In Khaled Hosseini’s novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” the characters Laila, Mariam, and Rasheed lived through a complex journey of forgiveness and penance that deeply impacted their lives. Despite the hard times these characters went through, they navigated through their relationships together. Through their interconnected stories, Hosseini explores the transformative nature of forgiveness and the healing that can come from acknowledging one’s mistakes and seeing redemption. Rasheed, a cruel and cold-hearted person, took Laila in after her parents had passed away in an accident. Rasheed’s twisted understanding of forgiveness and penance is shown through his abusive character. A troubled scene in the book, “Hair was ripped from Laila’s scalp, …show more content…
He let go of Laila’s hair, and she felt the toe of his shoe connect with her left buttock. She howled with pain.”(Hosseini 161). He believed he could marry Laila because of his selfless act and he got that chance but he did not show Laila the true love she believed he was going to give her. Instead of seeking true forgiveness and penance, Rasheed used violence to assert dominance and control. In stark contrast to Rasheed’s abuse, Laila and Mariam’s act of sharing food and spending time together shows the audience that they have genuine forgiveness and penance towards one another. This quote, “Laila brought out a plate of figs and poured Mariam a cup of tea. She sat down across from her. They had never sat like this before, one at each end of the table, like friends, like sisters, as equals. Mariam felt her heart swell with gratefulness” (Hosseini 268), capturing a turning point between the women. The act of sharing food and drinks, most likely associated with hospitality and friendship, becomes a silent language of mutual forgiveness and acknowledgement of past grievances. Rasheed, being manipulative, used this tactic to cause conflict between Mariam and
In chapter 18, Mariam is introduced to the monstrous man, Rasheed. Rasheed is an aggressive abusive man that is married to Mariam. His monstrous qualities are expressed in the novel when it states “Mariam chewed. Something in the back of her mouth ‘Good,’ Rasheed said. His cheeks were quivering. ‘Now you know what your rice tastes like. Now you know what you’re giving me in this marriage. Bad food, and Nothing else.’ Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and fragments of two broken molars”(Hosseini 104). In Chapter 15, Rasheed feeds his wife pebbles to eat and breaks two of her molars. He abuses Mariam, and she can not do anything to stop him. Taking this abuse made Mariam a stronger person. Another example of the monstrous quality in Rasheed is when he says “There is another option… she can leave. I won't stand in her way. But i suspect she won’t get far. No food, no water, not a rupiah in her pocket, bullets, and rockets flying everywhere. How many days do you suppose she’ll last before she’s abducted, raped or tossed into some roadside ditch with her throat slit? Or all three?” (Hosseini 215). When Rasheed speaks about Laila, he is willing to throw Laila onto the streets if Mariam will not let him marry her. He is willing to leave her with nothing to survive, and he would not think twice about the situation. The abuse Rasheed puts on others particularly Mariam hurts them
Rasheed tries to convince Mariam that the only way to keep Laila safe is by marrying her. He ends up hiring a man named Abdul Harif to tell Laila that he had met the love of her life, Tariq, in the hospital and that he had died. Laila is told this right when she finds out that she is pregnant with Tariq’s child. Rasheed had hired Abdul Harif to tell Laila this because he wanted to get Laila to marry her. When Rasheed brings up marriage to Laila, she jumps on board right away, and falls into Rasheed’s trap. After Rasheed and Laila get married, he treats her like a queen. He becomes very protective of Laila. Almost all his attention is spent on her, and in a sense, forgets that he is even married to Mariam. But him acting affectionate and caring does not last very long. When Laila gives birth to a baby girl, named Aziza, Rasheed starts to treat Laila how he treated Mariam when she could not successfully carry a child full term. Again, Rasheed ends up not getting what he wants, and therefore he turns onto Laila. The abuse, both verbal and physical, starts to get worse in the household. A particular situation that displays just how violent the abuse in their household can get is when he locks Laila and Aziza in their room, and Mariam in the shed because they tried running away from Rasheed and the abuse. He leaves them without water or food, and it ends up almost killing Aziza. This is where Rasheed falls into the paradox of power again. “ ...the 16th century Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli insisted that compassion got in the way of eminence. If a leader has to choose between being feared or being loved, Machiavelli insisted that the leader should always go with fear. Love is overrated” (Lehrer The Power Trip). Rasheed would rather have his own family be completely afraid of him and almost
It has often been said that what we value is determined only by what we sacrifice. The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, includes one specific character who makes a sacrifice that demonstrates what she truly values in life. Mariam, a major character in the book, sacrifices her life in order to save Laila and her children. This sacrifice allows the reader to view what Mariam truly cares about: the survival of Laila, her happiness, and her children. Mariam’s sacrifice highlights her willingness to do whatever it takes to save the ones she loves, allowing for a deeper understanding of Mariam and how sacrifice is a major theme in the novel.
