The Breadwinner

Here, Mother and Nooria ask Parvana to fetch water, even though she’s just spent a long day in the market. Since there’s no one else who can safely accomplish this task, it falls to Parvana. This speaks to the precarious state that women find themselves in under the Taliban. Mother and Nooria, as an adult and a young adult, can’t safely leave their homes alone to fetch water for their family, simply because they’re women. The Taliban may seek to protect women by mandating that they stay inside, but in practice, this only pushes families even deeper into poverty.

At the same time, children Parvana’s age, who aren’t policed as heavily by the Taliban, must take on many household duties that their parents or older siblings cannot do. It’s not legal or entirely safe for Parvana to leave the apartment alone to fetch water, but her chances of having a soldier stop her are much less than Nooria or Mother’s chances. All of this shows that the Taliban’s rules force children to grow up much faster than they would otherwise.

Parvana thinks about how lonely she is in her new home; all her other siblings tend to pair up with each other, leaving her alone—and Parvana can’t safely befriend any neighbor children either, since the Taliban encourages neighbors to spy on one another. This shows that the Taliban have created a culture of fear that discourages people from forming strong connections with each other and consequently makes them isolated and suspicious of outsiders. It forces people, in other words, to rely only on family. However, this is challenging for someone like Parvana, who doesn’t have any siblings her age and who is therefore on her own to fill her time. And by depriving people in Kabul of their friends, the Taliban essentially leave families to their own devices to survive, which the novel makes clear doesn’t work—after all, Parvana and her family survive largely thanks to kind friends and strangers. Here, Parvana is taking on chores that Nooria and Mother cannot do, and Father can only make so much in the market. Families on their own in this system are liable to fail as soon as disaster strikes or something changes, because there’s no one else for them to rely on.

While telling Malali’s story after dinner, Father emphasizes Malali’s bravery, as well as that of his own daughters and of Afghan women more generally. Having spent a year living under the Taliban’s oppressive rule, Nooria is understandably hopeless and isn’t sure how to be brave in the world she inhabits. As far as she sees it, she’s isolated and helpless—from her perspective, there’s not much she can actually do to make a difference. Father, however, alludes to the possibility that there are more ways to resist and be brave than actually leading men into battle, as Malali did. Resistance can take many forms, from the magazine that Mother later works on to Nooria’s teaching in a secret school. Even Parvana’s choice to turn into a boy and work for her family is a form of resistance. All of these things take a significant amount of bravery and are certainly risky, but none of them are flashy actions that would attract much attention. Father wants to impress on his daughters that Malali is still a good example of bravery, but she’s more of an archetype or an idea than an example to follow literally.

When Nooria decides to send Parvana, disguised as a boy, to buy food in the market for the family, Parvana realizes she can refuse and force Nooria to go herself. Surprisingly, though, having this power over Nooria doesn’t feel very satisfying. In this moment, Parvana begins to come of age in a big way. She realizes that there are far more pressing and more important things in life—like feeding her younger siblings and Mother—than engaging in a petty fight with her big sister. She’s beginning to think of people other than herself, and decides to accept the responsibility she has to care for her family. Though family has always been important to Parvana, it’s gradually becoming the most important thing to her and, therefore, something she’s willing to sacrifice and do scary things in order to support.

It’s telling, though, that Parvana’s seemingly mature perspective might just come from exhaustion and hunger. The Taliban arrested Father for seemingly no reason, and in essence did nothing more than terrorize Parvana’s family and deprive them of their sole breadwinner. In a situation like this, Parvana really has no choice but to grow up sooner than she might otherwise and shoulder more responsibility. She must, if she wants to survive.

When Parvana returns home from the market with Mrs. Weera, Nooria is relieved and ecstatic to have another adult around to help her. This drives home the fact that though Nooria is 17 and in many ways is treated like an adult, she’s still a child. In this sense, she’s not all that different from Parvana—she just has different constraints on what she can do and how she’s expected to act.

With this, the novel highlights how war and conflict tragically robs children of their childhoods and forces them to grow up much earlier than they should. Over the last four days while Mother remained on the toshak, Nooria has had to manage the little ones, prepare meals, and make choices about how to allocate their dwindling resources. This is a lot to ask of anyone, let alone someone so young. Mrs. Weera, then, looks like a savior as she walks in the door. This, of course, has to do in part with Mrs. Weera’s confident, no-nonsense demeanor and her willingness to step in and commandeer a situation—but in this situation, that’s entirely a good thing, as it allows Nooria to feel like someone is caring for her again, something she clearly craves.

