A Thousand Splendid Suns Rhetorical Analysis

Nana’s experiences and the hardships she faced with being a single mother who was discarded by her accidental child’s father, Jalil, and left with nothing besides rejection and shame from the community exposes the truths about female life in Afghanistan. The quote “Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have (Page 19)” demonstrates the plight of women in Afghanistan, especially under the Taliban and their rules, and summarizes their suffering within nine words of brutal honesty. Mariam goes on to experience this endless abuse herself as the freedoms for women continue to be fairly non-existent. For example, once Nana commits suicide, Mariam, for a very brief time, is placed under the care of Jalil and his three wives. Shortly after this though, marriage to an older, vile man named Rasheed is imposed on her as Jalil’s wives repeat and she becomes aware

Women like Mariam, who was only fifteen when she married, are so young and inexperienced compared to these manipulative men that they’re being forced to live with and abide by. As seen, choices for women like their education, or a lack thereof, marriage, family, and even clothing are almost always stripped away from them. Mariam’s mother says that in the end, all they have is the will to endure (tahamul) and that survival is their only drive and strength. Mariam's mother is trying to educate her on female status and life within this common way of thinking in these types of cultures. The truth surrounding her mother's statement of femininity relates to the other themes, specifically of love in a hopeless place, warfare along with death and its horrific effects, crippling poverty, and (male) power and