Justice In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, tells the stories of women in Afghanistan in the late twentieth century. Hosseini shows the women’s strengths, weaknesses, tribulations and accomplishments through their own actions, and how they are treated by other characters in the book, particularly the male characters. Hosseini portrays men in A Thousand Splendid Suns to create themes of justice and injustice within the novel. The justice, or lack thereof, served to the male characters is a result of their treatment and attitudes toward the female characters in the book and towards women in general. The way that men are represented in A Thousand Splendid Suns begins with Hosseini’s characterization of Jalil, and his treatment of Mariam. Jalil’s concern with his image and reputation greatly outweighs his concern for Mariam’s well being when she is in Herat. Before he sends her away to an unfamiliar city with an unfamiliar man, when she tries to call him out, he gets defensive, “as if he were the one to whom something was being done.” (page

However, nearly everyone in the country seems to disagree. Babi is fired from his job as a teacher when the Soviets take over to be replaced by communist propaganda teaching. Babi tries to continue Laila’s education, and takes her and Tariq to the Buddhas of Bamiyan to teach them about the history and culture of Afghanistan. Years later the buddhas are destroyed by the Taliban, symbolizing how all of Babi’s hopes for the future of his country are quite literally blown to smithereens. Through Babi’s character, we see a decent and honorable man experience years of turmoil: the loss of his job, the loss of his sons and eventually, the loss of his own life. This is paralleled with Afghanistan’s long history of turmoil and injustice, facing multiple invasions and the loss of its