When I read this, I was really surprised. I didn't think the girls were standing out. They did their best to be normal and lead a normal life (except for the fact their both their dad and their uncle were in jail and that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh) . Their parents, to me, were the ones who were really standing out more. A few pages before, I read the part about how accommodating their parents have been in order to make sure that Aisha and Nadira are NOT sanding out. On page 109, it says that Ma let Aisha stop wearing her head scarf because she was made fun of. That was really nice of Ma: she understood the situation and realized that the best way for Aisha to not stand out was to let her look like the other kids.
Like I had written in my earlier post, I think the family will almost always stand out. It's pretty much inevitable. But it's not the sort of standing out that's flashy and all "in your face". It's the smaller things, like money, family, friends, that sort of stuff. Nadira's family doesn't really have that much money, and they have to be careful on what they spend it on. Because Aisha did NOT want to stand out in her college applications, she told Mr.Friedlander that she didn't need financial aid. The family is falling apart with their father and uncle being in jail. The only way to NOT stand out is to act like everything is normal, to go on with life like they used to.
Aisha and Nadira are doing their best to be normal. I think that it's just hard. They have so much going on, but no one to tell. It really hurts to keep it all inside, and that is what I think Aisha is referring to when she says it hurts. It hurts to keep all these troubles bottled up inside her. And hopefully Nadira can talk to someone about all these problems shortly.
P.S. I realize that I said that both Nadira's dad and uncle are in jail. I just want to clarify that I know that Uncle is back now, but I didn't want to constantly have to write both, if you catch my drift....
I completely agree with you, they have always stood out, at least to me (and you :] ). Your right about the college apps. I don't think that Aisha and Nadira will ever fit in.
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i agree that it's the smaller stuff that makes them supposedly stand out, but people who are allowed to be here have those kinds of problems to. I think they just dont stand out in general.
ReplyDelete“It hurts to keep all these troubles bottled up inside her. And hopefully Nadira can talk to someone about all these problems shortly.”
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! Nadira should definitely talk to someone else like a trusting teacher, maybe Mr. Friedland. I thought it was interesting that talking to someone else and getting a different perspective came up in your earlier blog #7,which I commented on. I said that Nadira wanted to talk to someone, she said, “But sometimes I feel like shaking their sleeves and blurting out, Ask me. Please.” I even wrote about this topic in my blogpost #8 and referred it to an Albert Einstein quote! This is exciting because this seems like a reoccurring important matter—that Nadira should talk to someone!!!!! Hopefully she’ll have the guts to do so. I know that her parents don’t want her to let other people besides family know personal information, but I think she should just go for it…
Oh those are some sweet connections Falcon! I realized I had talked a lot about this subject, so I wanted to keep discussing....
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