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The Breadwinner Sparknotes

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In Afghanistan, women are deprived of education, economic liberty, and other basic freedoms. This is consistent with the life of Parvanah in The Breadwinner directed by Nora Twomes. After Parvanah's father is arrested on unfair charges, she is forced to pretend to be a boy to keep her family alive and try to get her father back. Because of the religious values of Afghanistan and the resulting treatment women receive, a gender-feminist lens is one that you can best perceive the story through. The religious values of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover heightened disparities and restrictions on the rights of women. Though religious values were integrated with Afghanistan before, the Taliban caused the rules to be more extreme, “Specific dignities …show more content…

After Nurullah is taken, leaving only the women in the house, there is no man to accompany them to go outside. This means that if they were to go outside, they would be breaking the rules and would be beaten. Paravana, to get around this, pretends to be male by cutting her hair and dressing as a boy to work and buy food to keep her family alive. Testing out her new appearance, Parvana enters a local shop with a grocery list, and talks to the clerk: “I need a kilo of rice, a half kilo lentils, and a small amount of raisins.” “A small amount haha, should I go by my imagination?” “Yes.” “Not very bright this one hahahahaha!” (The Breadwinner 00:26:05-00:26:18) The man continues to make fun of Parvana as she pays and leaves; however, she smiles the whole This shows that if Parvana needs to pretend to be male so as not to starve, women in Afghanistan can’t live without a man. This is a major issue as, most of the time, if following the rules of the Taliban, a woman without a man would die. This is a prime example of how the Taliban’s oppressive rule affects women in Afghanistan. The Breadwinner, after deep analysis, is best seen through a gender-feminist

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Parvana experiences discrimination which is key to her coming of age. The story takes place during a time in which women and girls in Afghanistan are not allowed to go out without a man escorting them. They are not permitted to attend school, go to work, go shopping, use the bus or even go outside of their houses to get fresh air. This is shown when the narrator says, “Buses were not permitted to carry women who did not have a man with them” (Ellis 40). When Parvana’s father got arrested Parvana and her mother had to walk a long distance to see him because they did not have a man accompanying them.

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Parvana, the protagonist from The Breadwinner a book by Deborah Ellis, is courageous. First of all, she was made into a boy to make money. She had to cut her hair, wear her old brother’s clothes and go out into the market everyday, thinking someone would see past her scheme. If a Taliban had caught her she probably would’ve been tortured and sent to jail. Additionally, she has the problem of going to the bathroom as a boy.

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This is risky because the taliban don’t let women go outside. If Parvana gets caught she will face consequences like getting executed or thrown in jail. So this is a huge risk by just doing simple things but the Taliban has very strict rules for women. They can’t work,drive or even go to school to get a good education. Parvana’s mom Fatana is another character that shows risk by making a article

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Parvana and her mother are in desperate need of food and water from the market after the arrest of her father. Afghanistan during this time did not allow women to show themselves without a husband, son, uncle, etc. Women are also not allowed to show any skin of any kind. Parvana and her mother stopped while out getting food. A man began to yell at them, telling them to go home.

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“Parvana was very different...” Parvana went through a whole lot of change in this novel because she went from being a young girl who was educated and had a good life to being a person who had to change their physical appearance just to provide her family with food. “Parvana was one of the lucky ones”. Parvana was lucky because her parents were educated and they supported school for girl but most Afghans were not like this. Parvana was never meant to be outside “The Taliban had ordered all the girls in Afghanistan to stay inside their homes”.

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The Novel Parvana wasn’t created to just entertain the audience but to expertly teach readers lessons about life. Deborah Ellis’ Novel Parvana (2000) is a very informative text about the harsh conditions the Afghan people faced under the control of the Taliban. The novel follows a girl called Parvana on her journey to find her father who was taken to prison for his overseas education, on her adventure she also must provide for her family and work for money to buy essential resources while meeting a friend from school who also disguised herself as a boy to provide for their family while living in a hell hole know as Afghanistan. Ellis uses many forms of characterisation, symbols, and themes and setting to object a powerful message to the audience to show the endless problems that developing countries like Afghanistan face.

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Once it's time for Parvana to leave Afghanistan, she wants to say goodbye to the woman who was giving her gifts through the window. Since they've never spoken and the woman has to stay indoors, Parvana plants a special flower where she usually sits in the market place, which is right below the woman’s window. This flower that Parvana planted, is not only for the lady in the window, it also represents something different. Remember how scared and lonely she felt when she first started going to the marketplace?

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they could hold her down and cut off her hair but for anymore they needed her cooperation. In the end, it was her decision.” This shows that Parvana is persevering through this action because she is does not want to become a boy and not even to mention cutting off her hair. But Parvanna fathoms that she needs to do it for her

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This highlights the importance of how these acts of cruelty Mariam and Laila faced; ‘fear of the goat, released in the tiger’s cage’ is what ultimately defines their inner feminist strength, ‘over the years/learned to harden’ which shows that Mariam and Laila’s past indirectly prepares them for The Taliban’s arrival. The Taliban take away the basic rights of Mariam and Laila ‘jewellery is forbidden’, but they fail to do so. Ironically, it is the society itself that gives them the strength and platform to strike back against Rasheed, who is a cruel, male-dominating character who symbolised and reinforced everything the term ‘anti-feminist’ stands

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