`Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow` Journal

KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW

Doria narrates her story on how she lives her life with her mother as a Moroccan immigrant in the outskirts of Paris , and how she and her mother tries their best to survive after her father left to marry another woman in their home country so he can have a son . She recounts her daily life with a little Holden Caufield-ish angst , which is an attitude we cannot take against her given her status , and a bit of sarcasm and dry wit making her easy to relate to especially by

an American

We can tell that Doria , with an illiterate mother who is also unfortunately underpaid , stricken with the commonplace teenager woes , is rather bitter . But as her story unfolds , she slowly realizes things above her and how she can rise above the occasion , making her bitterness slowly turn into hope

As any other female teenager , Doria complains about the universal pangs of puberty : acne , breast size and the whatever ' attitude . And like any other girl , she experienced having her first crush , and that prerogative first kiss . Having the TV set as her only form of entertainment , and escape from her far-from-perfect world , she is hooked on American TV shows such as The Price is Right ' Wheel of Fortune ' and The Young and the Restless ' The television matters so much to her , maybe to keep her sanity intact , that she expressed its importance quite absolutely , especially after their phone line got cut off . With all those characteristics , I relate to her . Her cultural and ethnic background may be an ocean apart from mine but I still can relate to her . Moreover , I can relate to her hopefulness and in her dreams of a better life

Doria lives in a housing project outside Paris , with a view of the world-famous Eiffel Tower . She may be just a stone throw away from it but she has not enough to money to even buy a ticket to get to the top She and her mother live on food stamps as her mother 's job offer only very little for their sustenance . She wears clothes from the thrift shop making her an object on mockery by people around her . These scenes do not only happen to Northern African immigrants in Paris , but also to people in the United States . The US may be a well-off country but there are still people living in the fringes of a comfortable life . This kind of hardship in life chooses no race , no sex , and no country . On the other hand , her cultural background makes her makes being a woman a liability , as in their culture , women are not treated equally as men . A strong proof is her father 's want to have a son , despite having her already . Her worth as a person seemed to oscillate in the edges of the society because she is a female immigrant living in the projects with not much enough money

Doria is very much aware of her...