Up to this point in the story, one of my favorite parts is
how Marji knows a lot, but understands so little. Marji is deeply invested
into issues that mostly concern adults, but doesn’t understand some basic
situations. As some other blogs have pointed out, there is the major example of
the death of the old man. She doesn’t understand what is so humorous about the
situation even though to the reader we see how comical the story was.
To me,
one of the most interesting thing is how I understand the logic of the
situation, but not the physical situation, and for Marji it is the exact
opposite. I think this contrast is what makes the book so readable, as the
reader makes connection Marji doesn’t, as well as Marji giving a historical
context the reader may not necessarily know. I know this connection wouldn’t
work for people who know a lot about The Islamic Revolution in Iran, in 1980,
but for our class It seems to work well.
Another
cool thing is how Marji not only knows a lot of historical context. You may
say that since this book is written from a future voice about Marji when she
was 10, that’s where she knows the information from. However, on page 12,
Marji talks about how she was kept interested by books and learned all about
people like Fidel Castro, and the young Vietnamese. Another interesting thing I
noticed was how she says her favorite book was a comic, and not only was it a
comic, but a comic about philosophers. To me this is kind of strange, but also
significant imagery. Like Marji’s character, the comic book about philosophers
is like a kid’s version of the deeper and more adult things in life. The
philosophers joking around is like Marji’s lack of understanding for nuance
and irony.
Not only
do the comic philosophers represent Marji at a young age, but also the
philosophical comic idea translates exactly to the format of the book. This
book has a deceptively simple comic style, with deep themes. Marji’s character
has an interesting relationship with the reader with seemingly alternate senses
of the situation. At least this seems to be true for most readers, who don’t
already know about Iran and its political history. I think her having a
favorite book which is a deep comic is self-relating to the style of the book
that she writes when she’s older and she looks back on these times. I think
these things make the book more interesting, and deep. Do you guys think that
the connection of her favorite book is a bit too far? I think it is plausible,
but I think we would need to have read the full story to back up all claims.
