In this section of the book, we continue to see Marjane loose her innocence when she starts staying in a communal apartment with eight homosexual men. Her mother surprises her by calling to say she is coming to visit. Marjane spends time with her mother and, because her
apartment is only hers for a short amount of time, she finds a new place to stay,
a room in the house of Frau Dr. Heller. She continues to get involved in drugs after she finds out her current boyfriend is gay. After she finds this out she confides in her physics teacher to process her thoughts.
She meets a new boy named Markus and forms a relationship with him, however, no one is in approval about this relationship. Marjane gets Markus involved in drugs as well, and gains the title Drug dealer. She feels upset and ashamed that her actions of rebellion have gone this far. Why do you think that she is constantly rebelling? How has her loss of innosance played a role in her rebellion?
As this section continues we learn that her life is a struggle, being away from her parents with lack of money. Alot of people in her knew area seem to not like her because of her name as a drug dealer(her principal). Later on she finds out that her current boyfriend is cheating on her and is very hurt by this. Her struggles continues with no money and no place to stay because Dr. Heller and Marjane get into a fight. She lives on the street for two months and gets very sick. She later learns that her parents have been trying to contact her for the past two months that she has been living on the street. Her life in this new area has gone downhill. She returns to Iran with her parents at the end of this section. How has being away from her parents in a new place changed Marjane as a person, and a kid? Do you think that everything she is going through and has been through as a child has made her a stronger person, or affected her negatively?
In this section we can see Marji hit rock bottom as she goes through heartbreak, drug addiction, and poverty. She experienced her first intimate relationship with Markus, which gradually caused her to lose her independence. After becoming the drug dealer of the school, she eventually gets addicted to drugs herself. Her relationship with Markus fostered that drug addiction, as he was the one who encouraged her to go to buy drugs for the both of them. Ultimately, she finds Markus in bed with another woman and she completely hits an all time low when she lives on the streets for two months. She relied on him for her happiness and after their separation, she didn’t know who she was anymore.
ReplyDeleteIn this section, Marjane goes through so much. Like Katie said, she goes through heartbreak, drugs, and poverty. That right there is extremely difficult to deal with. After finding out her boyfriend is gay, she doesn't stop the drugs but in turn becomes a drug dealer. She goes from an innocent girl to a girl who has completely hit rock bottom. It's like no matter what, she always gets the short end of the stick. She has to go through so much. She didn't have a childhood and she barely learned the right from wrong. She experienced heart break as well, through cheating. She then lives in the street which is extremely difficult. Her life is a constant battle. No matter where she goes it's like she's fighting a war to find herself. She relies on things to make her feel better and in turn she ends up getting hurt. Being away from her parents, made her have to live independently. She never got to actually grow up. She has to learn things on her own and she goes through the worst things. Everything she has been through has been affecting her negatively. She doesn't become stronger because she goes through constant struggles and in the end she has to return back to her parents, In a way she still has her innocence. She never really has a innocent childhood that she was able to move away from.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with Carina that Marji is constantly fighting a war with herself. She goes through so much and after some time, even we would get tired of everything that's going on. After all the breakups how could she trust anyone anymore. She doesn't know where to turn to and everything that happens is just so overwhelming for her. I think she has somewhat grown stronger because of things that she has seen and experienced, but at the same time it's making her heart and trust weaker.
ReplyDeleteBeing away in a different country allows a person to have freedom and it is the same case with Marji. She is rebelling because she knows there will be no one to stop her from doing what she's doing. She even managed to get her boyfriend involved. I think her loss of innocence plays a role in her rebellion because there is not wrong or right path for her. in her mind she probably thinks," Well it is going to happen sooner or later so why not sooner." By this i mean she probably doesn’t care what she does because people are going to do it eventually since no one likes to be controlled. Marji has changed both physically but not really mentally. Obviously she became a woman in the time away from her parents and she looks much different than she did when she had left Iran. Mentally she hasn’t changed much because her mindset about rebellion and war is still the same. When someone brings up war she becomes excited because she knows a lot about it and it is a chance for her to fit in. Marji has grown up but still has the same mindset she had as a kid in Iran. i believe that in her life overall the things that happened to her as a child made her stronger. She knew how to defend herself and she managed to live a decent life away from her parents. While some of her comments were rude, the reader has to realize that she is only a kid without her parents in a different country where she doesn’t fit in.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the first question, I believe she is rebelling because she doesn't know what else to do. She's a lost kid in a new country and she just wants to fit in. Obviously, selling drugs isn't the smart choice, but I believe she's doing whatever it takes to get by.