Originally, Mairma would acquiesce to Rasheed’s demands: if he said “shut up,” she would (98). If she was beaten, she would take it. She felt no hope of freedom from his brutish acts so she endured through them. Wallowing in despair would only make her marital-situation worse. Later, out of routine, Rasheed’s abuse is prevented because of Laila. She pleads “please Rasheed, no beating!” over and over until he forfeits his attack against Mariam; feeling loved, it is a kindness that Mariam cannot forget (241). In Mariam’s final resistance to the churlish man, she shows her love for others. Aiming to kill, Rasheed acts violently upon Laila, and Mariam fights back. As he once beat her, she beat him back. The scene juxtaposes how she once accepted the abuse, and now she fights back because she does not want to lose the one who makes her feels that she “had been loved back”: Laila (224). After being controlled by Rasheed for the majority of Mariam’s marriage, she takes control of her own life for once by making he decision to kill him in order to protect Laila. Mariam’s fight back shows her willingness to sacrifice to prevent Rasheed’s cruelties further. Risking worse abuse, Mariam chooses to save Laila’s life in exchange for her own. Laila brought Mariam an unmistakable happiness: “[Mariam] was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. ... It was not so bad ... that she should die this way ... This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings” (224). Mariam gives Laila the opportunity to live a life sans of Rasheed’s barbarities to plague them after learning herself how inhumane he was. Moreover, the cruelties Mariam faced against Rasheed revealed her endurance as a woman. Mariam remained strong throughout her marriage and fought back against her husband, an act
He knew that if he took her in she could have his son. Rasheed then became violent with Laila just like he did with Mariam. If Laila ever talked back to him he would slap her, if she said something more intelligent than him or proved him wrong he would call her stupid say that she was uneducated. When she became pregnant with his son he couldn't wait to teach his son how to act like him. Rasheed made sure Laila was having boy because if he had a girls she wouldn't be dominant in life, she would be considered a harami. Mariam did not like Laila because she saw her as a threat but she also felt bad for Laila because Mariam knew how it felt to not be wanted and to be a victim. Later in the story they became close and Mariam looked at Laila and her kids as if they were her children. Mariam cared for Laila and her safety that they decided they would try to escape and start over. But that did not work out. The police brought them right back home and Rasheed tortured them but throwing Laila and Aziza into a room and looking the door and boarding the windows and threw Mariam in a shed outside. He kept them there for days without food or water. He saw this as a punishment for them disobeying his rules. The violence that Mariam and Laila endure is through this patriarchal society where the man is the dominant individual and can do anything he wants to his wives, even his
—Forgiveness is a suite of prosocial motivational changes that happened after a person has incurred a transgression (McCullogh). McCullogh also asserts the forgiveness process includes empathy for the transgressor, generous attributions and appraisals regarding the transgression and transgressor, and rumination abalout the transgression where agreeableness takes a serious place in the person who needs to forgive someone. Andre was impressed by his father’s work, the emotion developed in Andre’s mind have given up revenge and resentment thought to his father. When Andre’s father had an accident that made his legs crushed and had to sit on a wheelchair for the rest of his life; Andre immediately felt how vulnerable people are. He cherished the relationship with his father, in fact after the accident Andre started to cherish everyone besides him. The accident was a trigger to a prosocial motivational change to Andre and his father’s relationship. “But deliver us from evil. Amen” (Dubus, 387). Andre prayed on his father’s funeral. Forgiveness needs something to trigger; Andre understand pop’s condition and forgave him. Andre knew that his father has done the best he could, and he was happy and grateful that he had a father. Moreover, Andre’s life was full of sports, the healing process was impacted by
Everyone in their life experiences a tragic event that brings them pain and hopelessness. After the event occurs, we never realize what caused it. In A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, we see that one little decision Mariam makes causes a large turning point for the whole book. Everyday people make many decisions, some have little impact on them, like what outfit to wear on a certain day. Other decisions, which are made without thought, can have a large impact.
