A Thousand Splendid Sun's - Critical Analysis Paper

All throughout this book, Afghanistan had many switches of power and constant war involving many countries, including the US and Russia. At the end of the book, as things are calming down, Laila says to Tariq, “Maybe there will be hope at the other end of this war, maybe for the first time in a long time.” (Hosseni 386). This quote shows the hope that the people of Afghanistan still had to possess to persevere through the years of war. The war affected thousands of lives in the country, as the war swept through the different cities. This war of especially affected Laila because it resulted in the death of her parents. Afghanistan as a whole had to show tremendous strength throughout the book as they endured through the war. Perseverance is most prominently shown through all citizens during the country’s war.

Growing up and living in Afghanistan as a woman has its challenges. Parents choose who can marry you and they choose everything for you. In this book, Laila and Mariam both show the struggles it is to be a girl, and how much disrespect they get in Afghanistan. Both Mariam and Laila are married to the same man, and he is abusive to both of them. They also live under Taliban rule, and the rules that they set are very unfair for women. In Khaled Hosseni’s novel, he has many different themes but the most prevalent one is of woman inequality, and that is shown through multiple accounts of abuse, disrespect, and unfairness.

Justice is a particularly evident theme in A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. The bad are punished with negative consequences, while the good are blessed with fortune and happiness. In other words, karma, is present in each of the characters’ lives. Perhaps the most prime example of justice is experienced by Laila. Laila is forced to endure war, abuse, and separation from her love, Tariq. By the end, the obstacles that stood in her way are eliminated and she is ultimately rewarded with a life of love and contentment. While it is true that Laila experiences a painful cycle of fortune and sadness, she ultimately receives what she deserves in a way that befits her character.

Khaled Hosseini’s critically acclaimed novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, follows two women whose lives intertwine and their fates become connected. Laila is a young girl who falls in love with a man who she cannot be with and is carrying his baby when she marries Rasheed. Rasheed’s first wife, Mariam, is a lovely woman who becomes Laila’s companion in their mutual hatred for the abusive Rasheed. With alternating perspectives, Hosseini gives insight into both women's lives and relays the cruelties they are forced to endure, and how the brutality they face affects their lives, specifically Laila’s, whose motherly instincts allow her to endure much more than otherwise.

Miriam's mom died, she was given up by her dad ever since she was born even although she does get weekly visits from him. Miriam was also put into an arranged marriage by her father even though she was only 15. Rasheed, Miriam's husband, was very abusive and forceful to her. She also was never able to have children even though she became pregnant 7 times, all ending up in miscarriages. Laila experienced a good childhood, she had friends and a good family. Soon all her friends either moved away or died. Laila and her family were going to move away from Afghanistan until their home was struck by a rocket, her mom and dad both died in the house while she was rescued by Rasheed who cared for her wounds. She was than convinced that he would be the safest person to be with, so then they married. Soon she became pregnant with Tariq's baby but had to act like it was Rasheed's. Miriam and Laila were both abused by Rasheed if they did anything wrong. They both experienced difficult lives. The driver states "the story of our country, one invader after another... we're like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing." Miriam and Laila are like the Buddhas, they are constantly receiving bad things one after the other. Miriam and Laila slowly falling apart, yet still holding their will. They both show how much they've gone through but what they are still trying to get to. Afghanistan has

As they reach America at last, Amir’s wife introduces herself to Sohrab sweetly, but he just, “shift[s] on his feet and look[s] away” (358). Sohrab does not say much, do much, or move much at all. Imagery presented in this stage of the journey is quite gloomy, what with Sohrab’s blandly colored clothes, sallow face, and plain room. Amir and his wife seem gloomy as well, as they are always whispering, crying, or wondering what went wrong. The saving grace and the real transformation happens at the celebration of the Afghan’s New Year’s Day. After a day of muteness that has become regular, Amir and Sohrab finally connect through the kite flying contest. This is something to which Amir and Hassan dedicated their lives when they were children. Amir is overwhelmed with joy to see that, “one corner of his mouth had curled up just so. A smile” (370). It seems like nothing, but this truly is a breakthrough with this child. If it were not for Hosseini’s descriptive words that lend to pure joy and elation, the reader would not even realize what a momentous occasion this is. Hope may seem lost when traveling a guilt filled path, but if one’s intentions are honest and efforts are useful, forgiveness will find its way

In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini contrasts Mariam’s path of overcoming adversity with Nana’s path of enduring to ultimately show that despite the adversity you face, overcoming it allows you to bring fulfillment to your life. As a young child Mariam is taught that the “only skill a woman” needs in order to survive in their society is to “endure”(Hosseini 17). Teaching this to Mariam was Nana’s way of passing on her idea of facing adversity. Nana’s path of enduring leads to her becoming a person full of hatred and distaste. Soon the guilt inside her reaches a breaking point leading to her suicide.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, a book written by Khaled Hosseini, gives us a unique and informative glimpse into life in Afghanistan in the early 1960’s to the 2000’s. In it we can see many different political and social issues ravaging the country, with the most evident being gender inequality. Though many diverse groups of people were being discriminated against at the time, most of the subordination fell onto women as they had more and more rights taken away from them when various ruling powers took control. The author relays this information to us and educates us as to what happened through compelling and thought-provoking literary devices such as symbolic characters and objects, and allusions. By using these

Ultimately, Mariam and Laila attempt to escape, but fail, which in turn infuriates Rasheed even more. These two women then work together and protect each other, and in due course, kill Rasheed during one of his “ritual” beatings. In the end, Mariam is killed for murdering her husband, and Laila, with her children, Aziza and Zalmai, finds Tariq and marries him; then, together they start their own family. Throughout the course of the story, not only was a passionate, well-written story presented, but also a clear picture of what Afghan culture and its aspects are really like.

