The Persimmon Tree Themes

Picture living in northern Afghanistan, having to see everyone around in fear, chaos, panic, and everywhere there is to walk the feel of sorrow follows. Knowing the same fate and sorrow, knowing there is no escape, from the Taliban. The hardships the characters, Najmah and Nusrat, faced in Under the Persimmon Tree is a depiction of the hardships the many people face under the rule of the Taliban. Staples uses the Taliban 's reign on the people in real life to help the reader understand what had happened in Afghanistan and how the people were affected throughout the course of the book. In the book the Taliban are shown as a cruel and brutal organization. The author uses some of the Taliban 's rules to bring fear into Najmah. One rule that Najmah fears is "men must have beards that you can grab in your fist and still have the hair sticking out at the bottom"(Staples 14). She is afraid of this rule because she knows "Baba-jan has little hair on his face, and although he wears a beard it is not very full or long"(14). The Taliban will take men away, and they do not care whether they have a family or not, and the Taliban will force the men to work for them or they will shoot

Staples uses the cruelty of the Taliban to show the ways in which conflict can create hardships in people 's lives. The Taliban leader knew that Baba-jan help their enemy and forced him to “‘come and fight with the Taliban’”(Staples,17). there were many times were the Taliban took family members, The Taliban would mostly take away men and force them to fight with them, which left the family unprotected. In the village “‘All the men have gone’...’the Taliban have taken all of the food’”(31). When the Taliban come across villages they take all of the men and food for their military. Najmah, "’fooled enough people to get...here...and...will fool enough to get back’”(210). Najmah must stay dressed as a boy because the Taliban treat women poorly and dressing has a boy protects her from the