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When a regime wants to take away your rights they start with education.

This forbids freedom of thought, research, and the ability to challenge ideas.

They dont want to educate future imperialists.

Islam is a pascifist religion but they are minipulating it to serve a harmfull purpuse.

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1980-Her mother was photographed at a protest. 

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1980-Her mother was photographed at a protest. 

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-She was scared.

-Published in European and Iranian newspapers.

-Veil symbol: duality, juxtaposition

Tradition: religion, Iranian architecture (history, customs)

Modernity: family is modern and avant-garde, modern clothes, no veil

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She wants her maid to eat with them.- Equality

Her father drives a Cadilac.- She doesn't like it. This represents communism. (The belief that all should have the same things like cars.)

Her grandmother's knees ache.- She cares for the elderly. Represents a social issue. (treatment of seniors)

Always for others not for herself.

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She did not want to tell her parents she wanted to be a prophet.- She was ridiculed in her classroom about it.

She said she wanted to be a doctor.

She wants to be justice, love, and the wrath of god.

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Communist Ideals- The year of the revolution

She was playing Revolution.- Pretending to be Che, Fidel, and Trotsky.

The revolution is like a bicycle, when the wheels don't turn it falls.- The people cannot move because they are stuck, and if they don't work together nothing will change. Progress comes with having the same goal.

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1st opinion (what Marji's family believes)- Shah orchestrated the fire to make himself look good.

Ex. Guards were not allowed to rescue the people inside.

2nd opinion- The Islamic revolutionists set fire to the theatre.

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-Her parents are Islamic Revolutionists and throw stones at the police.

-Her schoolbooks taught her that the Shah was chosen by God. (indoctrination)

-Her father told her the true origin of the Shah.

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Reza (father)- He was a soldier who was recruited by the British (They had an interest in Iran's oil.)

Marji's great-grandfather was the emperor who was overthrown by Reza.

Marji's grandfather, the prince, was made the prime minister and he developed communist ideals.

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Marji- justice, equality, justice, truth

unclear/ambiguous because she is a child

Grandfather-communist, liberating the people

-He was sent to jail for being a revolutionist and tortured in a water cell.

-Marji wanted to pretend to be in a water cell while she was bathing to empathize with her grandfather.

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Starts telling Marji about politics.

Marji wants to know about her grandfather.

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Marji's father took photos of protests.

He took a photo of a man "killed by the army."

Martyr- someone who dies for a cause

His widow said he died of cancer.

His widow started cheering revolutionist slogans with the protesters.

Marji did not understand because she was a child.

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-Her maid, Mehri, and her neighbor flirted through letters.

-Marji wrote them for her because she was illiterate.

-Critiques differences between social classes.

-Mehri can't be with him because he is middle class.

-He doesn't want to lower his social standing.

-Mehri's sister was jealous and told Marji's uncle, her employer. This is how the news of their relationship got to Marji's father.

-Marji was upset when her father explained they couldn't get married.

-Marji and Mehri went to a protest together and were slapped.

-Marji understands that she cant's change the way society functions. (Neglect)

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Marji's family has communist ideals but love their wealth and social standing.

Her father was the one who alerted his neighbor.

Theme: Unwillingness to change.

Mehri is treated as part of the family except when they are eating.

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Rumor- Israeli soldiers killed the protesters.

The Shah's soldiers killed the protesters.

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The religious leaders took power.

Theocracy

The leaders of the revolution became the new tyrants.

Most people wanted the Shah out.

Marji doesn't have independent opinion.

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The dead protesters all have the same face.

People are disesitazed to the masacres.

They no longer see them as people, but as numbers.

Dehuminazing the victims of the massacres.

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Foreshadowing that they are not truly free.

Ominous

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Carter did not accept giving the Shah refuge to prevent upsetting the next regime.

Their interests were with the oil.

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Journalists and revolutionists want freedom of speech and choice.

They didn't' filter the torture to the girls.

Graphic imagery- convey horror of Iran's prisoners

Ahmad- member of Guerillas who was tortured

He was dismembered.

The author grapples with the harsh realities depicted but in a child imagination's way.

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Merji undergoes an ideological transition, initially embracing dialect materialism, a Marxist philosophy that rejects religious beliefs.

However, as the narrative, she experiences a shift, turning to the concept of god for comfort.

This highlights the complexity of her beliefs and the exploration of faith in the context of personal experiences and societal changes depicted.

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-Contrasts the negative portrayal of communists.

-Marji admires him.

-From paternal family.

-He is a very passionate communist.

-He is very loving and paternal.

-Marji looks up to him as a hero.

-He talks to Marji as if she was an adult

-He embodies everything that Marji wants to be.

-The legacy of Anoosh's experiences becomes a central theme, emphasizing the pursuit of freedom.

-He went for prison for 9 years.

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Uncle Anoosh gave her a swan he made in prison.

She views her family members who went to prison as heroes.

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Common enemy: British

Wealth disparity

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Wrote about the massacres and poverty that occurred in Iran.

Irony- He writes about poor people who suffered the most but the middle class reads his work.

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The father thinks they wont be succesfull in the United States.

Their friends and family are leavingout of fear.