Firstly, the life of Mariam portrays the sense of hopelessness and betrayal that runs through the oppressed in Afghanistan.

In this novel the author, Hosseini, uses a powerful bond between the two main character to give a reader a deeper understanding about the way women are viewed and treated in Afghanistan. These two main characters are used to represent the different perspectives from which women in are viewed. The first character we meet is Mariam, a woman from an unloving and poor past. She portrays the old ideas of abuse and mistreatment towards women. Conversely, the other main character Laila, a young woman who came from a more modern and loving family, is used to represent progress towards the equal treatment and education of women. These two women obviously come from different backgrounds but are brought together through

This novel demonstrates the difficulty of Amir and Baba among many other Afghans who struggle to leave their homeland. When leaving a country like Afghanistan during that time era was very risky, under cover of night, not knowing the next passage. Most immigrants usually die before making to their new and safer home. In addition they have to deal with the perception of them and those who were left or stayed behind. Amir begins to realize this when he returns to Afghanistan.

On the other hand, Khaled Hosseini employs an open plot structure in A Thousand Splendid Suns in order to comment on the effect of assiduity on the possibility of escaping an oppressive environment. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini illustrates his narrative through the parallel plotline of his two protagonists—Mariam and Laila—to design an open, chronological plot structure. Through the first sentence of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini establishes that “Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami” (Hosseini 3). Hosseini’s purposeful decision of introducing his main character before all other elements such as the setting and supporting characters illustrates his protagonists’ significance in the construction of the plot structure’s foundation. In order to establish an open, chronological plot structure, Hosseini constantly reminds the readers of the progression of time through the inclusion of the year and Mariam’s age. For instance, in the exposition of chapter five, Hosseini declares, “It was the spring of 1974, the year Mariam turned fifteen” (Hosseini 25). Then in chapter fifteen—the last chapter of the first part—Hosseini once again states, “On April 17, 1978, the year Mariam turned nineteen…” (Hosseini 97). Hosseini purposely includes the date along with Mariam’s increasing age throughout the chapters for the readers to become cognizant of the novel’s chronological format. In addition to illustrating the progression of time through Mariam, Hosseini also mirrors the same structure for his second protagonist, Laila. In the second part of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini prefaces the chapter with the header—Kabul, Spring 1987. Immediately below the header, Hosseini begins the chapter by stating, “Nine-year-old Laila rose from bed, as she did most morning, hungry for the sight of her friend Tariq” (Hosseini 107). By introducing Laila through the identical structure utilized when first presenting Mariam, Hosseini provides hints of his wish for readers to juxtapose the two females. Furthermore, by introducing nine-year old Laila twenty-three years after the introduction of five-year old Mariam, Hosseini was able to illustrate Laila’s plotline in relation to Mariam’s

The plot of A Thousand Splendid Suns revolves around two protagonists: Laila and Mariam. Most of the story’s characters are round, but Mariam and Laila are exceptionally complex. Mariam is a harami, a bastard, that leaves her mother, Nana, in order to live with Jalil, her father. Jalil rejects her, and Jalil and Mariam later regret the decisions that they made at that point in their lives. Mariam is a quiet, thoughtful, and kind woman who was born in Herat, and her face has been described as long, triangular, and houndlike. She is forced into marriage at the age of fifteen with a much older suitor named Rasheed who abuses her brutally once he learns that she cannot provide him with children. She is also revealed as a very dynamic character early in the story. Mariam quickly develops a mistrust toward men, and she realizes that her mother had been right all along. Another example of a significant change Mariam goes through is the animosity she feels toward Laila that quickly transforms into their friendship when “a look passed between Laila and Mariam. An unguarded, knowing look. And in this fleeting, wordless exchange with Mariam, Laila knew they were not enemies any longer.” (page 250). Later in the story, Mariam, who was a forty-two-year-old woman at that time, is executed by the Taliban for murder.

Hosseini’s parents are put into the characters as Laila’s parents in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Laila’s father is was a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry and Laila’s mother taught Farsi and history at a high school similar to Hosseini’s parents. Hosseini place this tiny detail to emphasizes the relocated the Hosseini family to Paris when Hosseini was young ("Biography"). Somewhat similar to the Hosseini family, Laila’s family had to move to Pakistan to be in a safer condition. In Kabul, both Hosseini and Laila faced “bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet Army” ("Biography"). The event that happen to Hosseini was he was at a young age was placed on on Laila’s family, proving that this personal experience impacted him. Hosseini’s childhood memories reappear to him and by adding this as part of his novels, it shows how Afghans back then and now are still living in terror. The Afghans would have to be ready to leave their home at any time to be safe since attacks can happen to them at any time. Because of this he can relate and have more empathy towards them due to his past experience being relocating to Paris when he was a child.