Emotional Journey 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.

Mothers make a variety of sacrifices in their lives. The risks taken by mothers can come in many different forms; they can be physical, emotional and spiritual. The majority of those sacrifices revolve around taking care of, providing for and protecting their children. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Laila makes sacrifices for Aziza and Zalmai, Nana risks things in her life for Mariam, and Mariam sacrifices things for Laila and her children. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini explores the aspect of sacrifice taken by mothers. Women will go to extreme lengths of sacrifice in order to ensure the safety of their children.

A Thousand Splendid Suns was written by Khaled Hosseini. It is a fictional novel about Afghanistan. It explores the hardships that two Afghan women endured. The first character we meet, Mariam, was disgraced before she was ever born. She was the result of scandalous activity and was oblivious to the lies that her father fed her. After her mother’s suicide, Mariam’s father, Jalil, arranged for her to be married in an attempt to erase his mistake. Laila is the second main character. She has almost everything a young girl could want, except for a loving mother. Laila considers herself to be fortunate, until tragedy strikes. With wars heating up in Afghanistan, Laila loses her friend

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

The fight for justice is not always unequivocal or favorable, sometimes justice is given by means that do not seem fair at all. William Styron says in a novel that life “is a search for justice.” It is blatant that throughout Khaled Hosseini's novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, female characters are continuously battered with injustices. Hosseini hones into the oppression of women and the fight for women empowerment through the life of one of his main characters, Mariam. Her journey is shown throughout the novel where she struggles to search for and understand justice.

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

Adversity is the difficulties or misfortune an individual may face in their life. Adversity can nurture an individual into becoming stronger or it can break a person apart and destroy them internally. People can face adversity when they a pressured or stressed in life to make quick decisions or even long term hardships. How an individual faces this adversity will determine how this affects an individual, whether it will nurture them to become stronger or whether it will tear them apart and this is what shapes their identity. In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini shows how when an individual is faced with adversity, their reaction to it can force them to endure suffering over time building a sense of patience and strength which ultimately leads to them overcoming and changing the way they perceive themselves. In this novel Mariam is called to bring upon her strength to fight back against the expectations set on her and her identity, initially, she is unable to fight back and conforms to the expectations of those around her. However, as time passes and she continues to persevere and ultimately she is able to overcome and thrive over her suffering creating strength in her identity.

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.

The phrase "a thousand splendid suns," from the poem by Saib-e-Tabrizi, is quoted twice in the novel - once as Laila's family prepares to leave Kabul, and again when she decides to return there from Pakistan. It is also echoed in one of the final lines: "Miriam is in Laila's own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns." Discuss the thematic significance of this phrase.

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

Explosions, Death, Loss, Fear- all are great symbols for war in A Thousand Splendid Suns. In this novel, Khaled Hosseini uses tumultuous environments to bring up some of the most interesting characters in the 21st century. The three strongest examples are Laila, Tariq, and Aziza. From losing your parents, to losing your leg, Hosseini uses these types of characters to almost make a connection with them. Because we see weakness in them it truly makes their triumph that much greater. War is a raging bull charging through the lives of many, but for some, it makes them stronger.

In conclusion, William Faulkner’s stories deal with a plethora of human problems, while at the same time they focus on social conflicts and misunderstanding. In, “That Evening Sun” this can all be clearly seen, as he focuses on one of the most urgent problems of that

In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, main character Mariam is forced into exile after a horrific set of experiences. After her mother’s suicide, she is removed from her home and is later arranged to marry a random man she never met before. Before her departure, Mariam lived in a “kolba,” a small hut on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. With no other place to go, she disapprovingly lives with her father for a short period of time before being shipped off to her new husband. Her encounter with exile is almost unbearable, yet she endures and grows into a hardworking and respectable woman. For Mariam, exile is both alienating and enriching; it illuminates how withstanding life’s challenges and learning to overcome them with love will ultimately be beneficial in the end, no matter what happens.