The title of this text is also one of its primary symbols. Batuman borrowed it from Kierkegaard’s eponymous work of philosophy, and the character of Selin looks to this work in multiple ways in order to better understand her own life. The dichotomy implied by Either/Or is the choice between the “aesthetic” life and the “ethical” life, and in this narrative, it is Selin who is devoted to aesthetics, while her friend, Svetlana, is devoted to ethics. Selin wants to understand art, literature, and love, and she sees her own self-development through this lens. Svetlana, in contrast, is more interested in abstract reasoning, the “big picture,” and distinctions between right and wrong. Although each character is markedly intellectual, they approach intellect in divergent ways.

Despite her commitment to the aesthetic approach, Selin grows increasingly troubled by it as she realizes that much of the characterization of the aesthetic life speaks to men like the seducer figure in Kierkegaard’s text. She comes to wonder what the aesthetic life might look like for her in particular. This process of evaluation and re-evaluation is typical of both processes of individual identity development and the bildungsroman novels that narrate them.