Passage Analysis

“Suddenly,sirens started to wall...

...and my aunt did too.”

“I found myself with the newborn baby we had been celebrating in my arms.”

“Her mother had already abandoned her.”

“Since that day, I’ve had doubts about the so-called “maternal instincts”(107).


In this panel, there is a party taking place to celebrate the birth of Marjane's newborn cousin in the family. This celebration has to be held in secrecy because the Islamic Revolution is going on and there are a lot of things that are not permitted including parties and celebrations. This passage gives off significance by showing how severe the consequences of breaking rules were and how scared people were to suffer the outcomes. As soon as Marjane's aunt heard the sirens outside, she had abandoned her newborn infant. The tone of this passage shows just the basic instinct to survive. When the sirens went off, nothing mattered everyone just ran for their lives, a mother left her child. This also shows how people had such a desperate need to live and not to be caught because that was worse than death.

People had such a fear that their lives and families would be taken away from them at any moment. Obviously they were not able to live their lives freely and they had to constantly be fearful of how they acted. This shows the irony of how everyone was just celebrating this precious baby and then a minute later, the baby was completely forgotten about. This passage also shows how Marjane always has an opinion aboout things that go on around her. In the book she is always giving her point of view on situations. This passage gives insight to how a child during the Islamic Revolution had to think. The passage stresses the overall theme of the book which is, the of a adult and child during the Islamic Revolution.