Cover of The Breadwinner

    The Breadwinner

    by testsuphomeAdmin
    The Breadwinner

    In Chap­ter Eleven of “The Bread­win­ner,” we wit­ness an intense emo­tion­al exchange between Par­vana and her fam­i­ly after she returns home wet and disheveled. Her moth­er, alarmed by Par­vana’s absence dur­ing lunch, ques­tions her, reveal­ing the fam­i­ly’s fear of her poten­tial arrest. Par­vana, over­whelmed, has a moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and breaks down before shar­ing the shock­ing truth of her day: she had been dig­ging up graves. Her rev­e­la­tion sparks a mix of hor­ror and res­ig­na­tion among her fam­i­ly about the dire cir­cum­stances in Afghanistan, where such des­per­ate mea­sures are need­ed to feed their fam­i­lies.

    Mrs. Weera ratio­nal­izes the use of bones for var­i­ous pur­pos­es, includ­ing chick­en feed and soap, high­light­ing the com­mod­i­fi­ca­tion of human remains in a soci­ety strick­en by pover­ty. Par­vana dis­plays the mon­ey she made from her grim work, prompt­ing a dis­cus­sion about the family’s finances and the need for Par­vana to con­tin­ue work­ing rather than return­ing to her pre­vi­ous job of read­ing let­ters. Noo­ria sur­pris­ing­ly sides with Par­vana, not­ing the fam­i­ly’s dwin­dling resources and argu­ing for her right to help secure extra mon­ey.

    Ulti­mate­ly, Moth­er reluc­tant­ly accepts Parvana’s deci­sion to con­tin­ue her new line of work, upon the con­di­tion that Par­vana reports back to her. As Par­vana embarks on this new ven­ture, she and her friend Shauzia decide to sell light­weight items like cig­a­rettes and gum instead of pur­su­ing fur­ther grave dig­ging. Their spir­its lift as they focus on sell­ing in mar­kets and dur­ing events, and they begin to earn a decent liv­ing.

    Their entre­pre­neur­ial jour­ney takes a dark turn when they decide to sell their wares at a soc­cer game. Instead of the expect­ed excite­ment, they encounter a hor­rif­ic pub­lic exe­cu­tion by the Tal­iban, where thieves are bru­tal­ly pun­ished. Par­vana and Shauzia are par­a­lyzed by fear as they wit­ness the vio­lence unfold, with Par­vana’s glimpses of the grue­some spec­ta­cle stark­ly con­trast­ing her hopes for a bet­ter life. The chap­ter clos­es with a kind stranger help­ing them escape the grue­some scene, rein­forc­ing the per­va­sive sense of fear yet the lin­ger­ing hope for a return to nor­mal­cy amidst the chaos.

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