After Mother and Mrs. Weera propose their plan to turn Parvana into a boy to Parvana, Parvana is angry and terrified. At this point, Parvana’s hair is long. Though she described it earlier in the novel as stringy, it’s still a point of pride for her. It’s a symbol of her femininity, and she’s proud of how long she’s gotten it to grow. Because of this, it’s upsetting to be asked to cut it all off—it’s like being asked to cut off a major part of her identity. However, even more than being asked to give up her femininity, Parvana keys in on the fact that being turned into a boy means that the adults are also effectively asking her to give up her childhood. She needs to look like a boy so she can work and feed the family, something she cannot do as a girl. And for Parvana, this is both insulting and unthinkable. In her mind, adults and older children are supposed to care for those younger than they are, not the other way around. This is why she suggests that Nooria dress as a boy instead. But because Parvana is at a place in her development where she can pass as male and Nooria isn’t, the responsibility falls to Parvana, whether she likes it or not.

During the discussion about turning Parvana into a boy by cutting her hair, Mrs. Weera makes the point that Parvana has to agree to this plan or it won’t work. For Parvana, this makes all the difference. In this moment, then, Parvana begins to see that while being made to resemble a boy certainly will force her to mature more quickly, it will also give her more agency over her life. All she has to do is exercise that agency the first time, by agreeing to let the adults cut her hair.

Mrs. Weera clearly understands that they need Parvana’s blessing in order to make this work. This is why she appeals to Parvana’s feelings of being responsible to her family, and it’s also why she’s encouraging. She knows that Parvana is capable of acting the part of a young boy, and it’s important that Parvana hear that from someone she respects and trusts. This begins to illustrate the importance of friends—at times, friends can sometimes convince a person to make the right choice where their family cannot.

After Mother learns that Parvana earned a lot of money digging up bones in a graveyard, she insists that they don’t need that kind of money—but both Parvana and Nooria push back on Mother. In this moment, both Parvana and Nooria begin to assume more agency and responsibility than they have in the past. Both girls have, for the most part, deferred to their mother and acted the part of mostly obedient children. In these difficult times, however, both girls have had to grow up before they’re truly ready to do so—and this gives them the courage to stand up to Mother.

For Parvana, having had the experience of moving through the market independently as a boy makes her feel far more mature and independent. Now that she’s seen how the world actually works out there, it makes more sense for her to push back on Mother and advocate for something that she knows will help the family. In the same vein, Nooria sees exactly what’s going on at home and therefore can support Parvana in her request. Just as Parvana sees how much more lucrative selling off of trays will be, Nooria sees that the family needs the money, no matter what Mother says. Mother’s refusal is likely an attempt to hold onto her pride and to an idea of Afghanistan where people don’t need to dig up graves to get by—and while admirable in some sense, clinging to the past in this way isn’t helpful when it comes to the family’s survival.

Nooria and Parvana discuss the proposal of marriage that arrived for Nooria, and Nooria lists her reasons for wanting to accept the proposal. As Nooria sees it, marriage—at least this particular marriage—won’t trap her. Rather, it will give her the freedom to more or less conduct her life as she might have before the Taliban took over. She’ll be able to go to school, earn her own money, and regain some sense of agency over her life. This is one way that Nooria can leverage her femininity in a way that works for her. Because of her curvy body, she doesn’t have the option of dressing like a boy like her younger sister Parvana does, so she has to figure out other ways to resist and use what she does have to her advantage. It’s important to note, however, that marriage certainly doesn’t guarantee these things to all women. For instance, Shauzia begins to hear at about this time that her grandfather is looking for a husband for her—and the implication is that Shauzia will have no say in the matter of her marriage. Nooria is able to see that marriage can equal freedom because her family believes in giving women agency, but this is something that Shauzia’s family doesn’t agree with.

After Parvana spends two days on the toshak, grieving for the possibility that Mother and Nooria died in Mazar, Shauzia stops by and convinces Parvana to go back to work in the market. This speaks to the power of friendship to motivate people to keep going when times are tough. The possibility that her family is all gone is too much for Parvana to bear—but Shauzia’s appearance and plea shows Parvana that she’s not alone. She has friends, including Shauzia and Mrs. Weera, who are there to help her get through, even in the absence of the rest of her family. Though the Taliban, according to Father, encourages neighbors and friends to spy on each other, the effect that Shauzia has on Parvana makes it clear that it’s simply a matter of discovering those friends who are truly supportive. Shauzia chafes under the Taliban’s rule just as much as Parvana does, so she fully supports Parvana in her acts of resistance.

