Ground Zero

“Your actions have to have consequences. If they didn’t, you’d be the bully.”

Brandon’s dad says this to Brandon to explain why he thinks Brandon deserved to be suspended for punching Stuart. Even though Brandon punched Stuart to defend his friend, Brandon’s dad says that Brandon should still be punished for it because punching another person is wrong. If Brandon is violent, even in retaliation, then he is just as bad as the bully who started it all. Brandon thinks about this lesson at the end of the novel when he thinks about the US occupation of Afghanistan and says, “Maybe we’re the bullies” (301).

“‘You always have a choice,’ the American told her. ‘You can pick our side, or their side.’

‘That’s no choice at all,’ Miriam told the sergeant. ‘If these villagers side with the Americans, the Taliban will kill them. And if they side with the Taliban, you and the ANA will kill them. You’re telling them to choose death!’”

The American, Taz, does not truly understand the situation the Afghan villagers are in. His thinking is black and white, and he believes that the villagers can choose whether to support the Americans or the Taliban. Miriam explains to him that no matter what the villagers do, one side wants to kill them. This passage illustrates why life is so difficult for villagers like Reshmina and why they are so angry about the ongoing conflict.

“And without a dream, without ambition, what point was there to living?”

Reshmina believes that having goals for the future is a crucial aspect of life. If she did not have the dream of leaving her village and becoming a teacher, she would not have anything to live for. Reshmina’s life is challenging, with the war, poverty, and cultural restrictions on females, so the thing that keeps her going is dreaming about the life she will create for herself.

“Taz grunted a laugh. ‘No. He’s a cartoon character. He spins around and destroys things.’ Reshmina didn’t know what a cartoon was, but destroying things certainly sounded American.”

Taz explains to Reshmina that his stuffed animal of the Tasmanian Devil is not really supposed to look like the devil, but rather is a cartoon. Reshmina does not know what that means but finds it fitting that the stuffed animal is based on something that destroys everything. She thinks that the Tasmanian Devil is a good representation of what the United States is doing in Afghanistan.

“He pulled his arm against his chest to hide the tattoo, as though he were embarrassed by it. ‘It means…Damn the Valley. It’s kind of my company’s slogan. This valley—it kills our friends and ruins our lives,’ he said sadly.

‘Yes,’ Reshmina said quietly. ‘It is the same for us.’”

Brandon has a tattoo that says “DTV” on his arm, which stands for “Damn the Valley.” The valley refers to Afghanistan. “Damn the Valley” is something he and the other soldiers say because even if they do not die in Afghanistan, their lives are negatively affected by the terrors of war. Even though it is Reshmina’s home, the valley brings much hardship and danger to Reshmina’s life, too.

“The enormous mountains always humbled her. It was easy to see only the village you lived in and not the wider world if you never stopped to look up.”

The mountains symbolize the largeness of the world to Reshmina. When she looks at them, she remembers that there is life beyond her village. This idea gives her hope for her future. To know this, though, it is necessary to make the choice to “[stop] to look up” and not only look at what is right there.

“It didn’t feel weird at all to Brandon to be clinging to a stranger right now. It was reassuring to connect with someone else who was sharing in the struggle to survive. It was the kind of feeling Brandon had with his father, he realized. Like they were in this fight together.”

Brandon and Richard form a close bond within the course of only a day. Helping each other survive the terrorist attack creates a shared trauma. It is not “weird” to Brandon “to be clinging to a stranger” because Richard is no longer a stranger. Brandon starts to realize that he can in fact be “in this fight together” with someone besides his father. This moment also shows Richard’s growing paternal role towards Brandon and foreshadows his role as Brandon’s adoptive father.

“The 93rd floor was the cut off. No one below it could go higher, and no one above it could go lower. That was the line that separated Team Chavez. From now on, Brandon was a team of one.”

Brandon knows now that he physically cannot reach his dad on the 107th floor. This marks a turning point in the plot because Brandon’s quest to get upstairs is now over. Now he has to try to survive and escape without the help and support of his dad. His original “team,” the team that is him and his dad, is split apart.

“Please help turn my brother’s heart from revenge, Reshmina prayed. Please show him another path.”

Reshmina prays that Pasoon can find another path besides joining the Taliban. Although joining the Taliban is one of the few options for young men in Reshmina’s village, she believes that there is a choice. She does not believe that it is inevitable for Pasoon to join the Taliban, and she wants God to show him that there are other paths for him.

“But you know why we’re always behind? Because while everybody else in the world is making things, we’re fighting wars. We never get to move ahead, Pasoon. We’re stuck in the past.”

Reshmina thinks that Afghanistan is impoverished because it is constantly at war. “Stuck in the past” has two meanings. Afghanistan has not been able to develop its country because war destroys everything, so in that sense it is not as advanced as other countries. Reshmina also believes that Afghanistan is “stuck in the past” because the Taliban always retaliates for past wrongs, causing the fighting to never end.

“Is there some life left in this old cedar cone? Reshmina wondered. Something dormant inside, ready to sprout if given the room and resources to grow? Reshmina broke open the cone. There were still seeds inside. She took one, leaned over, and pushed the seed deep into the ground. That seed would grow to be a cedar tree fifty meters tall and stand for a thousand years—if only everyone would let it.”

The cedar cone is a metaphor for Afghanistan. Reshmina feels like there is not much “life left” in Afghanistan but perhaps the country is “ready to sprout” or rebuild. When Reshmina looks in the cone, she does find seeds, suggesting that there is still hope for Afghanistan. She plants a seed, representing the hope she has for her country’s future and showing that she will be an active participant in the rebuilding. Whether the seed and Afghanistan can both grow is a question of whether “everyone would let it.” Reshmina sees the literal possibility of growing a cedar tree plus the metaphorical regrowth of Afghanistan as possible, but she thinks it is necessary that others support and allow that growth.

“You just get over it eventually. Because you have to. It scars over, like a bad cut. It still aches every now and then, when it’s cold and gloomy outside and you’re left alone with your thoughts. But most of the time…most of the time you just forget it’s there.”

Richard tells Brandon this when it becomes clear that his dad will not escape or survive the attack. Richard relates to Brandon’s pain because his dad also died when he was nine. He uses figurative language to compare the emotional pain of losing a loved one to a physical scar. Some physical scars hurt when the weather changes, so Richard is saying that there will still be tough emotional days in the future. He says that “you just forget it’s there” not to say that it is possible to forget what happened, but that you learn to live with it and not feel the pain every day.

“The worm was a snake after all.”

Reshmina accuses Pasoon of being “like a worm who crawls into a snake’s nest” (161), referring to his desire to join the Taliban. She thinks he does not understand the danger because he is “just a little baby playing at being a grown-up!” (161). However, when Pasoon strikes her across the face for saying that, she realizes that he is not innocent anymore. He is not a harmless “worm” but a “snake” because if he is capable of physically hurting Reshmina, his twin and best friend, then he is indeed capable of violence with the Taliban.

“‘Brandon, I want you to do something with your life, all right?’ his dad said. His voice was trembling. ‘I want you to get out of this building and survive and do something worth living for. Do you understand?’”

Brandon’s dad tells him this when he realizes he is going to die. Brandon later becomes Army Special Forces and says that 9/11 is why he joined, indicating that Brandon believes that serving in the military is the best way to “do something worth living for.” In this sense, he follows his dad’s dying wish.

“‘Army Special Forces have to learn a second language, and I was taught Mandarin.’

‘Because so many people in Afghanistan speak Chinese,’ Reshmina said wryly.

‘I guess they figured there was life after Afghanistan,’ Taz said. From the way he said it, it sounded like Taz wasn’t so sure that was true anymore.”

Taz was taught Mandarin Chinese by the Army, a language he cannot use in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan they speak Dari and Pashto. Taz thinks the Army taught him Mandarin so he could use it in China after the conflict in Afghanistan. Taz has been sent to Afghanistan for 10 years, though, and presumably has never employed his Mandarin skills in China. This suggests that the Army did not expect to be present in Afghanistan for so long. Taz is also not “so sure” that there is “life after Afghanistan,” which can be attributed to his own life as well: After fighting there for so long, he has difficulty envisioning his own future.

“It was so random. So stupid. So meaningless now, and yet so important at the same time.”

