In Chap­ter Three of “The Bread­win­ner,” Par­vana’s fam­i­ly strug­gles with the absence of her father, who has been arrest­ed by the Tal­iban. After a tumul­tuous night where Par­vana is unable to sleep, she finds her­self lost in thoughts of safe­ty, the dark prison her father may be in, and the fear that thick­ens the air around their home. As day breaks, Moth­er, Noo­ria, and Par­vana pre­pare to under­take a dan­ger­ous jour­ney to the prison, moti­vat­ed by the hope of res­cu­ing Father. Unlike the sim­plic­i­ty of going to the mar­ket, Moth­er’s deter­mi­na­tion to retrieve her hus­band reveals the grav­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion.

As they assem­ble a makeshift break­fast, Moth­er dis­miss­es tea to save time in their pur­suit. Noo­ria writes a note giv­ing Moth­er per­mis­sion to be out­side, know­ing the risks involved. Once ready, Par­vana feels appre­hen­sion about the long walk ahead; women can­not ride bus­es with­out male accom­pa­ni­ment. Nonethe­less, both Par­vana and her moth­er remain res­olute. Par­vana’s mind drifts as they walk, imag­in­ing the intim­i­dat­ing and cold envi­ron­ment of the jail her father must be endur­ing.

On reach­ing Pul-i-Charkhi Prison, Par­vana’s anx­i­ety peaks. The atmos­phere is stark and per­ilous as they con­front the guards. Despite the poten­tial for severe reper­cus­sions, Moth­er per­sists, demand­ing her hus­band’s release by hold­ing up his pho­to­graph. Par­vana joins her moth­er, assert­ing their mis­sion. Their pleas quick­ly attract atten­tion from passers­by but soon lead to aggres­sion from the guards. A sol­dier tears Father’s pho­to­graph apart, and vio­lence ensues as Moth­er is beat­en with sticks.

Par­vana, although small, brave­ly inter­venes to pro­tect her moth­er, try­ing to assert her­self in a moment where pow­er­less­ness reigns. As the sit­u­a­tion esca­lates, they ulti­mate­ly leave the prison, bat­tered but still filled with the hope that they can find their way back to peace and secu­ri­ty. The chap­ter vivid­ly illus­trates the pain of sep­a­ra­tion, the strength of famil­ial love, and the harsh real­i­ties faced by women under oppres­sive regimes. Parvana’s brav­ery shines through her fear, show­cas­ing the pro­found impacts of war on both indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies.

In Chap­ter Three, the nar­ra­tor reflects on her upbring­ing in a house­hold over­whelmed by paper­work and doc­u­men­ta­tion. This clut­ter filled her life with a sense of iden­ti­ty shaped by the tan­gi­ble evi­dence of her fam­i­ly’s his­to­ry, encap­su­lat­ed in invoic­es, old sub­scrip­tions, and her mother’s Cam­bo­di­an pass­port. Grow­ing up in this envi­ron­ment instilled in her an obses­sion with archiv­ing and orga­ni­za­tion, influ­enc­ing her career as a civ­il ser­vant.

Through­out the chap­ter, the focus shifts to the nar­ra­tor’s rela­tion­ship with Gra­ham, an expat adjust­ing to mod­ern life. Despite embrac­ing cer­tain aspects of the 21st century—like music from com­posers such as Bach and Tchaikovsky—Graham dis­plays a reluc­tance toward assim­i­la­tion, often cri­tiquing con­tem­po­rary cul­ture and art. His dis­missal of films frus­trates the nar­ra­tor, mak­ing her reflec­tion on their cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences more pro­nounced.

As the nar­ra­tive unfolds, the expats under­go tests for empa­thy and hon­esty, rem­i­nis­cent of psy­cho­log­i­cal eval­u­a­tions. The exper­i­ments reveal ten­sions; some test sub­jects resist the notion of moder­ni­ty, reveal­ing their psy­cho­log­i­cal strug­gles. Gra­ham’s adverse reac­tions to the test­ing pro­ce­dures hint at deep­er issues, draw­ing atten­tion to the emo­tion­al toll of their cur­rent exis­tence.

The chap­ter tran­si­tions into the shared expe­ri­ences of the expats as they nav­i­gate life togeth­er, which accen­tu­ates their iso­la­tion from each oth­er due to their dis­tinct his­tor­i­cal back­grounds. Com­mu­nal din­ners become a poten­tial solu­tion for build­ing con­nec­tions, high­light­ing the appalling dis­par­i­ties among dif­fer­ent eras of expats regard­ing social inter­ac­tion and iden­ti­ty.

The nar­ra­tor reflects on her own iden­ti­ty and finan­cial pru­dence stem­ming from her past, cou­pled with her desire for acknowl­edg­ment from Gra­ham. As the heat wave begins, it intro­duces dis­com­fort and exac­er­bates ten­sions in the rela­tion­ships, lead­ing the nar­ra­tor to buy a new bike for Gra­ham, hop­ing to forge a con­nec­tion through shared expe­ri­ences.

Graham’s ini­tial inep­ti­tude on the bike demon­strates his strug­gle with mod­ern life, while his fas­ci­na­tion with the past emerges through his con­ver­sa­tions. Their shared attempts at adjust­ment expose both lim­i­ta­tions, blend­ing the his­tor­i­cal with the con­tem­po­rary while explor­ing themes of adap­ta­tion and empa­thy through their evolv­ing inter­ac­tions. The chap­ter clos­es with an unset­tling mys­tery regard­ing one of the expats, hint­ing at deep­er, poten­tial­ly sin­is­ter issues with­in the time-trav­el project, rein­forc­ing the nar­ra­tive ten­sion that under­scores their jour­ney.