A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini

Firstly, in order to ensure Aziza’s safety, Laila sacrifices her future and the idea of true love. After living with Mariam and Rasheed for a few days following the bombing, Laila receives news that Tariq has died. After hearing the news of Tariq’s death, Rasheed suggests that Laila marry him and live with him and Mariam. Rasheed explains, ““These days, times being what they are, a woman needs a husband. Haven’t you noticed all the widows sleeping on the streets? They would kill for this chance.” … “He wants an answer by this morning.” Mariam said. “He can have it now,” the girl said. “My answer is yes.”” (Hosseini, 216) By choosing to marry Rasheed, Laila has thrown away all opportunities of finding another true love to marry. Upon hearing of Tariq’s death, Laila is heartbroken because she was in love with him and wanted to spend her life with him. Now

Mariam’s alienation prompted by her mother, father, and husband, in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, reveals the oppression and shame around being a woman in the society of her native Afghanistan. Mariam’s countless, inescapable struggles throughout her life were all regulated by the systematic dehumanization of women in a patriarchal society, which resulted in her living in constant shame and fear. Starting from her birth, she was seen as a bastard because she was conceived out of wedlock, from both her parents, Jalil and Nana, and her society. In her childhood, Mariam is marginalized, by living in a cottage far off from the public eye, because of her father’s fear of humiliation and her mother’s fear of Mariam experiencing the

Hosseini's use of imagery in A Thousand Splendid Suns gives the reader a clear picture of the abuse that Mariam and Laila have experience

Violence, war, discrimination, and poverty: these issues have long been a part of Afghanistan’s history. Even though things in Afghanistan are getting better, war fills the country, and women and children have to learn to endure abuse, caused by men and the Taliban; they also learn to endure poverty. Considering this, it is no wonder why Afghanistan is in the terrible position it is in now. Many Afghan cities like Kabul are filled with things like violence and discrimination, and the book A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini takes place in Kabul. This book follows the lives of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila, as they suffer pain and discrimination received from the Taliban and their

However, Mariam changes after Laila comes into her life. At first, her hatred towards Lails shows Mariam’s change, her beginning to understand that she is allowed to fight against injustice. She asks Rasheed not to take her in that “in all her years this was the one thing she asked of him.” (?) The fact that Mariam asks at all depicts her growing courage to stand up to her abusive husband. She also defends herself against this injustice of Rasheed marrying Laila, loving Laila over her, by demanding her authority over the younger girl. However, it is when Mariam and Laila become companions that Mariam’s understanding truly alters. This is because she begins to love Laila and the children that Laila have. Laila has provided her the one thing that “she

Much like the country of Afghanistan, characters in A Thousand Splendid Suns carry on through tough times and loss. Mariam and Laila persevere through unhealthy relationships with their mothers, as well as their abusive relationship with Rasheed. Through their character growth throughout the book, they grow into strong individuals. The war that has greatly damaged their country leads them to be able to overcome anything in their lives. Through this character growth, strength and perseverance through tough times proves to be the most prominent and important theme in the

Born as the youngest in her family, Laila grows to become a loving and compassionate parent who is willing to sacrifice for her children; despite having a negligent and unloving mother. Laila, even before her first baby was born, made the decision to marry Rasheed and purposefully had sex with him in order for it to appear like it was his baby. This protects the baby, Aziza, from Afghani society who would shun her for being birthed out of wedlock, and it also keeps the true father’s identity, Tariq, a secret. This sacrifice is one of many, Laila knows, to come as she thinks “[she] already saw the sacrifices a mother had to make. Virtue was only the first. She put a hand on her belly. Closed her eyes”(219). Another sacrifice Laila had to make was putting Aziza in a local orphanage in Kabul, due to the fact that Rasheed was earning so little money that they no longer had the ability to keep her healthily fed. She lived and ate there as well as being taught in a classroom, but in order for Laila to visit Aziza, she sometimes “was caught, questioned, scolded--two, three, even four times in a single day”(321) by the Taliban in an especially inhumane fashion. Over the course of their marriage, Laila withstood Rasheed’s

That day, “Mammy was wearing the same cobalt blue dress she had worn the day of the lunch party four months earlier” (192 Hosseini). It was moments after that Laila had noticed this that her life was dramatically changed, her family was blown to oblivion by an astrayed rocket, and she was now left and orphan fading in and out of consciousness in the wreckage of her home. Rasheed and Mariam, who lived down the street from Laila’s family, saw the accident and brought them to her home. Days later Rasheed proposed to Laila, and told her that if she refused she would be thrown out into the dangerous streets of Kabul. Laila reluctantly agreed. The day of Rasheed and Laila’s wedding, Rasheed wore a “new used suit, [with] blue [and] white pinstripes” (217

The writing style of Khaled Hosseini in A Thousand Splendid Suns is both sympathetic and disgusted. He feels pity on those that bear the burden of the war. He shows this mostly through the use of two major literary devices: Symbolism and Imagery. These two literary devices impact the reader because it gives a deeper insight and understanding of the pain and fear these characters were forced into dealing with every day.

