Agency, Maturity, and Childhood Theme Analysis

The novel’s protagonist, Parvana, is on the brink of puberty at 11 years old. In this state between child and adult, she has both more freedom and more responsibility than the female adults or near-adults in her life—the Taliban isn’t as interested in policing the activities of prepubescent girls as they are adult women, so she can usually get away with being out in the city. However, this also means that many tasks that are forbidden to adult women fall to Parvana. By exploring how Parvana deals with simultaneously being asked to emotionally mature long before she’s ready and hold onto her childish appearance as long as possible, the novel makes the case that growing up becomes far more complicated in situations like Parvana experiences. While the physical indicators that Parvana is still a child protect her and enable her to support her family, her emotional maturity is what allows her to thrive.

At the beginning of the novel, the narrator focuses primarily on Parvana’s actions that reflect her childishness. As she helps Father in the market, she grouses and squirms about having to sit still and about how uncomfortable she is, and she stamps her feet childishly when Mother and Nooria ask her to get water and help them clean. When the Taliban arrest Father, Parvana feels powerless and childish. However, up until Father’s arrest, Parvana has been able to be a child for the most part. She’s mature enough to have certain responsibilities, like fetching water and helping Father in the market, but she’s young enough that her parents and Nooria still enable her to have as carefree of a childhood as possible. Thus, it’s a shock for Parvana when, after Father’s arrest, Mrs. Weera and Mother hatch a plan to save them: Parvana will cut her hair, dress as a boy, and make money in the market to feed the family. For Parvana, this is an affront to the agency and the safety she thought she had as a child. As far as she’s concerned, she shouldn’t have to do these things because she’s so young—but she soon realizes that Mrs. Weera and Mother are right. Parvana, because of where she is in her development, is the only one of them who has a body that’s still androgynous enough to pass for male yet is mature enough to function independently in the market.

Though Parvana initially chafes at her increased responsibility and her new adult role, she eventually comes to realize that the responsibility gives her a great deal of freedom and agency. At first, she does exactly as she’s told: she returns to Father’s regular spot in the market to read and write letters for people who aren’t literate. However, when she discovers that an old school acquaintance, Shauzia, is also posing as a boy to work in the market, she begins to take advantage of her new, adult freedom. With Shauzia’s encouragement, Parvana feels safe and comfortable making the choice to disobey her mother when she and Shauzia learn that they can make a great deal of money by digging up bones in a graveyard. This is no easy choice for the girls: they know their parents won’t approve, they feel uncomfortable disturbing the dead, and they’re afraid of being found out by the other boys who are also out digging. But they also realize that this is the only way they’ll ever make enough money to provide more than bread and tea for their families. By making choices like this and experimenting with their new responsibilities, the girls find more freedom and agency than they ever thought possible.

However, the novel continuously reminds the reader that Parvana and Shauzia’s independence and maturity will be short-lived, and they’re only barely in charge of their own lives—in many ways, they’re still children. Shauzia in particular lives in fear that the family members she lives with will marry her off as soon as she’s old enough, which will mean that they can live off her bride price rather than her meager earnings from selling cigarettes. Though Parvana’s family is far more progressive and believes that women should have agency, not just be married off, Parvana also knows that her ability to pass for a boy will soon disappear as she enters puberty—and with it, she’ll be even more powerless than she was before she started dressing as a boy. Additionally, Parvana and Shauzia often find themselves in situations that are far beyond their comprehension as immature 11-year-olds. They’re shocked and disturbed when they enter a soccer stadium, expecting to sell cigarettes at a game, and instead find themselves watching the Taliban publically torture prisoners. Shauzia later insists that her plan to run away to France will be easy; she’ll simply join nomads until she gets to the sea and then take a boat, a childishly simple plan that showcases a huge lack in understanding of how the world works. Their innocence and naïveté isn’t something they can shake off just because they’re forced to act like adults in some ways; the world is still beyond their comprehension in a variety of ways.

As the first book in a series, The Breadwinner doesn’t entirely solve these problems—but it does suggest that if the girls continue to believe that they have power and agency, they can exert some control over their lives. For Shauzia, this takes the form of running away so her family cannot marry her off, an undoubtedly difficult decision. Because Parvana doesn’t face the same kind of opposition at home, she may have more options when it comes to what actual maturity looks like for her. However, she ends the novel understanding that if she continues to advocate for herself and make her own decisions, she’ll be able to mature on her own terms.