A Thousand Splendid Suns Analysis

Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is a Historical Fiction Novel about a young girl in Afghanistan, named, Mariam, and all she wants is to be a part of her father’s life. Her father, Jalil rejects her and she comes home finding out that her mother had committed suicide (Hosseini 6-7). This novel talks about the hard lives that women had during the war, forced marriages, domestic abuse, and education. The Afghani war against the Soviets disrupts most families’ lives by taking their loved ones to go fight and then then some do not come back (Book Summary). The war continues in Kabul and destroys the city daily and everyone had to flee to Pakistan. In the book the characters suffer from some different things and then some suffer from the same things. “Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason (Book Quote).” This quote was used because the author felt that the situations that the people faced in modern time and throughout history during war that God had a reason for it all to happen and that He would take care of us.

Hosseini talks a lot about the hard times that women faced during the war and how they reacted with it. The war took a toll on the women because most of them were mothers and wives to some of the soldiers fighting. Some of the women’s family members did not come back and they felt lonely. Some women had to confide in their friends to help them and be with them, not only just as a friend. In the novel a girl named, Laila confides in her best friend, Tariq, after hearing that her two brothers who went to war had been killed in war. When the war got worse Tariq’s family had to move to Pakistan and Laila did not want him to leave so they made love for the first time. Tariq leaves an...

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.... Jalil takes the action of casting Nana out of his house when she had become pregnant with his illegitimate child. He breaks his promise that he made Mariam for her birthday and forgets about her. He even marries her off to some stranger after her mother had committed suicide because his other wives and children did not like Mariam and did not want her to be a part of their lives. For Rasheed he notes that he would have to marry Laila because he could not have her and her unborn child living with him without any kind of pretense, because people would gossip about him and his new girl. He spends well over his family’s budget to make it look like he is a wealthy man. Both me behave in very selfish ways and are ironically ethically shameful. They neglect or even sometimes abuse their offspring or wives and sacrifice their welfare so they can save their name and face.