Marji's crush left for the United States.

Her father thinks that the religious leaders are dumb and they wont last.

Mohsen, the prisoner that was let go, was found drowned in the bathtub.

They had a file on him as a revolutinist.

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Mohsen should have left the country when it entered the transitional period. Marji's father is an idealist, and this perception will most likely hurt their family.

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Simak's family pretended to be sheep to escape and not be sacrificed. This is ironic.

The sheep represents the submissive oppressed individuals.

Sheep is a symbol of sacrifice.

Sheep is a metaphor for followers.

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The mirror is a symbol of identity.

Anoosh is her role model and hero, this is why she wants to look nice for him.

He made another bread swan for her, this one was the uncle.

He was killed for being a Russian spy.

The swan represents beauty but it is made of bread so it will eventualy crumble.

The swan could be the innocense of life, but it i fragile.

The bread signifies life.

Anoosh is an atheist.

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She pushed God away.

She felt hopeless.

Everything got worse after this situation.

The pannel takes up a whole page to signify the tragic sense of grief.

She is in space because there is a hole in her heart and it is filled with darkness.

She is having a crisis of faith.

This is an emotional transition.

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Marji's dream of being a chemist was crushed.

Her hero was Marie Curie.

Marji's mother was harrased by men and said she should be raped for not wering he veil.

She was in bed for days.

The neighbor who was liberal became a fundalentimist.

Marji's mother took her to a protest to teach her about fighting for her rights.

Women where being stabbed.

After everything, the family went on a trip to Spain and Italy.

When they returned they had to confront reality: the war between Iran and Iraq.

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His father was in the Shavac, the Shaw's secret army, and killed "millions of people."

She made herself brass knuckles out of nails, and was planning to hurt him.

Her mother said that it wasn't his fault, and that she should forgive him.

Ramin said his dad killed evil communists.

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The teachers make the students rip out photos of the Shah.

Manipulating information and censoring it.

Torturers should be tortured. (Eye for an eye)

Marji and her friends wanted to torture Ramin because his father was in The Savak.

Marji's mother explained that it wasn't his fault his father killed people.

Ramin said his father killed communists who are evil.

Prejudice is reflected in the children. They repeat what their parents say.

Children are a projection of people with extremist views.

Criticism- Revolutionary passion, killing people connected to the Shah with no rationality

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While Marji was in her dads office Tehran was bombed by Iraqi fighter jets.

They are a united family who conforts eachother during difficult times.

Marji sometimes says careless things because she is inmature.

This is normal.

She is transferring into pre-adolescent.

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After the Iranian generals failed at a coup d'edat the pilots were jailed or executed.

They were released and bombed Bahdad.

Their condition was to play the national anthem that hadn't been broadcasted in a year and was banned.

Marji's friend Pardisse's dad was a pilot and died.

Marji thought her dad wasnt as patriotic s her, but she realized he was.

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Since Marji was an expert on the war, she wrote a four page paper on it's historical. context.

Pardisse wrote it on her dad.

She tried to console her, but she said she would rather have her father alive and in prison than dead and a hero.

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Marji's mom said that if everyone got only what they needed, there would be enough food to go around.

she then went to another store to get more rice just in case.

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Iraq bombed the city of Abadan, where Marji's mom's childhood friend lived.

Mali, her husband, her deaf mother, and her two kids came to stay with them.

Ebi thought her husband was materialistic.

He had brought jewels with him.

They stayed for one week. (Until they sold the jewelry)

Marji thought the boys were spoiled.

Marji tries to act grown by taking care of them, but she is inmature and laughs at farts.

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Two ladies in the grocery store were tlking badly about the refugees.

They said they were prostituing themselves, stealing food, and their husbands.

Women can hurt their own causes wmore then men sometimes.

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Iran had more soldiers, so there were more war martyrs.

The philosophy of resignation is embedded into Persian culture.

At school, they mourned the dead twice a day by beating their breasts.

Hitting yourself is part of the country's rituals and could be considered a macho thing.

Marji and her classmates stopped taking the mourning seriously and made fun of it relentlessly.

She recognizes that it is an indoctrination of the regime.

Their parents were called, but they were on the girl's side.

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Marji's maid, Mrs. Nasrine's son was given a gold plastic key.

If they died at war the key would get them into heaven.

Marji's mom tried to talk to the boy being recluted to make him understand.

Marji called her cousin Peyman to see if he had been recruited; he wasn't, and he invited her to a party.

Shahab, Marji's cousin on military leave, explained how the regime indoctrinated children from poor areas to join the militia.

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While poor boys are being blown up, the privileged kids are having fun at a party. (Situational irony)

Poor people are easily manipulated.

It is easy for them to idolize war and death.

The blown up boys are shown as shadows because they don't have an identity.

They are nothing to the regime.

The rich were ignorant to what was happening in Iran.

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His uncle (Marji's greatuncle) declared independence on a Irania province and named himself minister of justice.

Anoosh became Fereydoon's secretary.

His uncle was arrested by the Shah's soldiers but he ran away.

He fled to Moscow where he studied, married, and had two girls.

He went back to Iran with a fals passport and disguise but was arrested.