Najmah Research Paper

(AGG) As they say, “You come back a different person after the war”, Najmah goes on a journey throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan to find her kidnapped brother from the Taliban, and changes mentally and physically along the way. (BS-1) The Kidnapping of Nur and Baba-jan and the loss of Habib and Mada-jan has crushed her.(BS-2)The absence of her family members have striven her to get to Peshawar to find Nur and Baba-jan. (BS-3)The life taken of Baba-jan has made Najmah to go back home to the hills. (TS) Najmah has been affected from the losses of loved ones and is not the same girl from the beginning.
(MIP-1) The taking of Nur
and Baba-jan and the death of Mada-jan and Habib has impacted her tremendously.(SIP-A) : The Taliban taking Nur and Baba-jan to war has made Najmah busier as ever, yet it makes her very responsible and mature like.(STEWE-1) When the Taliban come into the village, the talib leader declares, “ To repay us for having helped our enemy, you must come and fight with the Taliban ”(17).This shows the voice of the talib leader telling Nur and Baba-jan to go to war to fight the mujahideen because they gave the mujahideen supplies in the past. They are angry that they have been ‘Helping the enemy’, but really they just want their food, animals and more people to fight. (STEWE-2) “I can't imagine surviving without Nur and Baba-Jan to look out after the animals and tend the fields.I have forgotten my childish quarrels with Nur ”(37). Najmah has to do all the chores that Nur and Baba-jan once did on the farm. This shows that she is very busy taking care of the farm. This also shows that she is becoming more mature because she is not scared of the pretend leopards that Nur once told her about. With a pregnant mother almost due, the last words from her father were “Take care of your mother, and don’t leave the farm I will, come back ”(18). With much pressure on her to take care of her mother and the farm, Najmah turns strong and mature. (SIP-B) Bombs that once killed her mother and brother, Najmah has become lifeless, and is alone.(STEWE-1) “By then, the explosions were closer and louder than ever ”(65). The moments in Najmah’s brain before her mother dies in her home. The attacks on the village were so strong, they could have almost killed Najmah. One of the biggest moments in the novel, Najmah comes up through the rubble to find her dead Mother and baby brother covered in dirt and blood inside the crushed house. I turn Habib over. He is lifeless, his small body heavy and still. His eyes are closed, and dust covers every inch of him ”(82). This is when reality in her afghan life hits her like a train. Nobody is safe in these territories. (STEWE-2) After the explosion, Najmahthinks to herself, “ I sit in the dirt beside them quietly, not crying, not thinking not even aware I am breathing and it occurs to me that I may be dead too ”(83). This traumatized her so much that she wasn't even sure that she was alive.(CS) Najmah’s loss has changed the way she looks at the world and has left her in shock.
(MIP-2)The loss of her loved ones has driven Najmah to change and to get to Peshawar to find her brother and father. (SIP-A) Najmah transforms into Shaheed for her own protection as she becomes silent from shock. (STEWE-1) After the bombings, khalida and Akhtar move across her land on a donkey by her home and find Najmah holding her baby brother in her hands dead. Khalida comforts Najmah as she, “She picks up a pair of scissors that lies on the pile of quilts and snips at my hair in short strokes until it bristles out all over my head” (84).Khalida cuts Najmah’s hair because they have to disguise her as a boy so she is not treated bad going through the mountains and on the journey. The reason for this is because the Taliban have very strict laws for women and they treat them harshly. This almost shows how the old Najmah is gone. This is where she becomes Shaheed, which means martyr. Martyr means a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs. (STEWE-2) The shock Najmah has, has made her unable to speak that the horrors she has seen, “ But I feel as if my tongue has been locked inside my mouth since the bombs fell” (88). Najmah doesn’t talk since the attack and it shows she can’t even talk even if she wanted to. She's is shock still that her family is gone and this is way her body is treating it, by not talking.(SIP-B) Najmah risks her life to try to connect back to her loved ones. (STEWE-1) When Najmah goes into the fruit car to Peshawar,“ I back away from where the malek and the truck driver argue, and move toward an opening in the canvas tied over the fruit at the back of the truck”(154), this shows where she is driven to go find her loved ones because earlier on the page, a man said how dangerous it would be to drive to Peshawar with a full truck. She still went on it, and survived, even though it was stolen by bandits that then killed the real driver. (STEWE-2) “I feel I must keep my distance from Khalid's and Akhtar because I know I will leave them soon” (151). Now that she has lost all of her family members, Najmah leaves Akhtar and Khalida so that she doesn't get too attached to them so she won't lose them too because she is afraid she will get too attached and then they will die, and she doesn't want to go through that again. This is risking her life because it would be very hard for her to live on her own to try to get to Peshawar rather than going with them. (CS)Najmah’s will to find her brother and father are driven by the loss of her mother and brother. (MIP-3)The death of Baba-jan affects her decision to go back to her home.(SIP-A)Najmah goes back to her home to live on her family’s legacy, knowing it may kill her.(STEWE-1)In Peshawar where Nusrat offers Najmah a trip back to America for a safe life, Nusrat states,“ Your uncle will take the land.
Who would stop him from killing you and taking everything? You will die if you go back!”(256).This means that even if Najmah gets back to her home, her uncle could kill her and take the land, because he is a man and women aren't allowed to have land. The initial threat of the Taliban, bandits and her uncle are stopping her to her destination. (STEWE-2)When Najmah makes her decision to leave to go back home she says, “For there is great value to live in a village called Golestan which means ‘beautiful garden’”(270) This shows that she is happy where her home is and she feels best to stay where she is. (SIP-B)Najmah goes home to fulfill her father’s wish to live in the beautiful mountain, where she feels safe and is the only place that will ever feel like home, knowing that he land has been in her family for generations.(STEWE-1) When Nur reconnects with Najmah the first words that slip from his mouth are, “ Baba-Jan is dead.”(253). Najmah knew something was wrong because Nur was by himself. Najmah remembered how her father told her to make sure to keep the land for him so his brother doesn’t steal it. With him dead, Najmah wants to do what father would have wanted. (STEWE-2) But that’s when Najmah was arguing with Nusrat about what’s the better choice for Najmah’s future, Najmah states, “ We have no choice but to go back to Golestan, Uncle or someone will take our land if we don’t go back. It was our father’s last wish that we should keep our farm land from the hands of the taliban or uncle.”(256). This shows that Najmah isn’t afraid to die trying, because she wants to make sure her father’s dying wish will come true. (CS) With Baba-jan dead, Najmah changes and takes away her safety to do what right, and that is to go back
home.
(RTS) The effects on Najmah by the absence of her loved ones are extreme. (BS-3) Baba-jan's death makes the choice easy for Najmah to to go home.(BS-2) Baba-jan's death makes the choice easy for Najmah to to go home. (BS-1)The kidnapping and murders reflected on her family has shaped Najmah into somebody she has never been before.(R)The real question is, are people different from who they were before the war rather after the war?

Works Cited:

Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Under The Persimmon Tree. Square Fish, 2008.