Snow (Symbol)
As is evident even in the novel's title, snow is a particularly important symbol in the text. First and foremost, it is important that the snow, which seems to be omnipresent in the city of Kars, bears a certain linguistic resemblance to both our novel's setting and protagonists (since "Snow" in Turkish is Kar, nearly identical to both Ka and Kars). This reinforces the idea that each minor detail of the text is part of a preordained divine unity, and it also strengthens one of the primary symbolic meanings of snow as an object in the novel. This leads us to the second point about snow in Pamuk's novel—that is, that snowflakes' individual uniqueness (though they may appear similar to other snowflakes when viewed collectively or from afar) is parallel to the uniqueness of human beings, who have similar lives that nonetheless each trace their own geometries. Third, snow in the novel is a symbol of potentiality—the idea that, under the silent majesty of a snow blanket, anything can be hidden or silenced, as well as imagined or possible. Snow snuffs out anything that may get in its way, but it is also an exceptionally fragile thing that needs constant reinforcement. In this way, snow is also the symbol of Kars politics—not only the status quo, in which things constantly operate in a fragile and snow-like silence, barely hidden from sight, but also the state of exception represented by the coup, where the real world seems to be held in stasis and hermitically sealed under a blanket of snow.
Drama and Theater (Motif)
Drama and theater are important motifs in Snow. Certainly, this is partially the case because two of the most climactic moments of the novel (i.e., the play during which the coup is staged and the play during which Kadife both bares her head and shoots Sunay Zaim) occur during moments of theatricality. These incidents also draw our attention to the political importance of theater—not just in a propagandistic sense, but also in the sense that theater can ignite fires in a cause's followers, unite enemies, and the like. Additionally, the centrality of drama and theater in the novel draws our attention as readers to the various airs and bravados put on by different characters. From both Ka's perspective and that of Orhan, our narrator, we are able to see how much posturing and pretense can be annihilated in a mere moment, as well as how powerful and clear actions are when they are not part of a larger act. The novel directs us to the power of drama and acting, yet also cautions us against it by showing us how purity and intimacy are clear virtues (for example, in the character of Necip).
Headscarf (Symbol)
The headscarf is one of the main symbolic garments of Islam, and in the novel it conveys important symbolic meaning as the political flag of the oppressed Muslim women. Though much of Turkey (and certainly, of Kars) is Muslim, the local women and girls have been banned from wearing their headscarves in public places like schools. This leads many of the women to fall into a state of depression and alienation from which many do not recover, instead choosing to take their own lives. As Ka discovers, though, things run much deeper for women in Kars than the simple issue of whether to remain covered or not. In this way, the headscarf is not just a symbol of women's plight but also serves as a scapegoat for their condition. Women are oppressed in Kars, and third parties may point to the headscarf as evidence of this oppression—in reality, the headscarf is only a symbol of larger issues (i.e., Islamophobia, Kemalism, Orientalism), just as a flag can only truly be a stand in for a series of ideas. This status of the headscarf as an important and multivalent symbol is only reinforced by the multiple perceptions of the headscarf that are presented in the novel (i.e., the idea that the headscarf oppresses women versus the idea that the scarf frees them from the predatory male gaze), as well as the centrality of the headscarf to both major pieces of theater in the text.
Turgenev (Motif)
The novel’s mood includes sad and melancholic notes, and the author alludes to famous Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, as the mood of his works are mirrored in Ka’s soul and inner world. In fact, when Ka first meets Ipek, he says to himself that he feels like "the sad and romantic hero of a Turgenev novel, setting off to meet the woman who has been haunting his dreams for years" (33). Turgenev is much beloved by Ka, and Ka identifies himself with the famous writer because both longed for their backward, barbarous home countries while exiled and living in Europe. Additionally, we are told that Ka loves the Romantic sensibility of Turgenev’s novels, something we see in his clear desire to fall in love and enjoy the simple pleasures of Kars. At the same time, however, it is doing a disservice to Pamuk to paint Ka as a mere pastoralist or romantic—rather, he is a deeply flawed character of moral complexity, and this too is something Ka has in common with Turgenev's world. Such reference and allusion to Ivan Turgenev is traced throughout the entire novel, and a particularly clear moment in which this manifests is the novel's conclusion. When the citizens of Kars come to the railway station to see off Orhan, the narrator of the novel, Turgut Bey gives him a new original translation of Turgenev’s novella First Love.
The New Life Pastry Shop (Symbol)
Many of the important meetings and conversations between characters in the novel take place in a café called the New Life Pastry Shop. For example, it is here that Ka first meets with and speaks of his love to Ipek, and it is also where the director of the Institute of Education is killed. The café is the place where a new life might start, but it is also the place where one’s life could end at any second. Thus, the New Life Pastry Shop is, like snow, a symbol of the world’s uncertainty and the realization that everything has two sides—where something new begins, something old must first die.
