In the chapter “The Bicycle”, a cinema with 400 people inside burned down. Marji was at home and having a talk with God. She was thinking about her favorite revolutionaries when God began to question her dream of becoming a prophet. She refuses to talk about it and tells God to quiet down when she hears her parents talking about the cinema and the following demonstration. Marji decides she wants to be a part of the protest and imagines herself as some of her favorite revolutionaries. At the very moment she starts dressing up as Che Guevara, God leaves and she can’t find him. Undeterred, she marches into her parents room and begs to join the demonstration but is denied. She returns to her room and still cannot find God.
AAAAI think this chapter highlights a very important theme in the novel and that is the clear distinction between politics and religion. What I wanted to point out was the fact that God is with Marji up until the point she wants to demonstrate. The very moment she dresses up as a revolutionary, God leaves. This doesn’t she desires to leave the religion but rather the religion is not a part of the revolution. Yes, they are Islamic fundamentalists are fighting for their religion but the ideals of that religion are not being represented. The order of God is being disrupted by the chaos of man.
AAAABy showing God leaving this scene, it’s marking a transition within Marji from her desire to be a prophet days to a more politically forward and aggressive Marji. Once she makes that step it is hard to go back, as seen when she returns from her parent’s room and can not find God. She still clearly wants God in her life but can’t balance it with her idea of justice. This is especially clear when she starts identifying God with political figures (e.g. Marx). By beginning to associate God with politics, her view of religion might change. It’s still too early to see where this headed but I hypothesize that eventually Marji will be to caught up in social issues to have time to keep in touch with God.
AAAAI think this chapter highlights a very important theme in the novel and that is the clear distinction between politics and religion. What I wanted to point out was the fact that God is with Marji up until the point she wants to demonstrate. The very moment she dresses up as a revolutionary, God leaves. This doesn’t she desires to leave the religion but rather the religion is not a part of the revolution. Yes, they are Islamic fundamentalists are fighting for their religion but the ideals of that religion are not being represented. The order of God is being disrupted by the chaos of man.
AAAABy showing God leaving this scene, it’s marking a transition within Marji from her desire to be a prophet days to a more politically forward and aggressive Marji. Once she makes that step it is hard to go back, as seen when she returns from her parent’s room and can not find God. She still clearly wants God in her life but can’t balance it with her idea of justice. This is especially clear when she starts identifying God with political figures (e.g. Marx). By beginning to associate God with politics, her view of religion might change. It’s still too early to see where this headed but I hypothesize that eventually Marji will be to caught up in social issues to have time to keep in touch with God.
I'm not sure when you first wrote this, but your last comment predicts pretty much what happens at the end of "The Sheep". When Anoosh is executed, not only does Marji "run out of time" for God, rather she completely throws him to the curb. This demonstrates your point that religion and politics are, at least for Marji, in separate realms. When Marji would have to accept that God's will was for Anoosh to die, it's too much for her and she has to choose her religion or social issues, but can't hold onto both.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I struggled to understand the symbolism behind God and Marji's relationship with God, but I think your post brings out a very important point. It makes sense that politics and religion are separate realms for Marji. It's very hard to hold onto both, and I think Marji realizes this and it happens naturally as Marji undergoes the different conflicts brought up by the revolution. So far, God has not shown up again ever since Marji told him to get out of her life. I wonder if God will show up again, or if their relationship truly has been ended.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to show how the fundamentalists say they are fighting for religion, but they are not really showing the ideals of that religion. I didn't notice how God left right as she dressed up as a revolutionary. But now as the book progresses and she demonstrates more and more, God has been seen less and less.
ReplyDeleteReally good of you to make the point about the connection between God and the revolution. I think it's true that Marji isn't giving up her religion completely when she decides to become more involved in the revolution; her God is simply not directly related to the immediate problems in the revolution.
ReplyDeleteReally good post, loved the connections you drew out of it. Yah its kind of strange how the line between religion and the revolution can be so clearly drawn and still so blurry at the same time. I do believe that as the book continues we'll see a steady change towards a more secular Marji. The two things she's going for kind of contradict each other, so this is almost a bit of a "can't have your cake and eat it" situation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of your points and your post is really insightful in bringing up that distinction between politics and religion. After she tells God to get out when Anoosh goes to prison, God is kind of gone from her life from what we have read and can tell. That falls in line with her showing more patriotism in the war cause like on page 79 where her response to the second Arab invasion of Iran is, "My blood is boiling," and she wants to fight.
ReplyDeleteI really like this post because when I read the section where Marji dresses up as Che Guevera, I was confused why that made God leave. This reasoning, of the religious and revolutionary realms being mutually exclusive in her mind, makes sense to me and explains that scene. I still don't totally get why though. It seemed like when she was a kid and wanted to start her own religion and be a prophet, she was almost a religious revolutionary. Why are the two so incompatible now?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the reason that religion and politics can't/don't coincide for Marji is because of the Islamic revolution. At first the two don't overlap because Marji doesn't truly see a connection between them, but perhaps she becomes distanced from God later on because of all the violent rhetoric she hears referencing him. Dubious as this theory is, either way it doesn't hold too much sway. The main catalyst for Marji's falling out with God is Anoosh's death.
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