Here, Mother and Nooria ask Parvana to fetch water, even though she’s just spent a long day in the market. Since there’s no one else who can safely accomplish this task, it falls to Parvana. This speaks to the precarious state that women find themselves in under the Taliban. Mother and Nooria, as an adult and a young adult, can’t safely leave their homes alone to fetch water for their family, simply because they’re women. The Taliban may seek to protect women by mandating that they stay inside, but in practice, this only pushes families even deeper into poverty.

At the same time, children Parvana’s age, who aren’t policed as heavily by the Taliban, must take on many household duties that their parents or older siblings cannot do. It’s not legal or entirely safe for Parvana to leave the apartment alone to fetch water, but her chances of having a soldier stop her are much less than Nooria or Mother’s chances. All of this shows that the Taliban’s rules force children to grow up much faster than they would otherwise.

Parvana thinks about how lonely she is in her new home; all her other siblings tend to pair up with each other, leaving her alone—and Parvana can’t safely befriend any neighbor children either, since the Taliban encourages neighbors to spy on one another. This shows that the Taliban have created a culture of fear that discourages people from forming strong connections with each other and consequently makes them isolated and suspicious of outsiders. It forces people, in other words, to rely only on family. However, this is challenging for someone like Parvana, who doesn’t have any siblings her age and who is therefore on her own to fill her time. And by depriving people in Kabul of their friends, the Taliban essentially leave families to their own devices to survive, which the novel makes clear doesn’t work—after all, Parvana and her family survive largely thanks to kind friends and strangers. Here, Parvana is taking on chores that Nooria and Mother cannot do, and Father can only make so much in the market. Families on their own in this system are liable to fail as soon as disaster strikes or something changes, because there’s no one else for them to rely on.

While telling Malali’s story after dinner, Father emphasizes Malali’s bravery, as well as that of his own daughters and of Afghan women more generally. Having spent a year living under the Taliban’s oppressive rule, Nooria is understandably hopeless and isn’t sure how to be brave in the world she inhabits. As far as she sees it, she’s isolated and helpless—from her perspective, there’s not much she can actually do to make a difference. Father, however, alludes to the possibility that there are more ways to resist and be brave than actually leading men into battle, as Malali did. Resistance can take many forms, from the magazine that Mother later works on to Nooria’s teaching in a secret school. Even Parvana’s choice to turn into a boy and work for her family is a form of resistance. All of these things take a significant amount of bravery and are certainly risky, but none of them are flashy actions that would attract much attention. Father wants to impress on his daughters that Malali is still a good example of bravery, but she’s more of an archetype or an idea than an example to follow literally.

When Nooria decides to send Parvana, disguised as a boy, to buy food in the market for the family, Parvana realizes she can refuse and force Nooria to go herself. Surprisingly, though, having this power over Nooria doesn’t feel very satisfying. In this moment, Parvana begins to come of age in a big way. She realizes that there are far more pressing and more important things in life—like feeding her younger siblings and Mother—than engaging in a petty fight with her big sister. She’s beginning to think of people other than herself, and decides to accept the responsibility she has to care for her family. Though family has always been important to Parvana, it’s gradually becoming the most important thing to her and, therefore, something she’s willing to sacrifice and do scary things in order to support.

It’s telling, though, that Parvana’s seemingly mature perspective might just come from exhaustion and hunger. The Taliban arrested Father for seemingly no reason, and in essence did nothing more than terrorize Parvana’s family and deprive them of their sole breadwinner. In a situation like this, Parvana really has no choice but to grow up sooner than she might otherwise and shoulder more responsibility. She must, if she wants to survive.

When Parvana returns home from the market with Mrs. Weera, Nooria is relieved and ecstatic to have another adult around to help her. This drives home the fact that though Nooria is 17 and in many ways is treated like an adult, she’s still a child. In this sense, she’s not all that different from Parvana—she just has different constraints on what she can do and how she’s expected to act.

With this, the novel highlights how war and conflict tragically robs children of their childhoods and forces them to grow up much earlier than they should. Over the last four days while Mother remained on the toshak, Nooria has had to manage the little ones, prepare meals, and make choices about how to allocate their dwindling resources. This is a lot to ask of anyone, let alone someone so young. Mrs. Weera, then, looks like a savior as she walks in the door. This, of course, has to do in part with Mrs. Weera’s confident, no-nonsense demeanor and her willingness to step in and commandeer a situation—but in this situation, that’s entirely a good thing, as it allows Nooria to feel like someone is caring for her again, something she clearly craves.

