I’m Down (Memoir) Blog 4

Not only are the events actually funny, its because Mishna’s father doesn’t take them serious. What we might be appalled by, he simply thinks is funny because he’s so used to that kind of behaviour. Mishna’s sister Anora got in “trouble” at school and how does her father punish her? By making her a sandwich.

"What’s going on?’ I asked. ‘What are you doing home?’ ‘Well,’ Dad said, licking the mayo knife, ‘I had to pick Anora up from school. She got in a little trouble today. No big deal.’ ‘How much trouble could she have gotten in?’ I asked. ‘She’s in kindergarten!’ ‘S’true,’ Dad said, handing Anora her sandwich and not giving me information. ‘So what’d she do?’… Dad readjusted his Kangol and said slowly, ‘She got caught smoking. But learned her lesson’… ‘How did Anora get a cigarette?’ I asked. ‘I got some big girls to give it to me.’ She bragged… God she was cool."

I find it humours that when Mishna’s father find out his six year old daughter was caught smoking, he makes her a sandwich (the running gag in the novel is that Mishna is always hungry). Another theme of the novel is the sibling rivalry. Anora is cool and “down” and makes friends easily. Mishna is the smart one who isn’t really accepted by her father. Mishna is always trying to be more like her younger sister.