Imagine the experience of living under the rule of a violent group of terrorists, with no freedom whatsoever. This is what it is like for Najmah in the book Under the Persimmon Tree, by Suzanne Fisher Staples. In this realistic setting, Najmah, a main character, loses most of her family due to the brutality and imposition of the Taliban. The novel depicted the Taliban as dangerous and strict, which is interchangeable for what the Taliban is like in reality. Staples used the Taliban conflict to deepen the reader 's understanding of the impact of conflict on people 's lives.
In the novel Under the Persimmon Tree, the Taliban is accurately shown as destructive, forceful, and extremely strict. Najmah, along with many other Afghanistan and
…show more content…
They took both Najmah’s brother, Nur, and father, Baba-jan, away from her to, “come and fight with the Taliban,” (Staples 17). Not only that, but when Najmah finds her mother, Mada-jan, after a bomb was set off by the Taliban in Golestan, “she stares with glassy, dead eyes,” (67). Habib, “lies motionless a few feet behind her, facedown in the dirt,” (67). The bomb killed both her mother and brother, not to mention destroyed her home. These events led to the conflict of Najmah being all alone with nowhere to turn. If, in the novel, the Taliban was not depicted as being so violent, then there would be little to no conflict remaining in Najmah’s life.
To put it briefly, the destructive Taliban played a very important role in Najmah’s life. In the plot of the novel, this terrorist group used violence to enforce their many strict rules. They forbid music. They burned people to the ground. Furthermore, in reality the Taliban is equally as gruesome. They are murderous. Inhumane. Without reason. Consequently, Najmah’s life is filled with continuous conflict affecting both her and her loved ones. Overall, the Taliban had an extreme impact on the outcome of the novel, and turned Najmah’s simple, sustainable life upside