improve their country for the better. Erickson confirms that it is society that dictates and governs its control:

It is by the power of the sign that societies, despite their variations, process information so as to regulate and organize the manner in which individuals perceive and “know”, the ways in which they interpret and map their environment prior to acting and as the basis for their actions. (Erickson, 1998, p.9)

It is unmistakeably clear that the civilians of Afghanistan were controlled to behave and act in a manner that many of them found very uncomfortable. Busfield’s character Fawad allows us as a reader and audience to have a deep sense of sympathy and empathy for a young boy who witnesses his family facing brutal punishment by leaders who ironically are there to protect them: