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I am Parvana. I live in Afghanistan with my family. I am eleven and short for my age. I am the only person in my family who can get water for the house and the only person who can go to the marketplace with my father. It is hard to hold my tongue, but I have learned to not blurt out. I am the main character in the breadwinner.

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Parvana's family consists of her provoking older sister Nooria, her sweet little sister Maryam, her adorable baby brother Ali, her caring Mother and her Kind Father.

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The marketplace is the setting in the first chapter of the Breadwinner. Parvana is at the market with her father. Her father is the breadwinner in Parvana's family and he goes down to the marketplace daily to read letters for many Afghans who can't read. Parvana comes with him to help him walk since he doesn't have one of his legs. Parvana has to sit for hours at the market doing nothing, her legs getting sore and cramped from all the sitting. Then she has to walk her father back home to the apartment. But, even though there are so many cons to going to the market, Parvana loves getting out of the apartment and going to the market.

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Parvana has to stay silent while she waits to help her father walk home from the marketplace but she enjoys being outside anyway.

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The antagonists in the Breadwinner, so far, are the Taliban soldiers. They are members of a religious group that have taken their religion a little too far. The Taliban don't let women outside without a man and if they catch one without a man, she must have a letter from someone, most likely her husband, if the Taliban will let her being outside go. Also, women over the age of sixteen must wear a burqa or chador every time they go outside. The Taliban affected Parvana's mother by not allowing women's stories to be published. Now Parvana's mother rarely goes outside. The Taliban make a very negative affect on Parvana's family and the Taliban are most definitely the antagonists.

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Father arrested and kidnapped by the Taliban

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We were in the middle of a cheerful dinner, when four Taliban barbarians burst into our modest apartment and dragged my father away to the jail for no apparent reason.

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My mother and I headed to the prison after my dad was kidnapped. It was the first time my mother went outside in a year and a half! The walk was long and tiring. By the time we got there my feet were full of blisters and bleeding. Then after calling for the guards to release my father, the soldiers beat my mother and I. The long walk back was hard, but the recovery was even harder, especially for my mother who wouldn't get up until our family friend Mrs. Weera came.

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Mrs. Weera is an incredibly important character in the Breadwinner. First, she helps Parvana's mother get back on her feet. Then, she inspires Parvana's family to go outside more. Mrs. Weera moves in with Parvana's family and in doing this she and Parvana's mother start working on a project. The project is a magazine. Doing this boosts Parvana's mother's confidence. Finally, Mrs. Weera was the fastest women runner in all of Afghanistan.

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Now that I am clothed as a boy I can escort my family out of the house. The little ones are joyous and energetic, Nooria's nicer, and Mother's happier. We take the little ones to the well every day to wash, Nooria helps carry the water, and we are all healthier.

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Afghanistan marketplace where Parvana can read letters

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Parvana's mother decides since their father is gone, Parvana must be the breadwinner for the family. This includes Parvana looking like a boy. She has to wear her deceased brother's clothes and her hair must be cut. At first, Parvana was incredibly annoyed by the mere idea of having her hair cut. However, she comes around to it and eventually feels like her hair is prettier. Unfortunately, Parvana missed her mop of curly black hair dreadfully. With her new boy look, she can go to the market and take her father's place without suspecting she's a girl.

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I go to the marketplace to get food for the family. I stop at the naan stand first and ask for ten loaves of naan. A Taliban soldier trudges up to me and demands to know where my father or my husband is and starts hitting me. Clutching the still warm naan to my chest I run away from the Taliban soldier and bump into my family friend Mrs. Weera

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I was working as a letter reader in the market after being turned into a boy when a Taliban soldier came over to me. I was terrified, thinking he was going to punish me. But instead, he had me read a letter addressed to his dead wife. When I finished reading the letter to him, he cried. I was surprised. I had always thought of the Taliban as heartless monsters, I never expected one of them to ever cry real sorrowful tears.

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I was at the market one day when I left my blanket to buy something from a nearby vendor. When I came back, there was a mysterious bracelet on the blanket. There was a window by my blanket. When I looked through, I saw a mysterious woman.

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Shauzia is one of Parvana's old classmates. They never really got along since each they each had a different set of friends. However as soon as they realized that they were both girls doing this "acting as a boy" thing. They quickly get along and Parvana invites Shauzia to walk her home. Shauzia has a dream to get a tray and sell things off of it. Shauzia's home life is very chaotic and everyone hates each other. She lives with her grandparents but the mom and grandparents dislike each other on very heightened levels. Shauzia bathes in the happiest of getting away from them.

