Does My Head Look Big In This Sparknotes

Is my Philosophy of life that bad?
Randa Abdel-Fattah’s skill in bringing her characters to life in her 2005 teenage novel “Does My Head Look Big in This?” ensures that we understand the emotions and motivations that underpin the characters’ life choices. Leila the best friend of, Amal, the book’s main protagonist, is a well-behaved, intelligent girl, who wears the hijab to demonstrate her faith. During several defining incidents in the novel, Leila confronts situations that help to establish and develop her personal and philosophical identity.
The novel, set in contemporary Melbourne, is told from the perspective of the main protagonist, sixteen-year-old Amal. Through Amal, Abdel-Fattah focuses on how teenagers struggle to express their
In many families, teenagers co-exist happily with parents and siblings; this is not the case in Leila’s family where Leila challenges many of the cultural beliefs. Leila’s mother, instead of focusing on her daughter’s education, constantly confronts Leila with prospective marriage partners. Uneducated and married at an early age, Leila’s mother believes that what was right for her is right for Leila too. As Hakan believes that men are superior to women, he tries to bully Leila into doing his household chores, he is supported by their mother who asks why Hakan should do the chores when “…he has [a] sister to do it for him?” [p 109] Also, unlike Leila who is forbidden to go out on her birthday with some Muslim friends for fear that she might disgrace the family, Hakan is allowed to mix freely with people from other cultures. Hakan’s stereotypical representation of male superiority, demonstrates the unfair cultural beliefs to which Leila objects. In highlighting the validity of Leila’s reasonable reactions to these cultural expectations, Abdel-Fattah shows us that in some cases teenagers are justified in rebelling against parental