It hit me when I was power-walking on the treadmill at home, watching a Friends rerun for about the ninetieth time.
It is an effective opening line. The author provides just enough specific information to give an informed reader a general idea of what kind of person the narrator might be. Even better: it is just enough information that one could make a guess and be completely wrong. Keep in mind that the novel is partially about expectations and stereotypes and—for lack of a better word—profiling. So, what is your first impression?
At dinner I tell my parents that I’m thinking about wearing the hijab and to my disbelief they look at each other nervously. I was expecting a cheerleader routine around the family room. Not two faces staring anxiously at me.
What “hits” the narrator is that she has reached a decision that it is time to start wearing her hijab full time. This means to school. It is not a decision she reaches for carelessly herself, yet it is telling that she expected the announcement to go one way and instead it has gone another. Important to keep in mind is that this is not taking place in a Middle Eastern country or other country deemed “Muslim” where such a decision would not even be up for debate. That a Muslim girl and her parents must consider the consequences of merely wearing a head covering in a country settled by “good Christians” at this late date says much. But about what? And whom?
“I don’t want you to interpret this incorrectly but I hope you realize that I am going out of my way to accommodate you. I’m sure that there are grammar schools in Australia which would forbid you from wearing the hijab because of strict uniform codes.”
Ms. Walsh is the principal of the school which the narrator attends. Obviously, this quote makes it clear in this context exactly where the story is taking place. Walsh is conflicted at best and does not immediately appear to be too keen on the idea of presiding over the first student in the history of the school to attend classes every day wearing the hijab. She becomes symbolic of the necessity for those in authority to actually communicate with disenfranchised minorities rather than blindly submitting to arbitrary codified regulations.
The best part of the entire hour is when I notice Tia, Claire and Rita sitting on one of the benches beside the court. Tia has her arms crossed and looks like she’s accidentally eaten a cockroach. Her face is twisted with annoyance and disgust as she looks at Simone and Josh laughing and flirting on the court. I make eye contact with her and flash her a gigantic grin. She raises her eyebrows haughtily at me and turns away.
Sweet.
Every hero of a revolution needs an antagonist personified; someone who represents all the collective ignorance, fear and self-righteous sense of ill-gained superiority of all those in league against the rebel. For the narrator, that person is a fellow student, Tia Tamos. Tia is not really evil, of course, just overwhelmed by the biggest threat facing young students everywhere: a narrow world-view. She assumes the narrator must be radicalizing in her faith in Islam because of her decision to suddenly start wearing an outward signature of her faith. The quote is also effective for another reason besides identifying the antagonist: it is just of many manifestations of the narrator’s grasp of literary technique for displaying her sense of humor.
