Saints and Misfits

“Flannery would take me away from here and deposit me into her fictitious world crawling with self-righteous saints and larger-than-life misfits. And I’d feel okay there because Flannery took care of things. Justice got served.”

Flannery O’Connor is Janna’s favorite writer because Janna appreciates O’Connor’s sense of justice. In particular, she points out that O’Connor often pits misfit protagonists against self-righteous individuals, creating a contrast between those who do good deeds out of pure motivations and those who do so to create a holy image of themselves. This sets up one of the central themes of the novel: that the motivation behind the action is just as important as the action itself.

“Just me, Janna Yusuf, insignificant nobody, daughter of the only divorced mother at the mosque, someone whose sole redeeming feature is being friends with Fidda Noor, aka Fizz, of the famously pious Noor family.”

Janna feels that she is a misfit because of her divorced parents. She believes her association with Fizz lends her some credibility in the Muslim community, but she doesn’t believe that she holds much weight on her own. Because Fizz’s much-respected cousin is the one who assaults her, this makes it particularly difficult for her to feel comfortable sharing the truth, since her strongest ally is personally related to her attacker.

“Saint Sarah: clear, glowing skin; perfectly proportioned, neat features with a big, ever-present smile flashing perfect teeth; a steely determined head; and a Mother Teresa heart.”

Janna refers to Sarah as “Saint Sarah” because of her seeming piety, enthusiasm for Islam, and perfect physical appearance. While at first Janna is resentful of Sarah for these qualities, over the course of the novel she comes to see Sarah as a friend and ally, recognizing that her piety stems from a true desire to make positive changes in the world around her.