The Idiot

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 1

Part 1, Chapter 2

Part 2, Chapter 3

Part 2, Chapter 4

Part 2, Chapter 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 2, Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary: “July”

This chapter describes Selin’s experiences in the Hungarian village where she is stationed as an English teacher. She lives each week with a different host and spends an additional, fourth one at a summer camp. Her first host, Margit, is a friendly and energetic English school teacher, who is married and has two children. Her husband does not speak English, and he tries to teach Selin Hungarian by showing her his collection of hunting rifles and accompanying bullets. The second host is a very serious and responsible young woman, Rozsa, who is training to become an English teacher. Rozsa wants everything to be done by the book and expects to have deep, meaningful conversations with Selin. The last host is another young woman, Juli, whose father manages the local disco club.

Selin meets up with Ivan on the first day of summer camp. Ivan and his mother driver out to the camp to pick her up. Selin and Ivan make their way back to Budapest in a kayak, while Ivan’s mother drives the car back to the city. Selin and Ivan end up going further than planned, so Ivan searches for a phone to ask his parents to pick them up. Selin stays with the kayak and waits for a long time. When they finally get to Ivan’s house, it is quite late. However, Ivan is leaving for Japan soon and this is the last time they can talk in person, so they stay up late trying to communicate honestly and understand each other better.

The following day, Ivan takes Selin back to camp and they say goodbye at the parking lot. Selin is too upset to rejoin the group and wanders around for the rest of the day.

Part 2, Chapter 4 Analysis

This chapter is important because it shows Selin in an unfamiliar environment and also marks the real end of her relationship with Ivan. Travel is often an important motif in books as it allows characters to experience new things and to achieve greater self-awareness. In the case of Selin’s stay in Hungary, it becomes clear that her external travels do not impact her thinking and self-perception, at least directly. After her stay in Hungary, she remains the same as when she left New York in June. Her relationship with Ivan also remains in a stasis. They finally have a heart-to-heart conversation, but despite that, their relationship remains unchanged. Selin and Ivan recognize something in each other, but no matter how hard they try, they can never bridge the distance separating them. Ivan believes it is because Selin does not have the skills to articulate her emotions on account of being an only child. However, Ivan’s own aloof behavior could be part of the problem as he makes Selin feel insecure and confused.

Selin glosses over, for the most part, the Hungarian village and her experiences with teaching. The details of her stay seem unimportant, reducing the location and most people to one-dimensional subject matter for humorous observations. Her interactions with the locals are just as absurd and disconnected as those with her fellow students back in the States, but at Harvard, Selin demonstrates moments of empathy, such as attempting to step into Hannah’s shoes. Since Hungarian society is shaped by very different historical processes, Selin is not able to empathize with most of the people she encounters. She remains very much alone and emotionally distant from everyone around her. However, this is also due to the difficult and draining last stage of her relationship with Ivan, which precludes mental or emotional space for other significant connections.