How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Panel)
Quote #7
"Get real. Up to a certain age, you need your parents, then later, they need you." (16.9)
This is something Marji says—and believes—as a headstrong fourteen-year-old. She's right, up to a point. She'll later learn that she will always need her parents, and they will always need her.
Quote #8
In my culture, parents were sacred. We at least owed them an answer. (23.8)
Marjane is shocked at the way Julie treats her mother—she doesn't even answer her sometimes. Why do you think the attitude toward family is so different in Vienna than it is in Iran?
Quote #9
Where was my mother to stroke my hair? Where was my grandmother to tell me that lovers, I would have had them by the dozen? Where was my father to punish this boy who dared hurt his daughter? Where? (28.8)
Marjane realizes that she never has related to any of the friends she has in Vienna, that she never opened up to any of them, so now they cannot support her. In order to get the support she needs, Marjane has to return to Iran and to her family.