The Breadwinner Essay

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Recommended: Gender roles in childrens literature

Written by Deborah Ellis and published by Groundwood Books, The Breadwinner is an eye-opening book about the impact of war on children and their families. This story takes place in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, during the period of time when the Taliban took over this city. Ellis tells the story of a strong and courageous girl who has to provide for her family in a country where there is extreme sexism towards girls, and she doesn’t have the possibility of living in a war-free country. Deeply affected by her father’s arrest, an eleven-year-old girl named Parvana has to become the “breadwinner” of her family; she needs to dress up as a boy because of sexism towards women and work in order to provide for her family. We have enjoyed reading this book for various reasons. Parvana, the main character, is a very brave girl, and this demonstrates how women can be just as courageous as men. For instance, Parvana’s mother asked her to dress up as a boy to earn money for her family, and she didn’t refuse. This proves exactly how mature and brave Parvana is. Even if there is One of those is the fact that there is some mature content. For example, there is abduction, punishment, beatings and even death in this book. At one point in the story (spoiler alert!), thieves are punished gruesomely by getting their hands cut off. If young children were reading this story, we believe some of them could feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea of blood and beatings. However, it would be their choice to read this book, mature content or not. Besides, some children are already mature enough to understand these concepts. One last thing that we did not particularly like is the summaries of the next books and spin-offs. When we read the short summary of the sequel to The Breadwinner, so many important events were revealed and it spoiled the story for me. This, though, is only in the new edition (fifteenth anniversary

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