Language of Violence, Moral Collapse and Maternal Grief: A Critical Content Analysis of Yousufzai’s When The Heavens Split Asunder

Abstract

This paper examines the linguistic construction of violence, maternal grief, moral decay and institutional negligence in When the Heavens Split Asunder by Seemeen Khan Yousufzai through a qualitative-directed content analysis. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis has been employed to explores the features of texts, discursive practices and socio-cultural contexts to examine the encoding of ideology, trauma, justice and failure by portraying two mothers who grieve the brutally murdered child while one of them fears the moral decline of her sons. Repetition, sensory narration, metaphoric uplift of nature, narrative pacing and changing focalization are some of the linguistic strategies identified in the analysis which transform the crime story into a moral and societal diversion. The findings reflect that the violence is not sole criminality but an intersection of recurrent maltreatment, bureaucratic interference and patriarchal subjugation. Therefore, the study enriches literary criticism through linguistic inquiry since it demonstrates how systematic content analysis can be applied to reveal ideological frameworks within modern Pakistani fiction.

Keywords: Maternal discourse, violence, ideology, narrative, critical discourse analysis