Right away in the story, something happens when "...the sugar bowl" that had a "dragon on [it]...to ward off evil...fell to the wooden floorboards...and shattered." It is foreshadowing something "evil" or bad happening like Mariam's father not showing up to get her, her father turning to hide from her when she saw him in an upstairs window, or Nana committing suicide. In the beginning chapters I am always confused who is the good and bad guy. Nana or Jalil? Nana seems to over exaggerate everything or lie about how much of a fool Jalil is, also calling Mariam a harami and saying she's nothing. But sometimes Nana turns into the insane but loving mother and Jalil is a two faced father that only wants his daughter to believe he is all good, when really he's fake. The situation isn't helped by the narrator being mariam, the child just as confused as the reader.
Jalil and Nana seem to fight one another through their daughter. They will barely have conversation when they're having tea together with Mariam, but apart they accuse the other of lying. "And you, Mariam jo, you were in no rush. Almost two days you made me like on that cold, hard floor." "They told me it was all over within under an hour.' Jalil said, ' You were a good daughter, Mariam jo." "He wasn't even there! Nana spat.
..."Nana said she was the one who'd picked the name Mariam because it had been the name of her mother. Jalil said he chose the name because Mariam, the tuberose, was a lovely flower."
"I'll die if you go. The jinn will come, and i'll have one of my fits." A jinn is Arabic meaning "hidden from sight" and is a "spirit of lower rank than an angel...a demon" What made Nana become demon possessed in the past? Was she possessed when she commited suicide, did she just believe she was, or was she actually insane?
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