This novel is an allegory describing a family adapting to the American culture, moving through the various stages of American life. To an American who was born and raised in the context of the American Dream, the fallacies and issues within that model of life are more evident, but to Firoozeh's father, the vices of modern life in America are especially tempting. His life is one of frustration and perplexity, and Firoozeh sees through the cracks of his façade. His happiness is closer to mania than real joy.
What Firoozeh lacks the ability to qualify in language is that her father is falling for a trap. The goal of American culture is to lure people with fun into spending their money. By the time she realizes how effective this has been against her father, she realizes that it is a waste to spend one's money on frivolous experiences and trinkets. She wishes her father would attain balance, because experiences like Disneyland are expensive, and he goes back again and again, hoping to attain the original euphoria they experienced there.
The question of the book seems therefore to revolve around hope. Is the hope that her father enjoys a real, persistent hope? She takes this into her future. She takes a new name, a symbol of her willingness to adapt and transform, and she becomes Julie. Her father is still an important part of her life, but she accepts other aspects of American tradition, even converting to Christianity and celebrating Christmas. In the book's denouement, Julie sees her father overeating, and this suggests to the reader that he is depressed, because he binges when there is serotonin to be had. She sees his thirst for joy as a sign of suffering.
