Fundamentally, Either/Or is the story about a young woman (named Selin) who is an immigrant to the country in which she was born. Although Selin was born in the U.S., she is Hungarian by family and spends much of her time in that country. As such, despite being a U.S. citizen, she must navigate with some of the complexities involved with being an immigrant in a new country. She was largely unfamiliar with the culture of the U.S. and had to integrate herself into it; she also had to find herself and her identity as she navigates a strange new world.
In that sense, Either/Or is about a young woman who doesn’t know who she is. In the novel, she comes of age and decides who she will be. She discovers what is important to her and what is not important to her. The novel also explores themes of the conflict between ethical life and aesthetic life, the value of education, the immigrant experience, and the important of having healthy skepticism.
Unlike the rest of her family, Selin had the fortune and luck of being born in America. As well as that, she is lucky to have the opportunity to attend one of the most prestigious universities in the world: Harvard University. Either/Or begins in Selin’s sophomore year in 1996, where she is at somewhat of turning point in her life and in her academic career. Going into her sophomore year, she decides that she has to make the most of her time at Harvard.
While Selin is preparing for her sophomore year at Harvard, Selin also grapples with a number of mysteries that start to pop up about her life. First, Selin also tries to decipher why her crush Ivan, who she never sees as much as she would have liked to, found her a job in her native Hungary. She then looks back and tries to uncover who so many strange people are converging on her location and on her remote village, where she lives at with her family. She is also curious about why Ivan's ex-girlfriend is now reaching out to her after never having reached out to her before and despite her relationship status with Ivan.
Despite these uncertainties, Selin is excited by the idea that her life is starting to resemble the life of a character in a particularly exciting novel. At the same time, Selin starts to wonder how she can lead a life which is exciting enough to be written about as a novel without becoming a “crazy abandoned woman.” She wants to be perceived as adventurous, in other words, but not crazy.
With the help of her literature studies and the influence of her more experienced and confident peers, Selin comes to the conclusion that parties, alcohol, and sex are key components which contribute towards leading meaningful life worthy of being written about in a novel. She is determined to put these lessons into practice, no matter the consequences that come to her or her family. Her next, and final, goal that she explores in the novel is to experience international travel, which she thinks is another important step which will contribute to her living a life that is exciting and meaningful, much like a character in a novel.