After Mother and Mrs. Weera propose their plan to turn Parvana into a boy to Parvana, Parvana is angry and terrified. At this point, Parvana’s hair is long. Though she described it earlier in the novel as stringy, it’s still a point of pride for her. It’s a symbol of her femininity, and she’s proud of how long she’s gotten it to grow. Because of this, it’s upsetting to be asked to cut it all off—it’s like being asked to cut off a major part of her identity. However, even more than being asked to give up her femininity, Parvana keys in on the fact that being turned into a boy means that the adults are also effectively asking her to give up her childhood. She needs to look like a boy so she can work and feed the family, something she cannot do as a girl. And for Parvana, this is both insulting and unthinkable. In her mind, adults and older children are supposed to care for those younger than they are, not the other way around. This is why she suggests that Nooria dress as a boy instead. But because Parvana is at a place in her development where she can pass as male and Nooria isn’t, the responsibility falls to Parvana, whether she likes it or not.

During the discussion about turning Parvana into a boy by cutting her hair, Mrs. Weera makes the point that Parvana has to agree to this plan or it won’t work. For Parvana, this makes all the difference. In this moment, then, Parvana begins to see that while being made to resemble a boy certainly will force her to mature more quickly, it will also give her more agency over her life. All she has to do is exercise that agency the first time, by agreeing to let the adults cut her hair.

Mrs. Weera clearly understands that they need Parvana’s blessing in order to make this work. This is why she appeals to Parvana’s feelings of being responsible to her family, and it’s also why she’s encouraging. She knows that Parvana is capable of acting the part of a young boy, and it’s important that Parvana hear that from someone she respects and trusts. This begins to illustrate the importance of friends—at times, friends can sometimes convince a person to make the right choice where their family cannot.

After Mother learns that Parvana earned a lot of money digging up bones in a graveyard, she insists that they don’t need that kind of money—but both Parvana and Nooria push back on Mother. In this moment, both Parvana and Nooria begin to assume more agency and responsibility than they have in the past. Both girls have, for the most part, deferred to their mother and acted the part of mostly obedient children. In these difficult times, however, both girls have had to grow up before they’re truly ready to do so—and this gives them the courage to stand up to Mother.

For Parvana, having had the experience of moving through the market independently as a boy makes her feel far more mature and independent. Now that she’s seen how the world actually works out there, it makes more sense for her to push back on Mother and advocate for something that she knows will help the family. In the same vein, Nooria sees exactly what’s going on at home and therefore can support Parvana in her request. Just as Parvana sees how much more lucrative selling off of trays will be, Nooria sees that the family needs the money, no matter what Mother says. Mother’s refusal is likely an attempt to hold onto her pride and to an idea of Afghanistan where people don’t need to dig up graves to get by—and while admirable in some sense, clinging to the past in this way isn’t helpful when it comes to the family’s survival.

Nooria and Parvana discuss the proposal of marriage that arrived for Nooria, and Nooria lists her reasons for wanting to accept the proposal. As Nooria sees it, marriage—at least this particular marriage—won’t trap her. Rather, it will give her the freedom to more or less conduct her life as she might have before the Taliban took over. She’ll be able to go to school, earn her own money, and regain some sense of agency over her life. This is one way that Nooria can leverage her femininity in a way that works for her. Because of her curvy body, she doesn’t have the option of dressing like a boy like her younger sister Parvana does, so she has to figure out other ways to resist and use what she does have to her advantage. It’s important to note, however, that marriage certainly doesn’t guarantee these things to all women. For instance, Shauzia begins to hear at about this time that her grandfather is looking for a husband for her—and the implication is that Shauzia will have no say in the matter of her marriage. Nooria is able to see that marriage can equal freedom because her family believes in giving women agency, but this is something that Shauzia’s family doesn’t agree with.

After Parvana spends two days on the toshak, grieving for the possibility that Mother and Nooria died in Mazar, Shauzia stops by and convinces Parvana to go back to work in the market. This speaks to the power of friendship to motivate people to keep going when times are tough. The possibility that her family is all gone is too much for Parvana to bear—but Shauzia’s appearance and plea shows Parvana that she’s not alone. She has friends, including Shauzia and Mrs. Weera, who are there to help her get through, even in the absence of the rest of her family. Though the Taliban, according to Father, encourages neighbors and friends to spy on each other, the effect that Shauzia has on Parvana makes it clear that it’s simply a matter of discovering those friends who are truly supportive. Shauzia chafes under the Taliban’s rule just as much as Parvana does, so she fully supports Parvana in her acts of resistance.