Chap­ter 4 of The Bread­win­ner brings a qui­et but pow­er­ful reflec­tion of the toll war and sur­vival take on a fam­i­ly. Par­vana and her moth­er, weary from their vis­it to the prison, return home in the dead of night, their bod­ies aching and cov­ered in the pain of a long, exhaust­ing jour­ney. As they climb the stairs, Par­vana leans against her moth­er for sup­port, feel­ing the sting of her blis­tered feet with every step. The sight of both her mother’s and her own raw, bloody feet shocks Noo­ria and Maryam, under­scor­ing the phys­i­cal toll of their strug­gle. Par­vana real­izes that her moth­er hasn’t stepped out­side since the Tal­iban took con­trol of Kab­ul. Her father had once encour­aged her to ven­ture out, believ­ing it was vital for her as a writer to wit­ness the harsh real­i­ties of the world in order to doc­u­ment them accu­rate­ly.

As Par­vana reflects on her par­ents’ dif­fer­ing per­spec­tives, she recalls how her father often argued about their future in Afghanistan. He had always insist­ed that Afghanistan was their home and that edu­cat­ed peo­ple, like him, had a respon­si­bil­i­ty to stay and help rebuild the coun­try. On the oth­er hand, her moth­er had remained stead­fast in her belief that stay­ing indoors was the only way to sur­vive under the oppres­sive rule of the Tal­iban. While her moth­er was resigned to the fact that her writ­ing held no pur­pose in a world so heav­i­ly con­trolled by the regime, her father had always hoped for change. After their exhaust­ing jour­ney, Parvana’s moth­er col­laps­es onto the toshak in exhaus­tion, over­whelmed by emo­tions, and cries for an extend­ed peri­od. Despite Nooria’s attempts to care for her, her moth­er remains unre­spon­sive and even­tu­al­ly drifts into sleep, sig­nal­ing the depth of her despair.

The next morn­ing, Par­vana awakes still tired, her mind haunt­ed by a dream of sol­diers assault­ing her and her fam­i­ly. She finds a small sense of com­fort in the rou­tine of the day—preparing break­fast and tend­ing to chores—realizing how much they rely on one anoth­er. Her sis­ter Nooria’s grumpy atti­tude, while frus­trat­ing, light­ens Parvana’s mood and reminds her that their bond remains unbro­ken, even amid the dark­ness. How­ev­er, as the days go by, the fam­i­ly con­tin­ues to strug­gle with the ongo­ing wor­ry over their mother’s dete­ri­o­rat­ing con­di­tion, as well as the dwin­dling food sup­ply. Par­vana spends her time attempt­ing to piece togeth­er a frag­ment of a pho­to­graph of her father, each small piece a painful reminder of his absence and the deep sense of loss she feels. By the fourth day, they have run out of food, and the ten­sion in the house­hold ris­es. Par­vana feels a grow­ing frus­tra­tion, insist­ing that her moth­er needs to take action to help the fam­i­ly sur­vive, but Noo­ria becomes increas­ing­ly irri­ta­ble, show­ing the strain that the family’s emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal exhaus­tion has placed on every­one.

Final­ly, with no food left and the real­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion becom­ing impos­si­ble to ignore, Par­vana reluc­tant­ly accepts the mon­ey from Noo­ria, over­com­ing her reser­va­tions about using it. She under­stands that their sur­vival now depends on her, and despite her fatigue and fears, she resolves to take mat­ters into her own hands. The weight of her respon­si­bil­i­ty press­es down on her as she pre­pares to go out and find food for her fam­i­ly, deter­mined to act despite the pain that still lingers in her body. In this moment, Parvana’s resolve strength­ens, and she embraces the role that has been thrust upon her, know­ing that her family’s sur­vival hinges on her actions. This chap­ter high­lights Parvana’s growth and the emo­tion­al strain her fam­i­ly faces in the fight for sur­vival, under­scor­ing the sac­ri­fice, love, and strength need­ed to per­se­vere in an envi­ron­ment where hope seems increas­ing­ly out of reach.