Imagine living in a society where everyone lives in constant fear of the Taliban, living in fear of the group taking and killing a loved one. Hiding in fear when word of the Taliban coming around come out. People not being able to sleep in peace because of the thought of the Taliban racing through their minds. This is the situation presented to the main characters in the novel Under the Persimmon Tree, by Suzanne Fisher Staples. By living this way, people are forced to follow the Taliban's very strict, and at times unfair, laws. Breaking these laws have very severe punishments. In the novel, the Taliban is depicted as a group of heartless killers, while in reality, the Taliban isn't far off from that. Staples used the Taliban to create a change …show more content…
The Taliban enforces many strict laws, such as people “couldn't keep birds,no board games, no singing or playing music, and no selling kids ice cream” (Sam and Max). These laws are very severe, but the punishment for breaking these laws are even more severe. If you are caught breaking any of these laws, “the Taliban would either cut off a certain body part or even kill you” (Sam and Max). This punishment is the cause of a lot of fear for people. These laws are in place in the novel as well, for when the Taliban is coming through Najmah’s village and towards her house, she suddenly remembers one of the Taliban’s rules. She remembers that “men must have beards that you can grab in your fist and still have hair sticking out at the bottom” (14). She knows that Baba-jan does not have a beard, so she tries to warn him about the dangers he could be getting into. The Taliban’s rules are very strict, and the punishments for breaking any of them may be the end of somebody’s …show more content…
When Baba-jan and Nur are taken away, Baba-jan tells Najmah to “take care of your mother” (14). After hearing this, Najmah takes on more responsibilities in her life, even though at first she doesn’t “grasp what his words mean” but she is “used to obeying” (14) so she tries to make sense of those words. Though she does not understand completely what his words mean, she does her best to understand what he means, despite having little idea of what that statement means. After the Taliban takes away half of her family, she understands why “everyone is frightened by the Taliban” (12). Everyone is afraid that the Taliban will come through their village and suffer the same fate that Baba-jan and Nur had faced. The Taliban not only creates conflict for characters in the book, but they also create a lot of conflict for people in the real world too. For example, "The Taliban were recently on the news the past week as they attacked a school near Peshawar" (Sam and Max). The Taliban is a major source of conflict everywhere they go. They have either harmed or killed people in every place they have been, causing conflict in both the novel and in real life, changing people’s lives
The novel Swallows of Kabul by Yasmine Khadar shows how Kabul is under the control of the Taliban’s and how they treat the people of Kabul. This novel illustrates the Islamic culture, and how Kabul has been affected by the invasion of Taliban’s. This book shows the different perspective from different characters; it shows both female and male versions of what it was like to live in Kabul at that time. This book also goes into depth about how women had no voice, and were treated unfairly with little or barely any respect. This novel is very meaningful and it basically paints you a picture of life in Kabul while the Taliban’s are in charge.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live as an Afghan girl under the rule of the Taliban? This question is answered in the book My Forbidden Face. Latifa, a young Afghan girl, discusses her struggles throughout the book. Latifa faces several different problems while being under the rule of the Taliban. She handles these problems with the best of her ability.
Rumors spread to Najmah that “woman wearing henna on their fingertips had their fingers chopped off”(Staples 12). When Najmah heard the clink of bangles under a woman’s burqa and the click of her heels on the pavement, the sound created an unsettling sensation within her. Suddenly, Najmah recalled how the “Taliban would whip women whose shoes made a sound on paving stones (Staples 180).” She wanted to warn the woman, for her mother had told her that “women risk their lives by hiding their jewelry” (Staples 180). As for Nusrat, notwithstanding the fact that she just moved to Pakistan not long ago, she was extremely vigilant and prudent when the Taliban was around. One time, a servant of Nusrat’s disappeared. Nusrat sent someone to search for her and discovered that “she had been badly beaten and was held without charges” (Staples 99). From this incident, the unfair treatment towards women helped Nusrat to learn more about the Taliban’s rules in Pakistan. Given the facts above, it is very apparent that Taliban’s cruelty toward women is depicted precisely and vividly through the different stories of two
The Taliban also require all women to wear a chadri (a veil that covers the woman's head, face, shoulders, and arms). In addition to veiling, which Lerner's book talks about, it is mandatory that women are accompanied by a man at all times when they are out in public. Also, women cannot wear brightly colored clothing or make-up under their chadri. In further attempt to keep women out of the public eye it is forbidden that women work. This is almost like what Mintz talks about in her book where in the 1950's women are not supposed to hold jobs or get a college education. In the 1950's it is for more of a social reason rather than law, but the same idea applies. Men frown upon the thought that their wives are more educated than them or that their wives have a job. Women are supposed to stay home and keep house.
Terrorists need everything to go their way, or they will kill or severely injure you if you don't obey. Although these extremist groups known as terrorist groups, are terrible they are happening, and many people are being abused because of it. The book I used in this essay is Under the Persimmon Tree, by Suzanne Fisher Staples. The book is about a family of four living in a small village. The mother is pregnant with a third child. The Taliban takes Baba-jan (father to the main character), and Nur (teenage boy, main character's brother) to fight, also they take all their remaining food, and supplies. Baba-jan is killed immediately after he was taken, along with all the other men in the village. Mada-jan (mother of the main character), and Habib
On his journey to save Sohrab, Amir discovers that a Taliban official took him from the orphanage. When meeting with that Taliban official, who turns out to be his childhood nemesis Assef, Amir is placed in a situation where he is forced to choose between fleeing from the enemy and saving Hassan’s son. The structure of this scenario is analogous to one earlier in the book when Amir had to choose between saving Hassan by standing up for him and repairing the relationship with his father by bringing the blue kite back. The author uses the similar setting with Assef and the similarities in characterization of father and son in order to provide Amir with the opportunity to make the choice to stand up for what he believes in. When Amir allowed Hass...
Firstly, the characters in the novel display bravery as they protect one another from physical harm. This can be seen in patterns between generations in families. Early on the reader learns that Amir’s grandfather protects Ali by, “[adopting] him into his own household, and [telling] the other students to tutor him” (26). Since Ali’s parents were killed and he is a Hazaras he would have most certainly been discriminated against at an orphanage. Ali is Hassan’s father. The reader learns near the end that he is not his biological father but he is the man who raised him. Hassan defends Amir from being beaten by Assef who has a reputation in Kabul of being a psychopath. When Assef threatens them Hassan does not hesitate to respond saying, “You are right, Agha. But perhaps you didn’t notice that I’m the one holding the slingshot. If you make a move, they’ll have to change your nickname from Assef ‘the Ear Eater’ to ‘One-Eyed Assef,’ because I have this rock pointed at your left eye” (45-46). Later on Amir stands up for Sohrab, Hassan’s son, as Hassan stood up for Amir countless times before. He demands to Assef, "All I want is the boy" (298), to take Sohrab to a safe place where he would no longer be sexually abused. In return, Sohrab is bold and prevents Amir from being slain. He points the slingshot at Assef’s face, "‘No more, Agha. Please,’ he [says], his voice husky and trembling. ‘Stop hurting him’" (304). At this point Assef is a grown man while Sohrab is only a boy. It would take plenty of courage to protect this man he did not even know. Sohrab’s action fulfills the idea foreshadowed earlier of "one-eyed Assef" as Sohrab shoots a metal ball in Assef’s eye. All these characters guarded the physical well-being of individuals that were important to them by demonstrating bravery.
Being a muslim and living in Afghanistan, there are certain rules and morals that you must live up to. For example, there are different types
...izens of Kabul. As a result, Hassan’s childhood is much more difficult than Amir’s, allowing him to become stronger, more resilient, and less ignorant. Nonetheless, the two boys grow up together in Afghanistan during a time when it is considered to be a relatively peaceful country. In the late seventies however, this peace is destroyed as a result of the Russian invasion in Afghanistan. Ultimately, the environments from which Amir and Hassan each came from largely influences the people they become in the transitional phase of their lives from boyhood to young adulthood.
In protest to this, Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl, refused to follow these rules, and even began a blog for the British Broadcasting Corporation, detailing her life under Taliban rule. In response to her protest, a gunman approached her, and shot her three times. This assassination attempt started a global movement in support of Yousafzai and her beliefs. Like Thoreau, Gandhi, King, and Yousafzai, one must realize when others are being oppressed and take action against those in power who oppress the people they rule. Otherwise, there will never be change, and the world will never see justice.
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
(AGG) Events in our lives shapes us in many ways, but loss is an especially can make an influence and cause us to make crazy and irrational decisions. (BS-1) In the book Under the Persimmon Tree, Najmah was affected by loss of Baba-jan and Nur, changing the impact of her storyline. (BS-2) Similarly, the loss of her mother, Mada-jan, and her baby brother, Habib, also changed the actions of Najmah. (BS-3)
One aspect of the novel that highlights this struggle is its setting, as it takes place during four time periods, each at a different stage in Afghan history. Throughout these unstable decades, the country’s government went through continuous upheavals with each new government advocating different
Throughout Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, the reader observes many injustices committed due to the presence of the Taliban and cultural conflict in Afghanistan. One of the most concerning issues in Afghanistan is the mistreatment and inequality that women face on a daily basis due to Taliban mandates. Women in Afghanistan are treated as inferior beings to men and are unable to stand up for themselves due to the laws the Taliban enforce. Hosseini uses the wives of Amir and Hassan, Soraya and Farzana, to represent the injustices to which women in Afghanistan are subjected. Before the rise of the Taliban in the early 1990s, women in Afghanistan were mostly treated as equals and with respect.
...d to exhibit the harsh treatments many citizens living there do in recent years. Moreover, Hosseini and Amir explain the importance of having a father figure who would be support their son’s interests in life and helping them thrive for success in the careers they would like to pursue. Neither Hosseini or Amir had a father who supported their long term goals. Hosseini’s and Amir’s high social class in their hometown Kabul, made life easier for them as they were growing up because they were able to afford education which helped them a lot in the careers they pursued in. When both Hosseini and Amir came to the United States, they had a tough time learning the lifestyles of an American, but for the most part, it brought them to how successful they became. Ultimately, Khaled Hosseini creates a protagonist in his novel who serves as a parallel to his own life experiences.