Searing the mind with stunning images while seducing with radiant prose, this brilliant first novel is a story of damaged lives and the indestructibility of the human spirit. It speaks about loss, about the urgency, pain and ultimate healing power of memory, andabout the redemptive power of love. Its characters come to understand the
The rattling story of Joseph told of a man who must struggle with the most horrid betrayal from his family in which he learned to forgive them and even helped them flourish in later life. Justified by a need to make them properly atone for their sins, Joseph put his brothers through hell and back. In the end, Joseph ended up feeling happier for reconnecting with his family and saving them from the ominous hands of the famine that plagued Canaan. Although it may seem that the Bible suggests exonerating those who have deeply wronged one shows weakness and too much leniency, forgiveness allows one to become a stronger person and allow for the restoration of bonds amongst once-close companions.
A thousand splendid suns, he tells us how his characters endure all the pains in life. Like most of the women in Afghanistan, Mariam and Laila has to endure their lives. Mariam and Laila, from two people didn’t know each other, but now, they become friends. Together, they endure and change their lives forever. They also teach us a lesson: endurance requires love, hope and sometimes sacrifice.
“Forgive and forget” is a common phrase in our society. However, one may argue that mistakes are never truly forgotten. The Kite Runner suggests that the best way to resolve your past and make up for your mistakes is through doing good. Through Rahim Khan’s wisdom, the actions of Baba, and the journey of Amir, Khaled Hosseini illustrates that the need for redemption, due to unresolved guilt, can haunt someone throughout their life.
In examining each of their journeys, Hosseini introduces readers to a more optimistic outlook on sin and redemption, proving that there is always “a way to be good again”(Hosseini,
Both Laila, the lucky girl with breathtaking beauty, whose luck suddenly vanishes, and Mariam, the unlucky and illegitimate daughter, whose luck goes from bad to terribly worse, become dynamic and complex characters. This transformation is brought about by the gradual revealing of Hosseini’s motivation. In fact, Hoesseini is evidently motivated to reveal the truth, and let the emotional and physical realities of Afghani women’s lives be known to the
When people sin they go to great lengths to seek redemption after being tormented from their guilt. In “The Kite Runner”, Hosseini writes about the life of Amir, who sinned at a young age and was left with psychological, emotional, and physical struggles that put him on a journey to find redemption. Betrayal is one of the many sins that can create pain and suffering in a person caused by their guilt which leaves them seeking an important healing process called redemption.
“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”(Matthew 6:14-15, NIV) Husain Haddawy’s The Arabian Nights discusses many situations in which individuals learn to forgive others for the wrong that they have done against them. The Bible refers to the idea of forgiveness as an act not only for the person that has wronged you but for yourself; in order to grow, we have to forgive because if we do not, God will not forgive us. Haddawy’s literary work emphasizes the importance of forgiveness through the stories relating to the Demon and King Shahrayar.