While wading through the flooded, dark basement of the North Tower looking for Richard after the blast, Brandon finds the toy Wolverine claws that he wanted to buy in the morning. Brandon has witnessed people die and be severely injured. He has been fighting for his life, and his own dad has or will soon lose his. The school incident in which Brandon punched Stuart for taking the Wolverine claws from Brandon’s friend seems “so meaningless” in comparison to the tragedies of the day. It is “so random” that Brandon comes across the toy in the dark after everything that has happened. He has fulfilled the mission that he started before the attack, a mission that he forgot all about. This is “so important” because it shows how quickly lives and priorities can change.

“He had a long, dirty scar in almost the same place on his palm. ‘It still aches every now and then, when it’s cold and gloomy outside,’ he told her. ‘But most of the time…’

Taz paused, as though what he was saying brought back a painful memory for him.

‘But most of the time you just forget it’s there,’ he finished.”

In this passage, Brandon repeats the words that Richard said to him on 9/11. The scar on his hand is from his injury in the North Tower basement. Although he does have a physical scar on his hand, when he looks at it he is thinking about the events of the day, which form “a painful memory for him.” He does not forget 9/11 or his dad and has shaped much of his life decisions around both. He is able to “forget” it “because you have to” (139).

“We’re here because we’re here because

we’re here because we’re here.

We’re here because

we’re here because

we’re here because we’re here.”

Taz sings this song from World War II that the soldiers sang “because they didn’t know why they were fighting” (260). Taz sings it casually, but it holds the same meaning: He does not know why the United States is still fighting in Afghanistan. The repetition of the lyrics embodies the unending and nonsensical nature of the war itself. The lyrics also reflect the paradox of the war. The explanation for why “we’re here” is not an explanation at all. Similarly, Taz says that “if we stay, it’s bad, and if we leave, it’s bad. There is no right answer” (260).

“As Taz’s words sank in, Reshmina realized what this room was. This wasn’t an arsenal, like the cave where she and Pasoon had found the Taliban cache. This was a kind of shrine. 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.”

Reshmina finds a hidden room in the cave that has artifacts from as far back in time as Ancient Greece. She believes that someone collected the artifacts in one place to represent all the countries that were unable to maintain power in Afghanistan. The artifacts are physical representations of all the wars that have been fought in Afghanistan. Reshmina includes “Taz and the Americans” in this list of “armies who had invaded,” implying that soon the Americans will realize “that they could never rule it.” 

“Taz showed her the picture like it should mean something to her, but it didn’t. She’d never seen these buildings in her entire life.”

Taz is shocked when he realizes that Reshmina and the rest of her village have never heard of 9/11 or the Twin Towers. He assumes that everyone has heard about 9/11. The fact that the villagers have not emphasizes their feeling of frustration and anger that the Americans are in their country. Taz says they are in Afghanistan because of 9/11, but 9/11 has nothing to do with the villagers.

“If the Americans had named their helicopters ‘Apaches’ for some tribe they had defeated in battle, Reshmina thought, they should call their next helicopters ‘Afghans.’ Because the United States had surely destroyed Afghanistan.”

Earlier in the novel, Reshmina thinks about how “her teacher had taught her that the Americans named their flying deathships after other tribes they had conquered” (70). At this point in the novel, Reshmina’s village has been destroyed by a missile from an Apache helicopter. Naming a helicopter “Afghans” would mean that the destruction is total and irreversible. It suggests that the Afghans no longer exist. This idea reflects the hopelessness that Reshmina now feels.

“It isn’t me against the world, Brandon realized. It’s everyone, working together. And not against the world either, but for each other.

That was how they survived.”

Brandon realizes in this moment that he needs more people in his life than just his dad. Although his dad will die, there are plenty of other people, especially Richard, who have helped and will help him. Similarly, he can continue to help others the way he helped others throughout that day. This is how Brandon will survive the future.

“‘Ground Zero is like…the place where a big bomb goes off, or a big disaster happens. It’s what they called the place the World Trade Center used to be, until they built the new tower on top of it.’

Ground Zero, Reshmina thought. That was as good a name as any for the pile of rocks she was sitting on. It certainly wasn’t a village anymore.”

“Ground Zero” is most often used in reference to 9/11, but in this passage Gratz relates it to Afghanistan, too. The term is the title of the book, and since each storyline receives half of the book, the title is referring to both the World Trade Center and Afghanistan. Taz says that it means “a big disaster happens,” therefore defining the war in Afghanistan as a “big disaster.”