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Earth and Ashes: Silence Against Violence
Neptune Mohammadi
5/11/2024
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Earth and Ashes is the story of a grandfather, named Dastageer and his grandson, Yassin.
Russians bombed their village, and the village was completely destroyed. Luckily, they both
survived from the bombing. But, they lost other members of the family, including Dastageer wife,
and his daughter-in-law, Zainab. Besides, the bombing had made Yassin deaf. He cannot hear and
thinks that everything around him has become silent. Among this tragic accident, Dastageer wants
to visit her son Murad, Yassin’s father. But he does not know how to deliver that bad news to his
son. He thinks too much and is scared. He is scared of his son reaction to this tragedy, but at the
same time, he wants his son know what has happened to his family. He is in dilemma and
sometimes thinks that he should not go, and other times, he thinks it is his duty as a father to go
and share what has happened. He does not know, in what words, say that Murad’s wife and mother
have lost their lives, and that his only son cannot hear. With that, he asks the guard who is in
checkpoint to inform him when any track goes to the mines where Murad works. He leaves his
grandson with the kind shopkeeper, and he embarks his journey to see his son. But when he arrives,
the mine manager tells him that Murad knows about the catastrophe, and he thinks that his father
has died too. The story finishes without a good ending, and it more focuses on the impact of war
on individuals. Beyond the impact of war, sorrow and grief, the theme that I found consistent in
this story is people’s silence against violence.
While reading the novel, one question that always popped up to my mind was why no one
seeks justice? Why Dastageer think he is the blame for the loos of his family? The fact that
bombing can happen and destroy the whole village, but nobody projects, and people who destroyed
are not taking accountability toward their action saddened me. Bombing was an act of violence,
and it did not only killed Dastageer’ family, it killed the whole village. People feel the sorrow, the
pain and the struggle of an external force, but they feel helpless. There is no protest, or an action
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which shows that what happened should stop. One particular quote that touches my soul, is from
Yassin, who said, “The bomb was huge. It brought silence. The tanks took away people’s voices
and left. They even took Grandfather’s voice away. Grandfather can’t talk anymore; he can’t scold
me.” (2000, p.23). However, the reason why Yassin thinks this way is because he is deaf and he
does not hear voices, but I take the tanks as representative of power, and authority. So when those
in authority attacked people, and showed power, people felt helpless and it made them silent.
Maybe they thought that nobody can hear them even if they talk. Yes, ‘the tanks took away
people’s voices’. It is not only Dastageer and his grandson, but other the characters did not express
their sadness, for example, the guard, and the shopkeeper. The silence in the story shows how sad
they are and how hard it is for them to speak up and be heard.
This story also reminds me of Gregor in the Metamorphosis. He woke up one morning and
found himself a giant. He could no longer talk. He could not communicate with his tongue.
However, he talked in his own language, the insect language, but no one understood his language.
He was silent, and unheard. In the Metamorphosis, Gregor talks, but he struggles to be understood,
but in the Earth and Ashes, people do not speak up even if they are understood. The difference is
that in the Metamorphosis, people cannot hear Gregor’s voice in reality and they cannot respond
to him. On the other hand, on the Earth and Ashes, people do not seek justice and protest because
they already believe that they will not be heard.
Currently, in today’s current situation of Afghanistan, however some people express their
opinion and their thoughts regarding the violation that the Taliban government are doing, but the
majority of us in Afghanistan are silent. Our pains are so stronger that we do not think it is worth
standing for our rights. We think we have lost so much and it does not matter what we lose
afterwards. For example, it has been three years since Afghan girls beyond sixth grade cannot
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attend schools, courses and universities, but we are silent. Some provinces have been bombed, and
we have been silent. And many other examples of injustice happen, but we respond it with silence.
Some people may not raise their voices such as Dastageer who thinks he will not be heard, and
some people may not raise their voice such as Gregor who think will not be understood, and others
like me will not raise their voice because of their safety. We should not respond violence with
violence, but silence will not also help us for a long term safety, peace and justice. As an Afghan,
I have felt almost every sentence that the author wrote, connected with my life in Afghanistan and
others who I have come across in Afghanistan. Besides, I am not surprised to find that the author
has brought the themes of war, distance, sorrow and grief in this story because for decades, it has
been our story. But besides war, we have had many resilience and success story which people often
talk about. However, what I found interesting in this story, is the author’s brilliant work showing
the struggles of people in Afghanistan because I personally hear that we are strong, and resilient.
But this story engages people emotionally in a story full of pain and sorrow.
The story of Earth and Ashes shows how war has devastating consequences and it can
silence people. The characters feel helpless and cannot speak up after their village is bombed. They
do not seek justice, and this raises questions about accountability. It reflects the situation in
Afghanistan, where people stay silent due to fear or thinking their voices will not make a
difference. What we need to take away from this story is that we need to break the silence, demand
justice, and work towards lasting peace, and it should be a collective action because people have
power and when they work together, they will come up to better solutions.
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Reference List
Rahimi, A. (2002). Earth and ashes (E. Goknar, Trans.). Vintage Books.
Kafka, F. (1915). The metamorphosis (W. A. Muir, Trans.). Die Verwandlung