Summary Of Ask Me No Questions By Marina Budhos

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In the book, Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos, the reader gets a first hand look at the importance of doing the right thing and how it can affect an entire family. The story is one of immigration and the fear of exportation. Mr. Hossain is the head of the family. He is referred to as Abba by his daughters Aisha and Nadira. Abba means ‘father’ in most Semitic languages. Abba has moved his family from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, to America on tourist visas. From the minute the Hossain family arrives in America, they are under pressure of being discovered as illegal immigrants. They had no intent on leaving once they got to New York on their tourist visa. “We knew we were going to stay past the date on the little blue stamp of the tourist visa in our passports.” (Budhos 7). At first they were nervous about living as illegal immigrants. As the years passed, Abba became comfortable and the fear of not belonging went away. This led to Abba to never taking care of the

Aisha is not used to being unable to solve a problem, so when this happens she shuts down. She stops getting good grades, does not take care of her physical appearance and even skips her interview at Barnard. “Her hair looks greasy; she hasn’t even bothered to press coconut oil into her scalp or run her fingers through the kinks. She keeps wearing that stupid Destiny’s Child t-shirt, and when no one is home, she sneaks into the living room and watches soaps on TV.” (Budhos 93). Aisha feels there is no purpose in trying anymore. She skips finals and practices for her teams, and then ends up quitting the debate team. When Nadira finds out Aisha did not go to her interview at Barnard, she questions her about it, and Nadira breaks her silence about why she is no longer trying at anything anymore. “And then I realized, I can’t do this anymore. It’s too hard. Too big. Nothing’s working. Not the letters. Nothing.” (Budhos