An Epiphany of Truth

I feel as though there is a lot going on in this particular book and I am having a difficult time trying to figure it all out in my head. I am one of those people who has to talk about what is going on inside my head out-loud. So the first thing that is going on in my head is the parallel between what these ladies are reading and what is going on around them. The class is created around fictional novels. These fictional novels provided some kind escape from the harsh oppressions that are surrounding them. For example, the main character, Azi had to quit her job. She was forced to quit because her classroom was no longer hers. Her classroom became the government’s classroom; she just had to be the robot that ran it. Azi no longer was able to exhibit agency within her own class. Not to mention the issue of her being a woman in what was a very patriarchal society. Okay, now back to my first point, I thought there was an extreme parallel between the class and what Azi was saying in the first few chapters. She begins by introducing the class and the people in the class. She gives each young woman some aspect that would set them apart from the rest. Even when she describes her own home, she talks about how it is different from the traditional Iranian home. Everything in her world has to deal with separating herself from what is happening around them. Then Azi goes into describing where she sits,

I could not see my favorite mountains from where I sat, but opposite my chair, on the far wall of the dining room, was an antique oval mirror, a gift from my father, and in its reflection, I could see the mountains capped with snow, even in summer, and watch the trees change color. Tat censored view intensified; my impression that the noise came not from the street below nit from some far-off place, a place whose persistent hum was our only link to the world we refused, for those few hours, to acknowledge. The room, for all of us, became a place of transgression. What a wonderland it was!

This quote hit me in the face like a big brick hurled at my face. Azi was not just creating parallels; she was creating her own fictional world to get lost in. I am thinking that Azi needs to escape from the world the surrounds her and create her own reality, even if it only exists in her imagination. Now, I know the class was a real thing, but the world that is around them during the class is one that Azi creates through her oval mirror. By quitting her job she no longer has any grasp on the real world. The college was her link to reality. With her loosing that she was free to create her own landscape, her own noises, and most importantly her own colors.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter? Do you think she was starting to lose sense of what was reality and what was fiction? I definitely think that there is a link between the types of books she is reading in her class and what is going on in her life to cope with the outside world. And, if so, we are seeing a relationship between inside and outside once again!