The Breadwinner

by

Deborah Ellis

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Breadwinner makes teaching easy.

The Breadwinner Symbols

Hair

Hair, Parvana’s in particular, represents both Parvana’s changing identity and her dreams for the future. At the beginning of the novel, Parvana mentions that she has to cover her hair with her chador at…

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Malali

The historical figure Malali symbolizes Parvana’s vision of how she’d like to be seen as an Afghan woman: strong, courageous, and capable of creating change in her country. Malali was a 19th-century young woman…

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