A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hossieni

Every person stands for a single quality. It is then up to the human psyche to make-up what the individual stands for. The archetypes from Carl Jung are portrayed by the characters in “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hossieni. Through out the novel the archetypes begin to be revealed through the characters emotion, actions and ambition. Firstly, Mariam’s heroism is shown by her unusual circumstances of birth helping others, sacrificing her life and living through traumatic events; secondly Rasheed is portrayed as the shadow by reeling others into being fearful of what they believed was once right; finally, Rasheed’s self-centeredness and interest in only achieving his goals demonstrates that he is the trickster as well. These archetypes not only eventually evoke the deep emotion within the characters, they become apart of the human psyche bringing out the good and evil within all.

Carl Jung justifies a hero as a figure who: “undergoes tremendous suffering for some great heroic purpose. Some suffering figures reach a level of heroic transcendence in a victory over adversity in their own limitation.” (Carl Jung) Mariam’s scarification of her life to help others and by living everyday in fear shows representation of the hero. Mariam character provides emotional attachment and hope. Her actions reflect of the everyday life that an Afghan woman suffers from on a day to day basis. The heroism is first seen when Mariam’s mother is found dead. This result in an unfortunate event when she is forced to get married at 15 to an abusive man named Rasheed for the next twenty- seven years. Mariam again shows heroism when the second wife to Rasheed moves in and her name is Lila. Mariam protects Lila from Rasheed, becoming a mother figure w...

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...ound.”(274) Rasheed’s want for power increases after talking to the Taliban because he believes the he is the real master behind everything, making him the true hero to Mariam and Lila. It is ironic Rasheed believes that his is the true hero because the actions that he had towards Mariam and Lila made them the people they were and it made Mariam’s heroism come over even more.

In conclusion, every person stands for a single quality but yet it is up to the human psyche to make-up what the individual stands for. This is proven by Mariam’s heroism to sacrifice everything she had for the ones she loves, the shadow within Rasheed to change Mariam into the person she never wanted to become, and the trickster inside Rasheed that grew when thins didn’t go his way. Therefore the human psyche can be very powerful and can only evoke the emotion, actions and ambition within one.