Under The Persimmon Tree Character Analysis

Words: 1899
Pages: 8

(AGG) Since the beginning of human civilization, people have been been changed by warfare. (BS-1) War is a terrible thing that causes much loss, and often crafts its victims to be disconsolate. (BS-2) In Afghanistan and Pakistan, violence is a common occurrence and the people involved become blind to its destruction. (BS-3) Losing loved ones is not always a bad thing, because it can sometimes make the sufferer into a better person. (TS) Throughout Under The Persimmon Tree, war events create change in different characters, both positive and negative.

(MIP-1) War and losing things because of war, often causes people to become hopeless and empty inside. (SIP-A) Refugees from past conflicts and current ones lose hope because of tragedy. (STEWE-1)
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This is shown in chapter 16 when Najmah arrives at the refugee camp in Peshawar. As she walks towards the back of the camp she sees that “around these tents, the people stand like many others that I've seen, looking at you with eyes that have nothing behind them” (Staples 185). They were the ones there from the Soviet invasion, and they were the ones who had lost anything and everything to live for. These people have seen so much pain and suffering, that it's hard to imagine them ever being the same again. (STEWE-2)The symptoms of hopelessness and emptiness show that the refugees are in a state of permanent PTSD. They don't have the necessities that humans need to live, they just live off of the bare minimum, and they have terrible shelters. When Najmah is in the camp in Peshawar, she thinks that “you can tell by looking at them that they have little food or water, and the only things they live on are dreams of their farms, which no longer exist” (Staples 186). Their homes and farms are gone, which has destroyed any means of having hope about going home, because they have nothing else to go home to. The dreams of their farms, are nothing but dreams now, and even those have faded long ago. Refugees