Introduction.
Within the Novel Parvana, Deborah Ellis demonstrates and establishes how to and how not to cope with terror and terrible events, living under the antagonist, Taliban. The novel Parvana is written within the context of Afghanistan being a war-torn, difficult country to live in where discrimination and domestic abuse is defined by sex and is preceded as a common way of living. This sense of injustice and prejudges behaviour against the female gender is incorporated within many horrific scenes, throughout the novel. Within this context Parvana and her family face many terrible events, and struggle and learn to cope with the constant fear of the ongoing war and the threat from the Taliban.
Body.
In the early stages of the novel, Parvana and her family are found in a desperate position where Father is taken away by the Taliban. Parvana’s father is their key to their survival. He provides them with food, and income. This incident changes Parvana’s mother. She becomes pass despair and on her toshak and eats only small amounts of food. This fear and anxiety from losing her husband not only displaces the mother but also the whole family, especially Parvana. Losing him is like losing your heart for Parvana, that is that you cannot live without it, Parvana herself says in her desperation, ‘She imagined every noise as either her Father coming back, or the Taliban. Each sound made her frighten and hopeful at the same time.”
After the absences of Parvana’s father, we are put into another scene about coping with the presences of Mrs Werra. Mrs Werra is a tough going female hockey coach who provides the family with a sense of hope and reasoning. She finds the family a resolution involving Parvana experiencing a necessary gender, “As a boy, you’ll be able to move around the in and out of the market, with no trouble from the Taliban.” Parvana at first feels uncomfortable, and displaced by the thought, but she slowly recognises that no one is able to...