My father rapped his knuckles on top of my head. “You are, of course, aware of the current situation? Aware of East Pakistan’s fight for sovereignty?” I nodded, unaware of the situation. We returned to the kitchen, where my mother was draining a pot of boiled rice into a colander. My father opened up the can on the counter and eyed me sharply over the frames of his glasses as he ate some more cashews. “What exactly do they teach you at school? Do you study history? Geography?” “Lilia has plenty to learn at school,” my mother said. “We live here now, she was born here.” She seemed genuinely proud of the fact, as if it were a reflection of my character.
Analysis: I think this passage pretty much explains how her parents are having conflict about the education of the children. The mother's pride came from their contribution to her future, assuring her a safe life. Also, it's true that many foreign parents are proud of their children being so fluent in a foreign (to them) language. However, the father on the other side is more traditional, he believes that his daughter should be more aware of current events. Especially when it comes to talking about issues on their original country. Lilia telling the story using a first person narrative kind of decreased the importance of this serious, major current event since she doesn't know much to begin with. However, she appeared to be not wanting to look like she doesn't care about the issue, because she nodded even though she didn't know about the issue. Also, she believes that being born in the US doesn't contribute to her personality as much as her mom think it does.
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