I Am Malala Book Analysis Essay Example

The autobiography I Am Malala was written by Malala Yousafzai, and co-written with Christina Lamb. This amazing book is about how one girl can make a difference and how she stood up for the right to education.

At the beginning of the book, Malala Yousafzai introduces herself to the reader and gives background about her life. She explains that she was born in Mingora, the largest city in the beautiful Swat Valley, located in northwest Pakistan. After that, she tells the readers about her family, and friends, and how important school is to her. Malala highlights the difference between the freedom of the boys and the restrictions on the girls. She knows her father supports her freedom, but she wonders if freedom will be possible for her in the future.

After that when Malala is a teenager, a male cousin criticizes her for not properly covering herself. Malala highlights the difficult, restricted lives of the women in Shangla. They must cover their faces, cannot speak to males who aren’t close to family, and are sometimes treated brutally. When Malala asks her father about this, he tells her life is harder in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Malala does not realize that the Taliban will soon affect her life in Swat, even though her father promises to protect her freedom and encourages her to pursue her dreams.

In the middle of the book, there is an earthquake and on the radio, a mullah tearfully tells his followers to stop listening to music, watching movies, and dancing, or else God will send another earthquake to punish them, the radio speaker is Maulana Fazlullah, a TNSM leader with no religious background. On the radio, Fazlullah begins naming individuals and calling them sinful. This is the beginning of a long bloody road because The Taliban start killing police officers, women, men, and children who oppose them. Pakistani authorities do nothing to oppose the Taliban's takeover in the Swat Valley because they are preoccupied with the Taliban's presence in the capital, Islamabad, her father receives a call from a friend who works for BBC radio in Peshawar, Pakistan. The friend wants a young girl to write a diary of life under the Taliban. Malala asks her father if she can do it, and he agrees. Malala wants to use the opportunity to argue for her rights and the rights of all children to sing, play, and learn. She creates the diary by answering a journalist's questions, who writes them up for the BBC website. Malala uses the name Gul Makai to protect her identity.

Nearing the end of I am Malala and the Taliban discover who she is. After taking her Pakistan Studies exam, Malala gets on the school bus to go home. She feels the exam has gone well. She sits next to her best friend near the back of the bus and notices some of the wanted posters for terrorists along the road. Suddenly, the bus stops, and two men get on. They ask, "Who is Malala?" and then shoot Malala in the head and two other girls. Malala says the last thing she remembers is the sound of bullets. They were not like a "crack, crack, crack," but sounded like chickens being beheaded.

In the end, Malala wakes up on October 16, a week after the attack. She is thousands of miles away from home. Her first thought is to thank God she isn't dead, but she has no idea where she is or why the people around her are speaking English. Malala tries to make sense of her new surroundings but has a hard time communicating. Her left ear keeps bleeding, and her left arm feels strange. She spends several days drifting in and out of consciousness. Eventually, Malala is allowed to call her parents, who are still unable to join her. Her father grows frustrated at the army's inability to capture the perpetrators. Malala discovers that many people around the world have written letters and prayed for her. She realizes that the Taliban had made her campaign global. Malala's home is covered with awards from around the world. She mentions she has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She says, however, that she doesn't want to be thought of as the girl the Taliban shot, she wants to be the girl who fought for education. She says this is the cause she will use her life to fight for.