Ground Zero

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-14

Chapters 15-22

Chapters 23-30

Chapters 31-38

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Stuffed Tasmanian Devil

Taz’s Tasmanian Devil stuffed animal is a motif representing both survival and destruction. To Taz, it represents luck and survival because he randomly grabbed the stuffed animal shortly before escaping the North Tower on 9/11. He carries it with him as a form of protection, and he presumably always has it with him since it is the reason he earned the nickname Taz. Before parting with Reshmina, he gives it to her so that she might have some luck, too. A stuffed animal does not actually bring luck, though, and Reshmina knows that “it wouldn’t serve her any real purpose” (303). The gesture does show a shift in Taz’s character because in the beginning of the novel, he merely apologizes “with a shrug” for the impossible situation the villagers are in (31). When he gives the stuffed animal, a deeply personal object, to Reshmina, he shows that he does care about her survival.

It is significant, too, that the stuffed animal is a Tasmanian Devil and not a docile or friendly animal. When they meet, Taz explains to Reshmina that a Tasmanian Devil “spins around and destroys things” (64), which Reshmina thinks “certainly sounded American” (64). Taz, bearing the name of the animal, thereby embodies the animal’s destruction. When he gives the stuffed animal to Reshmina, the act suggests that he is genuine about his desire to help the Afghans and he wants to shift away from that identity and path.

The Toy Airplane

Pasoon’s toy airplane is a motif representing innocence and familial love. Hila, Pasoon’s sister, gave him the toy before she was killed, so the toy is very special to him. It links him to the memory and love of his sister. It is “Pasoon’s most treasured possession in the world” (28). The fact that Pasoon values a toy is inherently childish and innocent. He hides it so no one else can break it or play with it, which is also something a child might do. When he leaves home to join the Taliban, he brings it with him, and when Reshmina later takes it from him, he wrestles her for it.

However, Pasoon ultimately says he does not care about getting it back

from her because “toys are for babies. I’m a man now” (163). When he turns his back on the toy, he also turns his back on his family and his innocence. At this point, his love of Hila is no longer what motivates him, and he does not care that his family may die once he tells the Taliban about Taz being in their house.

The Room of Artifacts

In Chapter 34, Reshmina finds a hidden room of artifacts in the cave she is hiding in. The room is a symbol of Afghanistan’s resilience. She finds artifacts from around the world, including Ancient Greece, the British Empire, the Mongol Empire, and the Soviet Union, all of which invaded Afghanistan. Although Reshmina does not know who collected these artifacts, she knows it was a long time ago because “everything [is] covered by a thin gray dust” (259). She concludes that the room is “a memorial to all the armies who had invaded Afghanistan and conquered it, just like Taz and the Americans, only to learn that they could never rule it” (261).

Whoever created the collection did so to remember and demonstrate that for thousands of years, nations have tried and failed to control Afghanistan. Not only has no one successfully controlled Afghanistan, but also no one ever will. The writing on the wall in the room says, “We are content with conflict. We are content with fear. We are content with blood. But we will never be content with a master” (261-62). The Afghans are used to violence and war, but they will never let anyone win, including the Americans. When Taz says he left his belt in the cave, Reshmina thinks about how it is “one more artifact for the shrine to failed conquerors” (274).

The collection is a “memorial” to those fallen armies, but it is also a sort of trophy case. Those artifacts, which include old weapons, are things that the invading nations left behind. The collection shows all the times Afghanistan has been invaded, but the physical objects, abandoned as the armies withdrew, visibly show that those invasions were ultimately failures.