Chapters 8-9, My Nose, Religion Summary and Analysis

Alicia always hated her large, Semitic nose. It did not seem to fit on her face. But when she could use a mirror in the shower every twenty days, she noticed other features of her face to be concerned with. She also had respiratory problems. A 'doctor' gave her an antihistamine and gauze to blow her nose. The advantage of Alicia's nose was that it allowed her to perceive what her eyes could not, which allowed her to, for instance, smell the smoke of the guard's cigarettes as they snuck in the room. Alicia and her nose had reconciled.

Alicia is Jewish and the guards sometimes threatened to make soap out of her, but she was not afraid because the Little School did not have the technology to do so. And in any...