Characterism In A Thousand Splendid Suns

Trauma and tragedy are inevitably regular and pervasive outcomes in romantic literature. Our literary heritage is filled with heartbreak, failed relationships and broken individuals. Wuthering Heights and Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns both exhibit broken relationships, through a backdrop of conflict in swar torn Afghanistan and the restrictions of Victorian social hierarchy played out on the wild and windswept North York Moors- destroying these implied impervious bonds.

Afghanistan. I have always wondered how different life would be out there. Khaled Hosseini has done a great job at making me feel like I actually experienced what the main characters went through, in the book “ A Thousand Splendid Suns”

For many years, women have been oppressed and treated as property. The opinion of a woman did not matter, being obedient to her husband was all that is required. Even if they were obedient to their husbands, women were property and only for the pleaser and likening to the husband. Mariam did all the her husband required of her, however there was one thing should could not. Which was give her husband, Rasheed, a son or any child. In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini reveals the social issue of physical abuse and mental abuse by his use of imagery, diction, and dialogue.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khalid Hosseini explores themes relating to hardships and family, especially having to do with the oppression of women. This novel follows the lives of Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women whose interactions arise from their forced marriage to Rasheed, and the abuse they face together. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of Jalil, a rich businessman, and his former housekeeper, Nana. Struggling with the stigma surrounding her birth and guilt following her mother’s suicide prompts Mariam to be unable to stand up for herself. Laila is quite the opposite and grew up with the desire for an education and the knowledge that she could change the world. After her parents and Tariq’s deaths, Laila is forced to set

Just by reading the first sentence of A Thousand Splendid Suns you can expect an emotional journey where you will read about things that you could never before imagine. As you continue to read, you will discover that these expectations come true all at once, overwhelming you with emotion. Sometimes so overwhelming that you wish you could talk to the author and ask him “why?” Why did Nana have to kill herself? Why did Tariq have to leave? Why couldn’t Laila leave her parents and go with him?

Mariam has been by far the most influential main character in the novel with many changes going on throughout her life. When she was just a young girl, Mariam was not aware of

Hate is a force that is taught, for hate will never conquer a heart bound with love and beautiful intentions. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is centered around the hardships of three dominant characters in the novel and the impact of their struggling Afghan societal influences in their lives. The character go through many obstacles battling norms, violence, war, and other characters throughout the novel that constantly try to break them at heart. The characters journey of overcoming obstacles is a beautifully tragic for they have lost a lot just to gain better opportunities in their new lives. Love is a dominant theme present throughout the duration of the novel and is displayed through the lives of Mariam, Laila, and Tariq.

If someone said the word vampires, what immediately comes to mind is the “classic “ image of one with fangs and a cape that feed on innocent lives. Although you can have your classic vampires in books and movies, not all are portrayed like that. As Foster explains in How To Read Literature Like A Professor, usually in literature, the portrayal of a vampire is used to signify the evil and pure, and when the sinister succeeds he takes that purity and vitality away from the victim. A Thousand Splendid Suns, a novel by Khaled Hosseini, follows the journey of two women who are married to the same man, and how he exhibits those traits of a vampire and attempts to take that vivacity away from them.

Mariam matured as a lonely child with a difficult relationship between her mother, Nana. She grew to realize that the ways of her mother helped to prepare her for her life and how she had to endure through it. At first, once her father Jalil gave her away to Rasheed, Rasheed was polite but as he began to become abusive she learned how to endure through it. After eighteen years of marriage to Rasheed he decided to make Laila, a fourteen year old girl they rescued from a bomb attack, his wife. Mariam grew to have great dislike for this young girl. Mariam’s first viewpoints of Laila were stated in part three, page 225, where she mainly thought Laila wanted to make her leave, steal her husband and make her, her servant. After Mariam learned of Laila’s pregnancy and Laila began to move along the pregnancy higher

The author of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini, created a story that focuses on a journey shared between Laila and Mariam, the two female protagonist whose homeland of Afghanistan becomes corrupted by government rule. Although women and men are going through a time of war, women are expected to remain silent, but Hosseini Khaled develops characters that able step out of gender norms and break these restrictions.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns and First They Killed My Father, we find the three female characters of Laila and Mariam, and Loung, respectively, in harrowing and dangerous political atmospheres. Both of the political atmospheres described in these two books expose these characters to harsh realities of war, abuse, starvation, and oppression; these characters must also come to terms with a rising body count around them. From Mariam’s perspective, we hear that “there was looting, murder, and, increasingly, rape, which was used to intimidate civilians and reward militiamen (Hosseini 253).” Despite these despotic circumstances, and perhaps in spite of the physical toll they take, the three female characters of these books exhibit extraordinary perseverance as a result of their tumultuous surroundings.

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Part one takes place in the early 1960’s where we are introduced to a girl named Mariam, an illegitimate child born because of an affair. She lives in a small village just outside Herart with her mother Nana, she only sees her father, Jalil, once a week. As Mariam grows older she discovers she wants an education and a connection to her half siblings. She tries to go into Herart one day just to get kicked to the curb and forced to sleep on the street unlike the promise of going to see a movie with Jalil originally was. When she returns home the next day she finds her mother, Nana, hanging from a tree. After news of Nana’s death reaches Jalil, he then has no other choice but to bring Mariam into their home. After a week of being in their home they announce to Mariam they will be marrying her off to a man named Rasheed.

Mariam - is a young girl who was born out of wedlock. Her mother Nana was a maid for

Mariam is the first main protagonist the readers meet in the novel. Her first apparition is at the age of fifteen, she lives with her mother commonly known as Nana, in a small shack just out of Herat. Jalil is a wealthy man, also Mariam’s father who lives in Herat with his three wives and his kids. The main character has never loved romantically due to her father marrying her off at a young age however, she loved her parents very much before she lost them. The first parent she loses is her father Jalil. All throughout the four first chapters of the book, she impatiently waits for his visits once a week, always hopes he will stay a little longer.“ Mariam always held her breath as she watched him go. She held her breath and, in her head, counted seconds. She pretended that for each second that she didn’t breathe, God would grant her another day with Jalil.”(p24). In chapter five, Jalil promises to take Mariam to see a movie at theater he owns, he tells her that he will send someone to pick her up at the kolba. She ends up leaving her home to find her father’s mansion on her own. The moment she arrives to Jalil’s household, she is told he is away and will be back shortly; she decides to sleep outside so she is there when he comes back. When morning arrives, her father’s driver says that he was given orders from Jalil Khan that he has to drive her home. This is when Mariam realises that Jalil has been in the house this whole time, and that he let her sleep on the street. “