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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Very Large Expanse of Sea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Islamophobia
Friendship and Community
Prejudice, Division, and Isolation
First Love
Summary
Analysis
Shirin reflects on her relationships with her family. Although Shirin thinks positively of her mother and father, she notes that she’s not able to talk to them about her difficulties at school. Because Shirin’s parents lived through particularly catastrophic events, such as war, they don’t quite understand how Shirin’s smaller-scale experiences are painful and complex, too. As a result of not being able to confide in her parents, Shirin reads voraciously and often listens to music on her iPod. Shirin admits that she loves her brother Navid, but they’ve grown apart because they’re so different. While people at school tend to ignore or even bully Shirin, they flock to the charismatic Navid, who Shirin describes as “cool” and “handsome.”
While Shirin views her parents and brother in a positive light, it’s also true that Shirin feels isolated within her family, even if she doesn’t admit it outright. Because Shirin believes that her parents aren’t able to understand her problems and that Navid is too different from her, Shirin has begun to rely on coping mechanisms like reading and listening to music. These coping mechanisms aren’t necessarily destructive, but they do point to Shirin’s impulse to retreat into herself rather than confide in others when she feels stressed or hurt.
Themes
One afternoon three weeks into the new school year, Navid arrives home with his friends Bijan, Carlos, and Jacobi in tow. Enjoying a television show and not wearing her headscarf, Shirin initially doesn’t realize that her brother’s friends are visiting and is flustered when they walk in. After Shirin composes herself, Navid introduces her to his friends and reveals that he wants to start a breakdancing crew. Sharing her brother’s interest in breakdancing, Shirin becomes excited and agrees when Navid invites her to join. Carlos says that they could even form an official club at school, and Navid says that he’ll be in charge of teaching their crew how to breakdance.
Themes