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Mrs. Weera, now moved in, is getting curious about how to educate young girls. The idea pops into her head when Shauzia is at Parvana's house. Mrs. Weera wants Shauzia to keep up on her education but, the people around Shauzia don't feel the same way. Later, Nooria comes up with an add on idea. She decides that she would be the arithmetic and history teacher, Mother would be the reading and writing teacher and finally, Mrs. Weera would focus on heath and science.

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I was sitting on my blanket with no customers when something suddenly landed on my head. I snatched it off. It was a gorgeous handkerchief. I turn to smile thanks to Window Woman, who was getting good at chucking things at me, when Shauzia comes running up.

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Shauzia had an idea to get us more money, we would dig up bones. We went to the graveyard with wooden boards to use as shovels and started digging. After a while we unearthed a skull, we named him Mr. Skull and put him on the gravestone to watch us. When we finished, we sold the bones to the bone broker and went home with piles of money.

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Nooria is being much kinder. She actually helped Mother understand why I should be able to keep digging bones and be able to sell things off a tray. I'm grateful, but curious, too.

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I had come back to my letter reading post, with no customers, when something dropped onto my head once more. Another gift! This time it was a red wooden bead. There was only one. I have started to get very curious about this strange woman who sent it.

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Shazia and I raised enough money to buy silver trays for ourselves to sell our goods on. We sold cigarettes, gum, and match boxes.

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Shauzia and I saw people heading into the stadium. We followed, thinking it was a soccer game where we could sell our goods. Instead when we got inside, we witnessed Taliban soldiers punishing prisoners. They laid them out on a table and cut off one of their hands each. When they where done, a soldier strung four of the hands on a rope and showed them off to the crowd.

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Shauzia is getting tired of living in Kabul, from having to dress like a boy and provide food for her family, to having to be in a near radiance of the dark tension in her household. She decides to tell me about her secret plan to escape. Shauzia wants to get on a boat to France because everything is always happy there, in all the pictures she's seen. She wants to lay in a field of purple flowers and forget about everything. She also is beginning to get nervous because she is starting to develop and if people realize she is a girl, she will be stuck in Kabul forever. She asks me to join her, but I'm not so sure. I can't just leave my family.

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One crisp morning I hear loud thudding noises. I hear a woman's screams and cries and a shouting man. I am very curious and jumps to look through the window. But, I'm disappointed when I realize the window is painted black. A customer reminds me that what is going on in that house is his business, not mine. I run home to tell my family, but they surprise me with news of their own. Nooria, my normally bossy older sister, is getting MARRIED.

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I was selling my cigarettes, gum and match boxes, when dark clouds came and it began to rain. Shauzia had already gone home, since she'd seen it coming, but I had cover my tray with my body and hurry into a bombed out building. I was so exhausted and fell asleep immediately. I woke up to lighter skies. It must be late, I think. I start to leave when I hear a woman crying.

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I light one of my match boxes and make my way over to the woman. She has no burqa and chador. By the way she was gripping my arm, she clearly didn't want to be left alone. I leave the bombed out home with the girl in the pitch-black darkness. When I get home Mrs. Weera embraces me, nervous since she thought I wouldn't get home.

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Homa is the woman crying in the bombed out shelter. After two days at Parvana's house, with healthy and filling meals, Homa finally opens up about her past. She talks about the Taliban invading her home, them murdering her family, her hiding in the closet so she doesn't get found, and worst of all, seeing hundreds of bodies in the street, wild dogs eating them. Then she says something along these lines, "I just escaped from Mazar-e-Sharif." Parvana is shocked, that's where her family is, are still they alive?

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I was walking home from work when I saw two men helping someone up the stairs to our apartment. He had a resemblance to someone. I started running to him, shouting Father! Father! I hugged him and cried while Mrs Weera was thanking the men for returning him with tea. I was so happy that I forgot my manners until they were leaving I replied thank you in a small voice.

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I pulled Shauzia in for a hug. She was leaving for Paris very soon. Then she told me, "In twenty years we will meet at the top of the Eiffel Tower." We embraced once more and she left, leaving me to think of what might come in twenty years. I hopped into the truck with my father, and as Shauzia headed off to Paris, I headed off to Mazar-e-Sharif to find the rest of my family.