The first half of the novel portrays the recounting of the author's loss of naivety and faith. As a child, Marjane sees herself as a prophet in the line of Zarathustra, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. Her imaginary friend is her vision of God as an old man with a long flowing beard. In these scenes from childhood, God encourages Marjane to become a prophet and to stand up for love and justice.
As Marjane begins to see the political and social realities of her world, the reader sees her slowly detaching from her faith. As she hears stories of political imprisonment and torture, she finds that God no longer gives her comfort. She basically begins to see life in a whole different perspective to the extent where the only thing she puts her faith into are the things that she physically hears and witnesses. The imprisonment and execution of her Uncle Anoosh causes a break in her faith and she describes herself as lost and alone in the universe. In the part of the novel that we see Anoosh come into role the reader can see it titled the "Sheep." This symbolizes the people as sheep or followers. Furthermore as the novels progresses you can now see a pattern how Marijane's believes and values are changing. Also i believe from the begining of the book till this point we can se how the envrionment that the author is surrounded by effects personality change through out the story. Lastly the death of her uncle Anoosh is what will effect Marijane the most and alter outcomes in the novel.
This a very good insight of what you read. My thoughts were along the same line. How external conflicts(what we see) and internal conflicts(what we feel, and think) change our outcomes on life. Excellent observation.
ReplyDeleteYou understood this part of the book in the same manner that I did. Actually, the things that surround us cause changes in our way of thinking and believing. For this, Marjane was affected for the events that she witnessed and the political imprisonment that she heard.Good writing.
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