Does My Head Look Big In This Essay

Looking into the novel “Does My Head Look Big In This?” by Randa Abdel-Fattah we see varying cultures among individuals living in Australia. Of course, these cultural differences lead to misunderstandings and conflict throughout the novel. Looking at one character within the novel, Mrs. Vaselli showcases her cultural background and the choices she had to make as she moved to Australia. At the beginning of the Novel, we see Mrs. Vaselli as this grumpy old lady who detests other people. Later on in the novel, we learn that Mrs.Vaselli has a deeper background that has influenced a lot of aspects of her life, and we see her clash based on cultural differences even within her own family. She comes from a greek background, where her cultural additions

Signifying that she has a religious faith that centers around Jesus Christ. She later becomes pregnant and works in a Fish and Chips shop where she and her husband are. Working nonstop doing a variety of tasks, having no other option but to continue work as she had no support from family or friends. This all sets up how she interacts with Amal during their interactions, allowing Amal to truly understand Mrs. Vaselli and the strife and discrimination even she went through. She strongly sticks behind her beliefs and cultures, as shown when she cuts off communication with her son due to his changing religion. She thinks of Culture as something deeper than many believe in Australia, it’s not merely clothing that can be taken off it’s something that dedicates itself to you and should stick forever. Amal deeply connects with her towards the end of the text and relates upon the basis of culture, understanding that Mrs. Vaselli came from a background in which she left her own homeland and traveled to Australia not knowing what was in store for her, and faced many adversities and challenges. Although Amal and Mrs. Vaselli are vastly different we get to see Mrs. Vaselli’s true character because of their interactions. We later see that Mrs. Vaselli has the willingness to be open and change as she calls her son and wishes to reconnect with him even