"The Bicycle"

They Bicycle is a chapter in which we learn more about the power struggles in Iran. Marji is very well educated and reads books about all different subjects such as religion and history. She knows the history's of different countries including her own. From her father she learns that Iranians were submissive to their own emperors, Arab invaders from the west, Mongolian invaders, and modern imperialists whom she considers the British and the Americans. Marji may know all the facts but she doesn't know where she stands or what she believes in so in the chapter she is still discovering herself. The chapter gets its name when Marji and her friends are demonstrating against the Shah in her yard and she states "The revolution is like a bicycle. When the wheels don't turn it falls." Then right after her comment there is a picture where there is a bicycle that has fallen and people are trying to climb back on. She overhears her parents talking about the 400 victims of the fire. They were locked in a movie theatre then set on fire by the Shah's regime who later said the massacre was done by a religious group. Marji then begs her parents to let her go demonstrate with them tomorrow but of course they say no. That night Marji calls for God, but he does not come. This is the last time we see God as an actual character. I choose this chapter because the reader learns a lot about the country's history that helps explain later events in the book.