Mariam and her mother ‘Nana’, reside in a kolba (hut) outside of Herat. Her father was a successful businessman named Jalil who was a polygamist and had nine children. Mariam disobeyed her mother’s wishes and hiked into town to see her Father. Mariam returned to her kolba to her mother’s suicide – forcing her to live with Jalil until he insisted an arranged marriage with Rasheed who was thirty years elder. Once in Kabul, Mariam discovered her infertility complications. Rasheed became angry towards his wife’s inability to carry a child – in particular a son, so he became extremely abusive. Laila grew up in Kabul with Tariq who eventually became romantic despite the boundaries between unwed men and women. War took over Afghanistan and Tariq’s

Zunaira actually attains her goal of becoming a magistrate, and thus, she experiences a greater sensation of loss. Mariam and Zunaira combat the oppression in different ways but they suffer the same pain and isolation. Oppression induces a negative change in both characters. In addition, the women have coping mechanisms to deal with the sorrow in their lives. Their ability to cope is affected by family members. Mariam remembers her mother's story, "where each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the World. That all the sighs drifted up in the sky, gathered in the clouds, and then broke into tiny pieces…" (Hosseini, 91). Mariam is submissive in her abusive relationship because her mother has taught her by example, that Afghani women solely have to endure the pain and suffering in their lives. She makes no attempts to change her situation in her marriage because she lives by her mother's teachings. Perhaps, if Mariam were to stand up for herself or stir up chaos during one of Rasheed's beatings, Rasheed would not turn to violence against her so easily. Also, Mariam could have searched for alternatives to escape Rasheed before the Taliban implemented the harsh laws. Over the years, Mariam becomes increasingly helpless and miserable under Rasheed's rule, as she follows the model of her mother's teachings. Also, she deflects her anger and sorrow 2

Throughout world history women have been treated abysmally. Societies with male-dominance have abused and used women and continue to do so today. Women have been made vulnerable to a man due to the spread of cultural values and beliefs in society that condemn them from power. In Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the two main characters Mariam and Laila develop an unconditional bond in which they become each others protectors. The immense inner strength of women from adversity has been exemplified through the growth of Mariam and Laila's contrasting relationship, the pain they endure from Rasheed which strengthens their bond and the courage within them that ultimately resolves their conflict.

A world of peace and love is all anyone ever hopes for. Imagine having to say goodbye to your country because of war. Feeling safe is one of the most important things in life. You need to feel safe for a place to be home. “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls”(Hosseini 347). In A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the characters are threated in the country they call home, because of war. The cultural aspects, character storylines, and themes of the book is what make this book a cultural lesson.

“Joseph shall return to Canaan, grieve not, Hovels shall turn to rose gardens, grieve not. If a flood should arrive, to drown all that’s alive, Noah is your guide in the typhoon’s eye, grieve not (Hosseini 365).” A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a story that is set place in modern-day Afghanistan. It is one depicting the lives of two particular women who live under the control of a persecuting husband and the infamous rule of the Taliban. And through these two women (Laila and Mariam), Hosseini creates a mind-blowing, awe-inspiring adventure of regret, despair, tragedy, and more importantly, redemption. The book begins with separate perspectives of each woman, and how they consequently come together in the same

Part 2 introduces Laila. She lives down the street from Rasheed and Mariam. She grows up with a close friend named Tariq, he lost one of his legs from a land mine. As Tariq and Laila grow up, she falls in love with him. After the death of Laila’s brother Her mother, Fariba is never the same. She stays burried in her bed. As conflict turns to war in Kabul, living conditions become terrible for everyone. She is tutored at home because the streets have became to dangerous. War comes to Afghanistan, and Kabul is bombarded by rocket attacks. Tariq's family decides to leave the city, and the emotional farewell between Laila and Tariq culminates with them making love. A few weeks after Tariq's family leaves, Laila is almost hit by a bullet. This event