I am Malalais a book about a girl named Malala who was shot by the Taliban and her journey before and after that event. In the book, there are many characters that show up, both minor and major to the story. The major characters consist of her father, Zaiuddin Yousafazi, and Malala Yousafazi. Along with that, there are many minor characters, like her mother, her brothers, her doctors, etc. All the characters in Malala's book consistently remind me of someone in my life.

Since the beginning of the book, Malala's father reminded me greatly of mine. This is because her father stayed with her throughout the book and agreed with her. He also never saw her as a liability to their family as others did because in their culture, having a girl was bad luck, and having a boy was good luck.

In the book, he says to an audience in France when collecting an award for Malala, "In my part of the world, most people are known by their sons. I am one of the few lucky fathers known by his daughter."

Continuously, the reader is reminded of the themes of women's rights and the power of education. At Malala's father's school, there are teachers refusing to teach the girls. In addition, they are calling women who went to school rude names.

Malala utters, "One day Sufi Mohammad proclaimed from jail that there should be no education for women, even girls' madrasas…Then the Radio Mullah turned his attention to schools. He began speaking against school administrations and congratulating girls by name who left school. "Miss So-and so has stopped going to school and will go to heaven," he'd say, or, Miss X of Y village has stopped education at Class 5. I congratulate her." Girls like me who still went to school he called buffaloes and sheep."

This quote plays an important role in women's rights, like how they should not go to school because they have to learn how to cook and be a stay at home mother. The quote used in the previously where Malala begged her father to allow the unfortunate to get a free spot at his school helps with the fact that not everyone can afford education. In the United States everyone gets an education if they choose to, we have public schools, so we do not have to pay. However, where Malala lived they had to pay to go to school, and those children scavenging through trash did not have enough money to pay for school.

In the book, it has been clear that women should not be educated, they should simply do household chores, but Malala and her father made a school and girls were taught in it. Moreover, for a good education, one obviously needs books, and Malala has those. Before Malala's shooting, there is a flood, and everyone in Swat had to be evacuated, so everyone had minimal belonging with them. One of the top things Malala wanted to bring with her was her books because she had exams coming up and she needed to get first in her class. Unfortunately, she could not bring her books because there was no space in the car.

However, this is just one example of when books were symbolic. Another example is when Malala was in the hospital and was talking to her parents; she got news that they were coming to see her, finally. In addition, the one thing she says to her father is, "Bring my school bag," she pleaded her father. "If you can't go back to Swat to fetch it, no matter- buy new books for me, because in March it's my board examination." Of course I wanted to come first in class."

Books are symbolic in the book because anyone can see that they are the key to knowledge. This symbol is more obvious in the second half of the book because a lot has changed. Even though girls were not supposed to be learned, Malala and her friends and family overcame that obstacle with a strong head. Just like the theme of the book revolves greatly on knowledge, the way it is written makes it interesting.

Knowledge is the key and everyone deserves to have it, even if it is a risk, just like for Malala's father. Her father continuously kept getting threats from the government for his school. Another symbol is the Dyna. The Dyna is the bus that took the girls to and from school every day. It is symbolic because that is where the Taliban shot three girls including Malala.

In conclusion, I am Malala is a book that changed my whole perspective of the world. From the way, the characters relate to my family to the symbols and themes present in the book. Here in the United States, we take advantage of all of our belongings. We read books once or twice and toss them aside.

Nevertheless, if we just turn the globe a little we can see that other countries have lives that are worse than ours are. They have books that they probably have read ten or twenty times, and they cherish all of their belongings. They do not take advantage of their knowledge, they put what they have learned to use for the future, like creating foundations to help the unfortunate rather than us in the United States. We use our knowledge on how to get the hottest new trend or on how to become popular. I feel like if we all were not attached to our phones or other technology, and we looked up we would see all the wrongs with this world and start to appreciate it and take advantage of our books and knowledge, like Malala, we could make this world one again.