Often, authors use literature as a way to explain a concept or subject that one may not have witnessed themselves. In the novel, "Under The Persimmon Tree", Suzanne Fisher Staples writes a historical fiction story about two main characters, Najmah and Nusrat. During the novel, Staples gives countless examples of what life would feel like to be under the control of the Taliban, an Islamic terrorist group. Najmah is a young girl who lives in the Kunduz Province, Northern Afghanistan. Najmah faces several conflicts right from the beginning of the book. Najmah mainly struggles with the migrating and fleeing from the awful Taliban. On the other hand, Nusrat, a young lady, waits eagerly for her husband’s return from the Mazar-I-Sharif. There,
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Throughout the novel, Najmah has grown up surrounded by the evil Taliban. She has been warned about the cruel and strict rules that they enforce. Najmah knows that “There are a list of things that are forbidden by the Taliban: playing music, laughing out loud, ... putting pictures of beautiful scenes on the walls, reading books,...” (Staples 12). This quote from the book is accurate to reality, because there are a set of laws that the Taliban created, listing all of the sins. Furthermore, Najmah has an in depth understanding of how the Taliban are very aggressive, and how they have no compassion for the violence they create. Najmah has heard “how they lock the people of entire villages inside their houses and burn them to the ground..." (Staples 12). Additionally, Najmah has listened to her older brother as he described the many tragedies that had been caused by the Taliban. He once had told her that “Nearly every grown man you and I have ever known-lying on the ground with their bodies overlapping each other, with blood coming from bullet holes in their heads and bodies” (Staples 254). Evidently, the stories and details about the Taliban that Staples writes in the novel are side by side with what had happened in real life.Overall, Staples used the perspective of the two main characters to give the reader a feel of how horrific and brutal the Taliban really
Throughout the novel, Najmah has grown up surrounded by the evil Taliban. She has been warned about the cruel and strict rules that they enforce. Najmah knows that “There are a list of things that are forbidden by the Taliban: playing music, laughing out loud, ... putting pictures of beautiful scenes on the walls, reading books,...” (Staples 12). This quote from the book is accurate to reality, because there are a set of laws that the Taliban created, listing all of the sins. Furthermore, Najmah has an in depth understanding of how the Taliban are very aggressive, and how they have no compassion for the violence they create. Najmah has heard “how they lock the people of entire villages inside their houses and burn them to the ground..." (Staples 12). Additionally, Najmah has listened to her older brother as he described the many tragedies that had been caused by the Taliban. He once had told her that “Nearly every grown man you and I have ever known-lying on the ground with their bodies overlapping each other, with blood coming from bullet holes in their heads and bodies” (Staples 254). Evidently, the stories and details about the Taliban that Staples writes in the novel are side by side with what had happened in real life.Overall, Staples used the perspective of the two main characters to give the reader a feel of how horrific and brutal the Taliban really