Parvana agrees to let herself be transformed into a boy. Her mother cuts her hair and dresses her in her dead brother�s clothes. Parvana is free to move about the city, and she takes her father�s place in the market. Her mother takes the younger children and escorts Nooria, Parvana�s older sister, to Mazur, where she will marry and be free of the Taliban. Parvana�s father is freed from prison but the celebration is short-lived. News reaches them that Mazur has fallen to the iron rule of the Taliban, and Parvana and her father decide to travel to Mazur and find their family.
The setting is Kabul, Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban, prior to its liberation by the U.S.-led coalition in 2001. The city is little more than ruins, the result of years of warfare that has wracked the country since 1978. �There were bombed-out buildings all over Kabul. Neighborhoods had turned from homes and businesses into bricks and dust.� (p. 16) The author provides a brief history of the country which led up to the empowerment of the Taliban, and the liberties it stole from women and girls.
Parvana, the protagonist of the book, is just eleven years old, but the first sentence shows that she has a lot of spirit, and does not adhere to the Taliban�s idea of the role women should play. �I can read that letter as well as Father can.� (p. 7) She is fearful of the Taliban because she has seen how they mistreat women, but when it becomes clear she is the only possible hope for her family, she sacrifices her hair and identity and faces a very dangerous situation. She also digs up bones, which she finds morally and personally repugnant, because she knows how important the money is that it provides for her family.
Although Parvana is transformed from a dependent, emotionally immature child to someone who put the needs of her family ahead of her own, the other characters remain static, for the most part. Parvana�s sister, Nooria, is hateful to her, but the reader never really understands why. Quill & Quire (October 1, 2000) explains that the scope of the book limits the author�s opportunity to develop well-rounded characters: �Since this is primarily a book of action that centres on a set of socio-political problems, the characters do not undergo much psychological development.�
The plot of the story is exciting. Every day when Parvana leaves her house, she goes into the unknown. The risk of discovery carries with it the threat of dire consequences. The tension of the story carries into the home, as well. Parvana�s sister, Nooria, is hateful to her, and her mother is hopelessly depressed. When the neighbor, Mrs. Weera, comes into their lives and involves the household in banned behaviors, that heightens the danger. The closing of the book leaves an opening for a sequel, which the author ultimately wrote. Instead of bringing resolution to the family�s precarious fate, it plunges them into another unknown � life in Mazar. Although danger lies ahead, what we have learned about Parvana gives us hope for her future. �The Breadwinner is a potent portrait of life in contemporary Afghanistan, showing that powerful heroines can survive even in the most oppressive and sexist social conditions.� (Booklist, March 1, 2001)
Awards
Ruth Schwartz Children�s Book Award (Nominee)
Trillium Book Award (Nominee)
Manitoba Literary Awards � Young Readers Choice Award
Great Stone Face Children�s Book Award (Nominee)
Maine Student Book Award (Nominee)
Massachusetts Children�s Book Award (Nominee)
Rebecca Caudill Young Reader�s Book Award (Nominee)
Related Websites
Author Profile:
http://www.allen-unwin.com.au/authors/apEllis.asp
Rebuilding Afghanistan: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/afghanistan /
Source
Books in Print [database online]. Available from http://www.booksinprint.com. Accessed 15 November 2004.
School of Library and Information Studies
TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY