Response #2

Marji talks to her parents differently to how she would talk to her friends. With her friends she’s more open and would show the real her (for example, when she was at school and her and her classmates were rebelling against their teacher) while with her parents, she’s more closed off and can’t truly express her feelings to them the way she wants to because they wouldn't understand her. However, she does express her feelings to her parents differently than she does to her friends, with her parents she tends to get into arguments with them while her friends are more "understanding" of what she's telling them. Also Marji struggles a lot with the feeling of being oppressed and restricted of being able to showcase her identity. With that, I feel as if her parents and her friends understand her and that’s one of the few times both of her worlds have united in understanding her. Since her parents are more westernized, her parents understand her rebelling against the government and making her own choices even though many people view her as a rebellious child that needs to be discplined by her parents. Also since her friends are young, they also feel where Marji comes from when having to completely dress differently by law and not by choice. And even though this is where both her worlds collide, her parents and her friends differ from each other when understanding her because with her friends, they’re more down to rebell with her while her parents let her rebel and try to protect her but stay on the “safe” lane, rebelling but not to the public. Coming from a similar culture to Marji, I don’t think I’ve ever really felt oppressed since I grew up in Yemen where it was very common for all of us to dress “modest” coming to America, my parents never forced me to dress in a certain way but since I did grow up dressing modestly, I’d feel more uncomfortable and not myself dressing in a different way. And interestingly enough, in Yemen, they never forced kids to dress in a certain way so I can’t completely relate to Marji where the government completely took control of both kids and adults in forcing them to dress a certain way. However, the time era was different for both of us and I’m sure they were much stricter in the beginning and I’m glad I never had to go through that. Marji really experienced language in  different ways, such as, talking with her family vs her friends. She really showcases the struggles of communicating to her friends and family, even if it’s for the same thing, she showed how she struggled getting her mom to understand her rebellion while her mom was really against her rebelling in this way. Her friends are completely for her rebelling and some even joined her. This shows the different between conversing between adults and kids your age.