When Parvana doesn’t grasp what’s going on at first, it speaks to her immaturity and her naïveté—in her mind, the worst thing that could happen is that her teacher will send a note home and she’ll fail her math test. In reality, as Nooria’s reaction reveals, the situation is far more dire than Parvana realizes. Her family is now in extreme poverty, as evidenced by the fact that they now live in a single room. The fact that they used to be so wealthy speaks to the way that major conflicts like the wars in Afghanistan can fundamentally change life in a country for the worse.