Selin Karadağ

Selin is the narrator of the novel, and is at the center of the narrative described in The Idiot. Selin is an eighteen-year-old student of language and literature at Harvard University when the novel begins, with a habit of looking for meaning in the random events around her. She is Turkish-American, as the daughter of two Turkish immigrants, and she has spent much time in Turkey. She has a mixed relationship with Europe, but often finds herself comparing and contrasting American culture with that of Europe.

Across the novel Selin throws herself into many different roles, but always finds herself feeling like an outsider. She attends a variety of classes at Harvard, from literature to mathematics as well as the Created Worlds art class, but is never satisfied by any of them. She also teaches English to adults, as well as basic algebra (which she also does...