole lives to believe in the Koran and that the state requiring them to remove their headscarves suddenly is wrong. She explains that initially she put on the headscarf as a joke and an act of rebellion, but once the movement became serious, she couldn’t go back and decided to embrace it. She tells Ka, “Once I was an atheist like you” (114).
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Dinner Conversation Turns to Love, Head Scarves, and Suicide”
Ka has dinner with Turgut Bey, İpek, Kadife, Hande (Kadife’s friend from school), and Serdar Bey (the newspaper owner). Hande discusses her grief over Teslime’s death and her decision to remove her headscarf. Hande says that forcing Teslime to choose between removing her headscarf at school or marrying a middle-aged policeman led to her death. Ka runs off to write a poem and asks İpek if she will move to Germany with him. İpek does not answer.
Chapter 15 Summary: “At the National Theater”
İpek and her father convince Ka to go to the theater to read his poem. Ka sees Necip at the theater, and they have a secret conversation before the performance begins. Necip tells Ka that he loves Kadife and asks him questions about her. Necip says that he and Ka are very similar; Necip believes Ka likes him because he reminds Ka of himself when he was young. Necip confesses that he questions God’s existence.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
The headscarf’s symbolism becomes more complicated as its powerful impact on the lives of the young women and men in Kars emerges. The headscarf’s power as a proclamation of devout faith, a sign of a woman’s “honor,” and a tool for political power and manipulation becomes clear in Ka and Kadife’s conversation, as well as the commentary from Hande, one of the “head-scarf girls.”
Kadife mentions her father’s (Turgut Bey’s) persecution by the state when he was involved in leftist and Marxist politics during his youth in the 1970s. In a sense, Kadife is following in her father’s footsteps, though her cause appears to be diametrically opposed. As she explains to Ka, her father supported her involvement with the headscarf girls “not as a defense of Islam but as a defiance of the state” (114). For Kadife, the headscarf is a symbol of anti-authoritarianism, though she is aware of the contradiction involved in replacing the state’s authority with religious authority. However, Kadife tells Ka that she has had a change of heart and believes in God now.
Hande’s relationship to the headscarf differs from that of Kadife. Hande has always worn the headscarf and was raised as a devout Muslim. Hande tells Ka that she cannot concentrate now that she has removed her headscarf to avoid being expelled from school. She says that a woman, whom she describes as a stylish “agent of persuasion” (122), came to their school to question them. The description of the woman reveals Hande’s view of Western women and her fear that she will become a woman who “flirts with men or who can’t think of anything but sex” (123). For Hande, the headscarf is a symbol of purity and maintaining her cultural identity: To give up wearing the headscarf would amount to the loss of an essential aspect of her being.
This section expands on Turgut Bey’s backstory, which involves torture, exile, and sacrifice. Turgut Bey’s history as an “ex-Communist” mirrors the backstory of Sunay Zaim in that they were involved in the same political causes; however, Sunay Zaim starkly contrasts with Turgut Bey in that Sunay Zaim has become a delusional, power-hungry man, whereas Turgut Bey is gentle and realistic.
Other characters that function as doubles or foils include sisters Kadife and İpek, best friends Necip and Fazıl, Ka and Necip, and ultimately Ka and the narrator himself. The mirroring of Necip and Fazıl in particular plays a strong role in the story and is an instance of romantic rivalry. The story within the story is a device that the author uses frequently to highlight themes and relationships and to foreshadow events. In Necip’s science-fiction story, Fazıl is murdered and Necip marries Hicran. Fazıl’s ghost appears and tells Necip and Hicran that his soul cannot rest because Necip caused his murder by secretly wishing him dead so he could be with Hicran. This is the opposite of what happens in the actual story: Necip is murdered on the night of the coup, and Fazıl ends up marrying “Hicran,” who is based on Kadife.
The narrator foreshadows Necip’s tragic death even more overtly when he describes Necip “rais[ing] his beautiful eyes, one of which, in two hours and three minutes, would be shattered by a bullet” (109). The inclusion of the time running out in Necip’s young life builds tension in the narrative and gives each interaction that Ka and Necip share more emotional power. The focus on Necip’s green eyes and youthful beauty increases the tragic nature of his death.
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