How The Loss Of Margaret Affecting Elaine To Disconnect From Her Past

(MIP-1) The loss of Margaret affected Elaine greatly, causing Elaine to disconnect from her past. (SIP-A) One way Elaine disconnected from her past when Margaret died was she disconnected with people socially, she had no interest in making friends ever since Margaret died. (STEWE-1) Elaine chose not to interact or make friends with anybody after Margaret passed away,“Her mother tried to tell her that Margaret was gone and that she would have to learn to do things with other people. But Elaine continued to long for her sister, and so she spent many nights alone with her grandfather’s telescope watching the stars. Instead of making friends she volunteered at the animal shelter. Until she met Faiz she felt nobody but Margaret-including her mother-had

Since Elaine did not want to make friends she volunteered at the animal shelter because she felt nobody but Margaret ever understood her. She would rather spend time alone than with other kids because she thought nobody would understand her like Margaret did. (STEWE-2) Elaine disliked her mother forcing friendships on her since she would rather keep to herself until Margaret got better, “She thinks of the first summer after Margaret got sick, watching the meteor shower by herself in the top field on her grandfather’s farm Elaine was angry with her mother for forcing friendships on her. All Elaine wanted was for Margaret to get better, and when that didn’t happen she decided she’d rather keep to herself”(Staples 53). She became angry with her mother for wanting her to make friends because she didn’t want friends, she wanted Margaret healthy again and when she died she decided she would rather keep to herself. She disconnected from everyone because she felt nobody but Margaret understood her. (SIP-B) When Margaret dies, Elaine begins to question her faith, she tries to understand it more but she never felt it connected to herself or Margaret’s

(SIP-A) When Elaine meets Faiz he fills the gap Margaret gave Elaine when she passed away, Faiz fills this gap by introducing Elaine to a new religion she better understands and feels more a part of providing her with a sense of order for understanding Margaret’s passing.(STEWE-1) When Elaine was first introduced to Islam she felt she found a part of herself she wanted to know more about,“But in Faiz’s apartment she felt a sense of having found something familiar and significant-a connection to a history and a way of life that she wanted to know more about and become more familiar with, as if it were a part of her own past that she’d almost forgotten”(Staples 122). This connects to how meeting Faiz fills the gap she has because it shows how Faiz introduced her to this new religion, making her find a new faith she actually understood and believed in. This provided her with a true faith she lacked ever since Margaret died. She feels more of a connection with this faith rather than the faith of her childhood because it provides her with a new sense of order helping her to find more of who she was. After Margaret’s death, Elaine felt a part of her was missing that she could not find, but Faiz introduced her to a part of herself she lacked after Margaret’s death. (STEWE-2) Elaine felt a sense of order with Islam even though it did not