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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Displacement
When the Taliban’s violence and brutality in Mingora reach a tipping point, the Yousafzais make the decision to flee their home. Even before they make this decision, they are figuratively displaced, because the Taliban strips away everything familiar about Mingora. They close schools, murder innocent people, and take away every comfort. Malala loses her education, and the family lives in a constant state of terror they have never known even before they are forced to leave.
When the family decides to leave Swat Valley in May of 2009, they become internally displaced persons (IDPs). For the next three months, the family moves around and relies on the hospitality of friends and family in surrounding areas of Pakistan. Possibly worst of all for Malala, she must leave behind her books, causing her to be intellectually displaced. For a young girl who prioritizes learning, abandoning her studies may have been one of the most difficult losses. The displacement is one more example of how the government has failed the Pakistani people. They allowed the Taliban to terrorize citizens to the point that they had to leave their homes. In a final, and possibly permanent displacement, the family leaves after Malala’s shooting. They have no idea that they will not be coming back, making it a departure with no closure or resolution.
Hospitality
Hospitality is an important part of the Pashtun culture. The Yousafzai home often becomes the temporary home of friends and family who have fallen on hard times. Early on, the family has very little, but Toor Pekai never turns anyone away. Later, when the family becomes displaced, Malala remarks on how few of the IDPs are forced to resort to living in camps. Because of the culture of hospitality, the majority of people, including her family, can rely on others for shelter. This is a part of her heritage that Malala can fully embrace.
However, Pashtun hospitality can be a double-edged sword. In 2004, during the American war in Afghanistan, General Musharraf gives in to pressure by the United States government and sends the Pakistani army into the tribal lands that border Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Americans believe that militants from Afghanistan have fled to these border areas seeking safety. The soldiers take advantage of the Pashtun hospitality. They stay in the area and launch raids across the border at NATO troops. This act creates more conflict as Pakistani soldiers feel they are fighting their own people because they are all Pashtuns. The people who live on the tribal lands see the Pakistani army as invaders.
Prayer
Malala leans on her faith often, praying in times of fear, uncertainty, and gratitude. She prays as she watches her beloved Swat Valley taken over by the Taliban and when she and her family are forced out of their home. As she becomes more well-known for her activism, Malala begins to worry for her safety. She is not frightened enough to stop speaking out or to start using security. But she is still fearful, so she prays with confidence that God will protect her.
After Malala is shot, her relationship with God gives her a unique ability to maintain hope during the most difficult moments of her life. She always turns to prayer when she has no other way to help people, and now that she has survived the shooting, she knows that God spared her because of the prayers of others. She believes she has been given what she calls a “second life,” a chance to continue her work after almost being murdered for it. Malala never pursued her activism for her own personal gain but for the future of others. Facing death and being saved by prayer increased Malala’s confidence in her purpose.
