Doria is faced with more challenging obscurities that a fifteen year old should deal with. With Doria’s negative surroundings always around her whether it be her poor neighborhood, or her father leaving her she is always enclosed around negativity. Some of that negativity has to have rubbed of on her. Her negativity would explain how Doria is always complaining on about people that are only trying to help her. And how she is stubborn almost all of the time. With her surrounds constantly around her she can either complain about them and do nothing, or embraced them head on and brush it off like dirt on her shoulder. Doria is so depressed by her surroundings she doesn’t accept the fact that people are willing to help her not because they feel bad for her but because they want to out of their own feelings. Doria reaches that point were she faces her troubles face to face and takes them in. Doria changes from a complaining child to a mature young girl willing to accept the feelings of others as well as her own.
The story begins with Doria at the age of fifteen and is faced with more difficulties a teenager should be faced with. But she’s young and stubborn and cannot understand that all these people are only trying to help her, for example on the very first page Doria makes her first complaint about Madame Burlaund her therapist “ Mme Burlaud is old, she’s ugly, and she stinks like RID antilice shampoo, Pg 1”. It’s Mme Burlauds job the help Doria and that’s all that Mme Burluad is doing, and yet Doria denies caring and accepting her help. Another concern of Doria’s is the fact that she’s not the son that her father wanted. She complains about how if she was a guy and had a dick people would treat her differently, she would treat herself differently. Doria’s mother is one of the only two people that she can talk to. And Doria immediately judges her mothers supervisor. “Sometimes I wish he’d waste away at the bottom of a deep, dark basement getting eaten alive by rats. Pg 6”. Doria has never even meet her mother’s supervisor, he could have a whole other life that Doria would have never suspected. Another issue that Doria is dealt with is the social worker, even thought the social worker doesn’t really do anything wrong and only has the intension of helping; Doria still has a problem with it. “ I think she’s stupid, and she smiles all he time for no good reason. Even when It’s clearly not the right time. It’s like the crazy women feels the need to be happy for other people because they aren’t happy for themselves, pg 7”. Throughout the whole first part of the book she is incredibly depressed and hopeless.” Basically no matter what you do you’ll always get screwed over .pg 10”. In the beginning of the book she’s doing all these things and the only thing she does about them is look at them all negatively and complain.
The story goes on there are no major changes in Doria’s attitude regarding everything that is troubling her during the beginning of the novel. For example, Nabil is a smart boy who comes over every now and again to help Doria with her homework, every other day. Once again another person willing to help Doria’s but she is unwilling to learn because she thinks people only help her cause of charity. “ This guy, he talks about himself way too much! Pg 38.” Not only does she have problem with other people but also Doria is facing problems with in herself. Her thoughts concerning her mother’s supervisor have not change or adjusted. However a few pages later Doria shows a slight sign of maturing. She thinks twice about her views on her mother’s supervisor“pg.55 But who knows, in his private life M. Winner could be nice guy who spends his time smiling, giving to charity, and chasing people who park in handicapped spaces.” As Doria grows you start to notice her maturing threw her thoughts. It’s interesting to see the transition from age 15 to age 16 through one-girl thoughts.
All Doria seems to do is complain about people that all have good intensions. Unfortunately just because Doria had second views about here mothers supervisor doesn’t mean she also changed her mind about the social worker. “ I’m sure that if you scratched the skin no her back, if you really broke past the epidermis, you’d find an aluminum coating, some screws and a serial number. I’m calling her Cyborg Services pg. 106”. And still Doria can only complain about the social workers assistance and doesn’t understand the social workers motivation and feelings. Nabil has been coming over to help Doria with her homework for a while now and yet Doria apparently has a problem with help. To her Nabil is still the same acne faced know it all kid to her. “ I wonder when he’s coming back. Just to know. Oh yeah, and to tell him he’s got some debts to pay back----and he has acne and pisses everyone off pg. 115”. It’s true she still is not mature enough to understand others actions but she hints places where she is becoming less depressed. “But still, I wouldn’t just do it for clear conscience or so I could look at myself in the mirror when I’m taking odd my makeup after work but because I really wanted to do it. pg 118.”
Around pages 121 and 130 is when Doria in reality shows signs of maturity by finally understanding Nabil and given him a second thought. “But when I analyze the situation, I can see he helped me for months without getting anything in return, and most of all that he had the guts to kiss me by surprise and risk getting kneed right where it hurts, Pg 121”. Doria lives in a very unstable environment and the only two people she can talk to are Hounmdi and her own mother. The only difficulty is Doria wants Hounmdi all to herself and when Hamoundi starts spending more time with Lila than Doria guess who gets upset. “Lila and Hamoundi! I thought I was going to have an asthma attack. How could they have done that to me?, pg 127”. Not only is Doria once again complaining over nothing, she actually thinks that they did it to get back at her! That’s so self centered and immature. From the beginning and middle of Doria’s story she has complained and moaned, and only in the middle of the story does she show minimum hints of maturity.
Towards the end of the book Doria finally matures by the time she is at the end of transitioning to sixteen years old. At page 138 Doria looks inside herself and understands that she actually did have feelings for Nabil. “ Me, all I know is I’m kind of disappointed because I thought he really liked me, that’s all…. ,pg 138”. Doria used to have a problem with Hamoudi and Lila and thought they only got together to mess with here. Nearing sixteen she thinks differently now “ He’s smoking a lot less. We see each other less to. But he’s better and that’s the most important thing. Pg 143.” Doria’s therapist Mme Burlaud plays such an important role in her fifteen-year-old life. Mme Burlaud turns Doria into the mature young women that she is at the end of the book. Doria is constantly having problems, and whenever she’s trying to analyze the situation she always thinks about what Mme Burlaud would say. After an along waited period of time Doria at long last admitted that she likes the social worker. “ I was amaze
d. Maybe Mme DuWhoozit’s actually the sister of mother Teresa and Abbe Pierre and Sister Emmanulle, she’s generosity made flesh…Suddenly, I liked our dear beloved social worker, pg 175”.
Over the course of one year Doria has completely change from a complaining self centered child to a more understandable young adult. Her transition from fifteen to sixteen and be seen as her sixteen birthday nears. As a matter of fact the very first thing that she says is mature and shows that she is understanding people other than herself.” If no one remembered my birthday this year, to bad. And to be honest, I kind of understand. I’m ne special. Pg 161”. At sixteen she knows that she cant put herself above anyone else. Having an understanding like that is only natural and would have eventually happened, it comes with maturity.