Class is in 35 minutes! Don't worry I work best Under Pressure.

Part 1) Marjane's identity shifts non-stop throughout the story. The first thing that came to mind when I read this question was her turning away from God. This happened at around page 70-71. In the story they had arrested her beloved uncle, Anoosh, later she discovered that he had been executed because they considered him a Russian Spy. This is when she turned away from her friend, God, and now officially had noone to find comfort in anymore. Also on page 117 when she was in a fight with her mother and was contemplating and describing the war, she smoked a cigarrete she had stolen from her uncle. She declared afterwords, "With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye." This is when she decided she was a grown-up and was going to start making herself as a person. After this point it seemed like she became more and more of an individual, and became more and more mature and aware of what was going on in her life and in her country. She followed her families beliefs, and was still rebelious which continued to the end of the story. I would say the most change she encountered occured when she was a child, which is normally how it is for most children.

Part 2) I feel like I have always had complete control over my identity. Of course the way I am physically and my acne and my huge feet are things I can't control. But this really isn't what I think about when I think about identity, and I'm pretty sure this is not what the quesiton is asking either. A lot of my identity has to do with my family and where I grew up and such. But ultimately it is what I decided to do with what was given to decide my identity. So I think in the end it was all up to me. And I am more than content with that. I think everyone has complete control over their own identity, and it kind of depends on how you deal with experiences and certain situations that affect how people react to these factors, whether that be positive or negative. Overall I don't really think people have had too many negative reactions to the factors that control my identity, I hope not at least! I mean honestly there are things about myself that I don't like and I am trying to change, but overall, I think I'm doing a pretty good job!

Oh. And I have this stupid curl in my hair that I can't control. Please don't react negatively to that! For it is a factor I cannot control :(