ReplyDeleteFor the second set of questions, I believe that being in a new place has completely changed everything about Marjane. Not that she was completely innocent when she left Iran, but Austria exposed her to some things that she had never seen before. Though I believe the things she has gone through have had some negative impact, I do believe that in the long run it has made Marjane a stronger person overall.
I think that the reason why Marjane rebels so much is because she is trying to figure out who she is. Marjane has had to grow up so fast and has been away from her family for a long time. She is lonely and confused and so she does not know how to deal with everything. I believe that Marjane tries to see how much she can get away with, so she tests how far she can go. When Marjane was sent away, she was still a young, naive child. Being sent away from her parents negatively affected Marjane for the most part. Marjane was suddenly in a new country that she knew nothing about and didn't know how to take care of herself. Marjane suddenly experiencing things that she had never seen before. Although being sent away did have many negative consequences on Marjane's life, I do agree with Dakota that it did eventually make her a stronger person. Marjane was forced to grow up and deal with the consequences that came from choices that she made.
ReplyDeleteI agree that being away from her parents had negatively and at the same time, positively affected Marji. She was negatively impacted for a while. She was lost and didn't have anyone to turn to. Marji started using drugs to hide her pain and to forget about what she was going through. I think that being away in Austria had made her a stronger person . Before, she was used to having everything and now being alone, she has learned to take of herself and grow up.
ReplyDeleteBy this part of the novel, Marjane has officially hit rock bottom and gotten to a placr she never thought possible. She ultimately begins to deal with problems every teenager deals with, ranging from drugs, to boys, and immigration. It is hard for her to adapt to a nation not her own, let alone adapt to the lifestyle of this European facade she has no idea about. We can see how she struggles to find herself along the way of trying to free herself from the horrors she lived through. At the same time, she wants to keep her innocence, but knows this will take her nowhere.
ReplyDeleteI think she's constantly rebelling because that's how she grew up. She always rebelled at school and her parents were always active supporters of the rebellion in iran. And now that she's been exposed to a lot of the outside world, she doesn't care as much and is less afraid of the actions she makes. After her sketchy attempt at getting weed for Markus, she became really comfortable and soon became the school's drug dealer. Her being away for so long has really let Marji experience the open world. She's not that little girl back in Iran anymore. She's been exposed to the life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll and it she handles it like an adult. The old , rebellious Marji still lives within her as she "does what she wants". Everything she's been through has made her a stronger person. If she stayed in Iran, she would still be sheltered from the world at large. She got to experience the different types of people and societies that are out there. And with this knowledge, she'll know what her next move is going to be.
ReplyDeleteThat freedom combined with her rebellious nature created what is Marjane in this part of the story. Living with men (even though they are all gay), dating, using drugs are all things that she wouldn't be able to do if she was still in Iran. After awhile, she realizes what she was doing was too much and she needed to tone it down for the sake of her own respect for herself.
ReplyDeleteMarjane is simply developing into an adult. She grew up living an incredibly different lifestyle than most of the country. Her family is proud to have a voice and go against the grain so to speak. She stuck out in her old culture now that she has moved on she no longer feels as though she is excelling or standing out. Thus Marjane decides to live life on the edge to garner the same sort of attention that she is used to. Now she must go to further measures which lead towards some very poor decisions. She is no longer an intellectual warrior she is a unwarranted risk taker. She ends up finding her true north and rebounding towards a more appropriate successful life.
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