During this blog post we will be wrapping up the book for all of you readers following along with our blog. There’s only 4 chapters left, and we will be touching on a few things throughout a couple of the chapters.
In the chapter “The Wedding” Marjane changes her views a little bit by accepting to marry Reza because she was giving up her independence. Throughout the book Marjanes parents have always taught her to be independent and not rely on people, but she changes just so she can live with Reza, and finally be about to act normal in public. The night after Marjane marries Reza she immediately feel trapped and says “I had conformed to society, while I had always wanted to remain in the margins,” but if she knew what she wanted and marriage was not apart of that then why did she marry Reza? When you live in a country where you can’t date publicly and be free with one another, it seems pretty common that they would marry young to be free and because of social pressure, but end up regretting it later down the road.
In the last chapter Marjane is just about ready to divorce Reza when they are both asked to collaborate on a final project before they both graduate. This causes Marjane and Reza to not fight anymore and to start to enjoy being around each other again. This makes Marjane think that maybe their marriage will work, but once the project is done and they no longer have that common ground anymore Marjane starts to question their marriage again. This relates back to the chapter, “The Wedding,” when she immediately feels like she did the wrong thing when she married Reza. I think that she should have gone more with her gut feeling and not stayed married to Reza just because she thought it was the right thing to do. There was nothing holding her back from divorcing him. Her whole family even supported whatever decision she made. She has been an independent person throughout the whole book, so what was holding her back from leaving Reza?
At the very end of the book you can definitely see that Marjane was never truly happy going back to Iran after living abroad so long with all of the freedom in the world. She’s an artist! Artist are meant to be free and speak their mind. At her school in Iran she couldn’t do that because of all the rules. She was supposed to draw a male model but wasn’t allowed to look at them, how is that even fair? She was so fed up that she didn’t have any freedom, especially when she needs it to express herself. I would be too if I was her. Expressing yourself, and having the freedom to do so is what makes you original and different from everyone else. During the last few pages, she finally decides it’s time to go leave Iran for good, to be free.
That’s really what matters to me. The ultimate picture in my mind is to be who you are, speak your mind, and stand for your own beliefs, whatever they may be. I’m truly proud of Marjane for leaving Iran to be happy and to be herself.
Changing Girl, Changing Country 