When I first read the title of this book, A Very Large Expanse of Sea, written by Tahereh Mafi, amusingly, I assumed it would be about global warming or an environmental tragedy. Yet, as I read, I was sur- prised at the coming-of-age story about a Muslim teen. To put it in overly simplified fragments that don’t justify its immaculacy, it was a concoction of reasonless hatred, bold and unforgiving individuality, love measured in units as large as oceans, and accepting change in a fast-paced teenage life. Naturally, I adored this novel. I’ve always found resonance in reading coming-of-age books about overcoming ethnic barriers. I am left with a sense of hope and well-being when people of color, especially teenagers, eventually find their place — even if it’s just in a book. Throughout the novel, protagonist Shirin faces challenges about her ethnicity, the way she dresses, looks, and her personality. Yet, as the plot progresses, the reader watches Shirin grow and become integrated within her community without changing who she truly is.

As a teenager growing up attending an international school, people around me assumed that every student was accepted regardless of their skin color. My parents, grandparents, and friends believe that school is a delightful place because students of different backgrounds will eventually learn to get along. But, unfortunately, that’s only partially true. The other half of the unexpected truth is that the dominant race can sometimes be dis- criminated against in their native “home,” having been uncovered and exploited centuries ago by British colonizers when they captured native Americans’ homes and shot them in their own territory. Though significantly less prominent and extreme, the inherent discrimination prevails today. It is conveyed seamlessly in Tahereh Mafi’s coming-of-age novel, A Very Large Expanse of Sea.

I felt a connection with Shirin from page four — we share non-conventional and seemingly unpronounceable names. Tahereh Mafi perfectly illustrates exotic names’ awkwardness, “’Now — forgive me if I’m saying this incorrectly — but is it — Sharon?’ He looked up and looked me directly in the eye. I said, ‘It’s Shirin.’ Students turned to look at me again. ‘Ah.’ My teacher, Mr. Webber, didn’t try to pronounce my name again. ‘Welcome.’”

Mafi did not directly say that Shirin was uncomfortable with how the teacher questioned her name. Instead, she chooses to show us through the actions of the other students in the room, and how
they took the opportunity to scrutinize the uniqueness of Shirin’s appearance. It was apparent throughout the novel how Mafi described not only students but also teachers as, perhaps unintentionally, discriminatory toward students of color. We sometimes ignore this issue in our daily lives, as we assume that bullying occurs only between students. The truth is, sometimes adults can do equal harm — if not more.

On the other hand, Mafi gives a more explicit example of discrimination from students on campus on page 132, where she writes, “someone, very suddenly, threw a half-eaten cinnamon roll at my face.” Furthermore, when a peer took a picture of Shirin without her headscarf on without her permission, “Whoever did this had wanted only to unmask me without my permission, to humiliate me by intentionally undermining a decision I’d made to keep some parts of me for just myself. They’d wanted to take away the power I thought I had over my own body” (Mafi 135).

These disrespectful and inconsiderate actions bear the heavy weight of arbitrary discrimination and hatred against foreign people or things, xenophobia.

Furthermore, Mafi addresses the theme of parental relationships and how one’s parents’ relationship status may influence the way they view relationships and their entire childhood and upbringing. For Ocean, Shirin’s picture-perfect boyfriend, “He spent the next few years trying to keep his mom from crying all the time and that, eventually, they switched roles; one day he’d become the responsible one while she sort of collapsed inward and lost track of everyone but herself.” Mafi indicates the over-whelming and unfair responsibilities that Ocean had to face and how he managed to overcome those challenges — by confronting his mother, standing by his decision to date Shirin, and thriving as a student and athlete despite them.

Mafi continues to inspect teenage life when she writes about the ever-changing and unpredictability of school, friends, and love. “In the end, the thing that broke us apart wasn’t all the hatred. It wasn’t the racists or the a**holes. I was moving again.” I’ve lived in the same city and attended the same school with relatively the same people for the past eight years. The mere thought of moving scares me, yet sometimes it seems that change is a vital and unavoidable part of life. So, despite challenges and unforeseeable changes in the next four years, somehow, we manage to learn, adapt, and enjoy the life we live. And somehow, that is enough for the time being.