I've been down this road before.

Many families have dinner together, take road trips, attend family parties together and have a great time. Now in the modern time families can get along very well without any worries of being given an ugly look for simply speaking to one another. On the first page of chapter nine the family gathers for their coffee time. When this family time is presented something else is also mentioned that in a sense takes away from the whole family bonding feeling. When we hear the word family many of us think the entire family: mom, dad, brothers, and sisters. In the chapter the first three words are, "Except for the father,..."(52). The family is gathered but not the father. These three words somehow made the feeling of the paragraph a bit more relaxed. Judging from the way the family is when the father around this is like a mini-vacation before it is time to return to work. The tension of the house seemed to be shut out for them just for that simple moment. I have been down this road before and know exactly how this feels. When my dad is around I have come to notice I watch my every move. My father is very strict and it only takes one word from him to make my entire day go downhill. It is a terrible feeling when I come home everyday and the first things you hear are complaints. I would much rather be asked about my day. Without my mother around the house is full of tension all the time. My father basically picks us up, takes us home and locks himself in his room. In a way that may seem like freedom, but the truth is its scary. My sisters and I have to make sure we are at perfect noise level and not disturb my father. If he calls for us we have to make sure we hurry to his room before he yells a second time, because then you are in trouble. As a daughter I love my father but I have to admit the tension is always there. When my sisters and I are with my mom we still watch our actions but the atmosphere is much more relaxed. The family time here is a way of viewing a broken family within the same home on a daily basis, which I have also experienced. Just reading this one paragraph can really sum up the atmosphere the families live in at the time and it is clear that it is not an easy one. The beginning of this chapter is important and its placement just shows that this can be mentioned anywhere in the story. This could have been brought up in another chapter for another day, but the fact that it is in the story somewhere near the beginning but also not at the very end gives the reader a break from all the names and tasks being done and gives the reader a taste of the loving nature of a mother. Amina's love and kindness is emphasized in this chapter to represent that her role in the family is just as important as Ahmad's , "They would cluster under the mother's wing with love and all-embracing affection" (52).