The Persimmon Tree Themes

During the past 20 years regard 2.5 millions of Afghans had died because of war

When humanity is unable to atone for its sins, the innocent perish, while the living are left to suffer. In his elegy When the Towers Fell, Galway Kinnell laments the victims of the September 11th, 2001 attacks. In 2001, the world had just entered a new millennium; however, it was painfully reminded that the violence of humanity’s past would neither be forgiven nor forgotten. Through his captivating symbolic imagery, Kinnell is able to capture and emphasize the grief of the living, and the infectious nature of hate and war.

The Taliban are responsible for 77% of civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The Taliban have killed many people since they’ve taken over the country and they will continue to kill more if they’re not stopped. The book My Forbidden Face, written by Latifa, is the story of Latifa and her family and their experiences living under the Taliban regime. Some of the ways Latifa’s family has managed to survive is their affluence and their cautiousness.

Imagine being involved in a bloody massacre and watching your community dissipate into the dusk. Picture dodging the piercing bullets as they whisk past innocent ears. Envision your home turning into a battle ground, breaking up into military bases—flipping the world upside down. (nice capture tactic) This was peoples’ lives for many years, beginning in the 1960’s, during the Civil War in Sierra Leone. (need a transition---how does Beah relate to civil war aforementioned—I think I follow and understand but you did not explicitly state, which is always necessary when essay writing) A Long Way Gone is a memoir written and lived by Ishmael Beah. He writes with an intense tone and strong demeanor with his diction,

Lice. There is an abundance of lice in your head, and there are more eggs than lice. You get used to it. You’re starving, beaten, and dying of disease. These are just a few things you have to deal with. Milkweed, a historical- fiction book written by Jerry Spinelli, is about an orphan boy named Misha who lost his identity in Nazi occupied Warsaw, Poland during War World II. Throughout the book, Misha has to overcome obstacles, which demonstrates the theme the will of survival.

And, really, what could be said, what needed saying, when you’d shoved the barrel of you gun into your wife’s mouth? It was the raids, the reason they were in the yard digging. Sometimes monthly raids, sometimes weekly. Of late, almost daily. Mostly the Taliban confiscated stuff, gave a kick to someone’s rear, whacked the back of a head or two. But sometimes there were public beatings, lashings of soles and palms” (Hosseini 267).

Power, a major influence throughout all of history. Wars, love, and countries all began with the same concept: power. Sometimes, power is used responsibly; other time the platform of prestige authority is used in a manipulative way. Power can stem from an individual, but it can also be rooted in memories that haunt people forever. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini writes an impactful novel, showing the brutality Afghanistan goes through as power is corrupted in the country. However, Hosseini also explores the theme of authority that family has over others and how dark feelings can rule people’s lives. Power is depicted in three different ways in the novel: the Taliban’s rule over Afghanistan, Baba’s pull on Amir, and the guilt Amir feels over himself.

“When something bad happens you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you.”, said once by Dr. Seuss. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir had gone through difficulties and has had to choose from the three choices. If Hassan didn’t sacrifice himself, Amir wouldn’t have become a better person.

In the novel ‘Boy Overboard’ written by Morris Gleitzman, female characters were disadvantaged by the oppression. Females suffer from sexual abuses, prostitution, child labor, rape and struggle to win attention and voice from the society. In the time period of the domination of the Taliban, female's voice and rights start to diminish. They had to start covering themselves with long layers of garment and be more aware of their surrounding community as that they might harm them. With the disturbs of the taliban which is an islamic fundamentalist group that is still ruling parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries around, it makes it hard for a women to have freedom. In the following paragraphs, I will be discussing in deeper details providing evidence from the novel “Boy Overboard” of how and why female face gender inequality.

Betrayal is an issue many can relate to, whether it is done by a family member or a friend. In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, we witness betrayal play a vital role in the downfall of the main character’s Amir and Hassan’s friendship, and how betrayal was the reason for why Amir sought redemption in hopes to move on. The novel begins with Amir as an adult, recalling an event that took place in 1975 in his hometown Kabul, Afghanistan and how this event was what changed the rest of his life and made him who he now is. Despite this heartbreaking occurrence of Amir’s reluctance to help Hassan while he was being raped, it was the reason for why Amir later decided to be brave and stand up for what he believes in. Hosseini shows us how the Afghani culture and Amir’s reluctance to help

Within Liam O’Flaherty’s short story, “The Sniper”, there are two literary devices that greatly impact the meaning of the story. These two literary devices are irony and mood, and together they show the reader how difficult war can be and how it can pull friends and families apart. While reading the text, the reader can feel how tired, lethargic, yet exciting war can be. On page 1, paragraph 3, the sniper was “eating a sandwich hungrily” because he “had eaten nothing since morning”. In this paragraph, readers can feel how the thrill of war can overcome a person, taking over their actions, emotions, and feelings. Irony also plays a big part in “The Sniper”, helping support the meaning of the story through the theme. At the end of the story in paragraphs 25-27, the sniper decides to look at the body of the man he had just killed, and to his surprise, he finds that the man he had just shot dead was his brother.

For centuries, women have been exploited by the society. Events of women being prohibited from doing things like voting or working and being forced to behave the way it is considered to be socially acceptable have been jotted down in history. Until today women are still viewed as the weaker sex. In some countries, women are regarded less than human and are treated like slaves. Khaled Hosseini goes into the oppression of women in his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. In the story, the women are oppressed by the society. This is narrated through the delivery of the main antagonist’s id, the gender inequality in enforcing laws and the marginalization of women.

This highlights the importance of how these acts of cruelty Mariam and Laila faced; ‘fear of the goat, released in the tiger’s cage’ is what ultimately defines their inner feminist strength, ‘over the years/learned to harden’ which shows that Mariam and Laila’s past indirectly prepares them for The Taliban’s arrival. The Taliban take away the basic rights of Mariam and Laila ‘jewellery is forbidden’, but they fail to do so. Ironically, it is the society itself that gives them the strength and platform to strike back against Rasheed, who is a cruel, male-dominating character who symbolised and reinforced everything the term ‘anti-feminist’ stands

It is essential for governments to continue the fight against the Taliban and other extremist groups that are preying on women. The attack on women’s rights began immediately after the group took control when “the Taliban closed the women’s university and forced nearly all women to quit their jobs” (“Report on the Taliban’s”). Before the rise of the Taliban in 1994, Afghanistan was making steady progress towards equality. Women could vote by 1920, gendered separation was abolished in the 1950s, and in the

The described acts of violence of the Taliban were not fictional events that Hosseini created but were rather based on complete truth. The women’s stoning (Hosseini 271) was not a scene that Hosseini invented. It was honest truth. Women were stoned to death in public for small crimes such as singing, according to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Hosseini used the ugly truth about Afghanistan to help the western people understand the hardships of life that the people endured under the Taliban rule. Hosseini also extremely keeps his bias to the side. He writes in The Kite Runner that the when Taliban came into power the people of Afghanistan were very pro-Taliban. This was due to the fact that Taliban offered them stability and peace. His honesty and clear portray of the Taliban rule of Afghanistan greatly helps the reader cerate a picture in their mind. Due to the events in the book and the laws of the Taliban that are identical, thus proving that Hosseini did draw an honest picture of Afghanistan in The Kite