Najmah lead a normal childhood, like any other girl before losses turned her life around. Najmah, before her brother and father were taken away, she was sort of scared of the outer world and wanted to stay in or near her house most of the time. She is afraid to go get the wood from outside and wants to just run home because she is afraid of the leopards that her brother Nur keeps teasing about. “My heart hammers, and I want to run back to the house, but I know Mada-jan will be angry” (Staples 6). She knows she is afraid but doesn’t want to cause her family any trouble. Najmah wants to prove to her family “I don’t want to say that I am afraid to go into the hills by myself, so I nod dumbly” (Staples 8). Here Najmah doesn’t want anyone to know
