Prompt 2 choice #2

One of the scenes that I had a really strong connection with was in the passage from pages 67-71.  This is where her uncle comes into the story and Marjane creates a strong bond with him while he is there visiting.  Then one day, her mother tells her that he is on a “road trip” which marjane already knows that saying means that he could be dead.  In a previous passage, found on page 48, marj tells Laly (her friend) the same thing about her father Siamak.  When someone is on a road trip, it means that they are dead.

Following on page 70, Marjane is laying in bed telling herself that everything will be all right.  That is when you see god come back in to the story and ask her what’s wrong.  She is so infuriated of finding out that her uncle was killed that she yells at god and tells him to shut up and never come back into her life again.  As a child it must be so difficult to understand and deal with death, especially having someone so close to you in your life.  This is a changing point where you see Marj beginning to lose her faith in religion because of all the horrible things happening to her in her life.

My connection in the book with my own personal experience also comes with losing a loved one.  It has been exactly one year ago this past Friday (Sept. 16) that my best friend Vince died in a car accident.  I went through a very difficult time back then, I felt a great deal of depression, anxiety and confusion as to what happened to him.  He had such a big influence and impact on my life that I spent some of the best years of my life with him.  Then to get that phone call the very next day while I was at work just broke my heart.  I knew that he had so much to offer that I didn’t want to accept his death.  I began questioning everything, like, “Why did he deserve this fate?” Or, “What could I have done to have prevented this from happening?”  There were so many things running through my mind that I even started questioning my own faith and religion.  I am a catholic so right away I started to ask myself if there was a god and if so, how could he allow someone to lose his life in such a horrific and young age.  I didn’t know what to believe anymore as I started to view life in a different manner now.  I can understand the type of emotions and feelings she was going through in the story.  It is not an easy thing to deal with, especially for someone as young as marj who is still a child and doesn’t have a greater understanding of life as an adult would.

I think this scene in the story has a greater meaning behind it from just reading the context literal.  Yes, Marjane is going through a hard time, considering the fact that she is exposed to a war, death and hatred as a child.  How is this going to impact her life as she gets older?  Will she become an activist and protest against her government when she’s an adult?  Also, I think the author may have put this passage in the story to expand the reader’s own comprehension to view their own life and help appreciate what they have.   How many of us are really affected by the war that is currently happening right now over sea’s?  Our lives still carry on as if there was nothing happening.  We don’t have to see people being killed, tortured, or scavenging for food.  This is something that marj and her family are going through and it has a huge impact on her way of viewing life.  I also believe that the author purposely put this passage in the novel to setup what may be coming up next in our following reading of the book.