Post 2

The two chapters we will mainly be focusing on are called “The Cigarette” and “The Dowry.” These two chapters are a big part of Marjane growing up into adulthood. Starting out rebelling against her parents and culture, and maturing into adulthood and finally understanding what truly matters by standing by her beliefs and voicing her opinion.

“The Cigarette”

The Cigarette is the chapter that Marjane changes the most.  It is when she leaves childhood behind.  She starts hanging out with girls that are 14 years old, when she is only 12 years old.  They convince her to skip class to go to Kansas. This is were Marjane’s rebellion starts to get more serious.

Marjane and her friends skipping school to go to Kansas symbolize them wanting to live a normal life as children and teens would in other countries, but it also symbolizes Marjane not wanting to be seen as a kid anymore.

This leads Marjane to smoke the cigarette after her mother scolds her from skipping school, which we believe is the climax of the book. By smoking the cigarette she is committing her biggest act of rebellion in the book so far and by doing so she says goodbye to childhood and decided she was a grown up now.

“The Dowry”

The death of the Baba-Levy family had a very big impact on the person Marjane becomes.  After seeing Neda’s turquoise bracelet still attached to her hand, which was not connected to her body, she was in so much shock that she could not quite come to terms with what she was witnessing at the time.

This is where she becomes even more rebellious than she was before because nothing scared her anymore.  This leads her to wear a bracelet to school even though it is forbidden and leads to her slapping her teacher and being expelled from her French school.  This is when she is more assured of her identity and she also starts to voice her opinion more often even if it goes against the regime.

This does have its consequences because in her country she could lose her life for voicing her opinion. Her parents start to recognizing that their daughter is like them and has the same beliefs as them and she has a right to live in a country that will not punish her for her beliefs.

Once her parents tell her she is leaving for school in Austria, it is when both her and her parents are recognize her true independence, and how unhappy she is to be living in a country where she can’t speak her mind, and stand by her beliefs.

The night before she leave she stays with her grandmother for the night, receives some advice, and finally realizes she is now a mature adult who can go on with her life leaving behind the anger and vengeance for her country, and forward with her grandmothers wisdom, her independence, her heritage of her Persian royalty, and what her country use to be.