I thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel Does My Head Look Big In This? By Randa Abdel-Fattah. The book was as fun and colorful as the cover. What made the book so colorful were the various characters and their relationships as well as their journey of coming-of-age.
I begin with the main character Amal Mohamed Nasrullah Abdel-Hakim. It takes a strong character to have such a long name. In fact, when she first entered school she was labeled as slow because she was the last student to master the spelling of her name. What does this say for her teacher’s? Did they not take into consideration the length of the name? Anyway, Amal shows the strength of her character as she makes the commitment to practice her religious beliefs full-time, including the wearing of the hijab. She does not make this decision lightly as she knows the hijab is like wearing a badge of her faith and as a result she will now face even more discrimination than before. As her relationship with Adam grows she is tested in her resolve to keep her faith practices when Adam wants to kiss her. She could have easily allowed the kiss to happen but she does not, even though it causes a rift in her friendship with him. Near the end of the book she realizes it is not enough to change her outer appearance but a true commitment to her faith means the willingness to change her attitude as well. “But what’s the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside, where it really counts? “I’ve been kidding myself. Putting on the hijab isn’t the end of the journey. It’s just the beginning of it” (p 333).
This brings the focus of this post to Adam. Through the story Adam befriends Amal and outwardly appears to be open-minded about her faith and supportive of her right to practice it. However, when it affects him, the rejection of his kiss, he turns his back on her for a time. This shows that he had not truly supported her decision to follow her religious practices. However, I believe Adam comes to this realization which is why he later re-establishes his friendship with Amal. Granted the friendship is not as close as it once was but the fact that he once again accepts her friendship shows he has matured enough to accept her beliefs.
My heart went out to Leila as I saw her constantly being harassed by her mother to commit to a marriage relationship while her brother seemed to be able to get away with everything. I can understand how Leila felt like she couldn’t handle it anymore and thus ran away. But I was happy to see how she matured enough at the end of the story to realize that she could not run away from her problems but had to face them head on. I was also happy to see Leila’s mom willing to compromise and see things from Leila’s perspective. Prior to class, I only had negative feelings for Leila’s mom. However after class discussion Monday night, I realized I was not taking into account how Leila’s mom had been raised and she only wanted the best for her daughter so she was raising her the way she had been raised.
Simone seemed to represent many young girls I see in the classroom today. She has many things going for her but she can’t see them as she is too busy loathing herself. Of course, her mother definitely does not help the situation as she constantly prods her daughter about her weight. In fact when she learns Simone is dating Josh she suggests her daughter go on a crash diet so that she not lose him. Too many girls today already feel the pressure of society to be thin that the last thing they need is to have a parent constantly reminding them that they don’t conform to society’s obsession of beauty. So here was a mother I disliked even more than Leila’s. Instead of constantly putting down her daughter why didn’t she offer her daughter support and talk to her. I am glad to see that Simone decided not to stick with cigarettes as a way of controlling her weight. I am also glad to see her friends were not afraid to speak up about how they felt about Simone’s smoking. In fact, it was Josh’s dislike to the smoke that spurred Simone to quit the nasty habit.
Like Bronx Masquerade, I feel this book would be a hit in the classroom. I think girls especially would find it easy to relate to the various coming of age issues addressed by Abdel-Fattah including: beliefs, boyfriends, mean girls, body image, relationships with peers, and relationships with parents.
Simone's character is so relateable, like you said. I had forgotten about how much her mother commented about her weight, but now that I recall, that is just unacceptable. To have someone so close to you tell you that you are fat and need to lose weight for someone to love you is absolutely repulsive. I don't know what her mother was thinking. If her mother had only shown support of her daughter she wouldn't have been so self-conscious and resorted to desperate methods (like fad dieting and smoking) to lose weight.
ReplyDeleteI also felt that this would be great in the classroom. I did find myself wondering if male students would enjoy or even be willing to read it. While it presents valueable lessons for both genders, the main characters are female and deal with more female oriented issues. It would be interesting to see how male students would deal with the issues in the book and if they could relate to any of the issues Amal and the others girl deal with.