Quote 28
"I don't want to die!" (18.6)
This is the only time Marji explicitly expresses this. The closer the bombs get to home, the more the reality sets in: Marji and her family could actually die. It's easy for them to think that it won't happen to them when the bombs are farther away.
Quote 29
Where was my mother to stroke my hair? Where was my grandmother to tell me that lovers, I would have had them by the dozen? Where was my father to punish this boy who dared hurt his daughter? Where? (28.8)
Marjane realizes that she never has related to any of the friends she has in Vienna, that she never opened up to any of them, so now they cannot support her. In order to get the support she needs, Marjane has to return to Iran and to her family.
Quote 30
In my culture, parents were sacred. We at least owed them an answer. (23.8)
Marjane is shocked at the way Julie treats her mother—she doesn't even answer her sometimes. Why do you think the attitude toward family is so different in Vienna than it is in Iran?