Critical Analysis Of A Thousand Splendid Suns

To begin with, one aspect of the feminist approach lies in determining the relations between men and women and how they are presented with the consequences they lead to. In regards to this aspect, Hosseini constructs two prominent relationship types between men and women in the novel. More specifically, Hosseini implements a ubiquitous theme of true love versus forced marriage to exhibit the polarity between a negative and a positive relationship. On the subject of the novel, Rasheed’s marriage with Mariam and Laila represents the negative side because Rasheed never accepts his wives to be equals, which is evident through his mannerisms and actions. For instance, when Mariam is a newly wed wife of Rasheed’s, Rasheed begins to lecture her on

Once again, Hosseini takes advantage of another element from the feminist approach, but this time, he attempts to strike the emotional chords of his audience. To support this, Hosseini commented in a 2007 interview by CBC that “I hope the book offers emotional subtext to the image of the burqa-clad woman walking down a dusty street of Kabul”. Going back to the novel, it was commonplace for men to constantly accuse and punish the female characters for the sole reason that they are women. An example of this lies near the beginning of the novel when the audience is introduced to a reoccurring theme through the advice Nana gives to Mariam. Nana said, “Like a compass needle that points north, a man 's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.” (7). Here, Hosseini is foreshadowing all the false accusations that come tumbling down on women like an avalanche for the entirety of the novel. Hence the reason why the audience sees multiple scenes where women are blamed for all the mishaps and incidents that happen and yet are unable to act as they silently bear the punishment. To put it differently, men repeatedly lash out on women for everything that goes array with no explanation for this behavior. Couple that with Bela Lugosi’s words on how “women have a predestination to suffering” (421) and there is a reason that fits the

In a 2007 interview, Hosseini said “I had been entertaining the idea of writing a story of Afghan women for some time... Though no woman that I met in Kabul inspired either Laila or Mariam, their voices, faces, and their incredible stories of survival were always with me, and a good part of my inspiration for this novel came from their collective spirit.” Hosseini adroitly ties in the inspiration he captured from Afghani women with the historical past of the nation to display what everyday life must have consisted of for women. In the novel, the Soviet rule had primarily positive effects on the women of Afghanistan as seen when Laila’s father explains to her, “Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but they’re probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they’ve ever had before” (121). Due to the Soviets rule, Laila had the freedom and opportunities to progress as a woman during her teenage years as she bettered her self through education. Another example of the progress women were making was the fact that “almost two-thirds of the students at Kabul University were women now” and women even “taught at the university, ran schools, held office in the governments”. Here, Hosseini paints a picture of a modern society, where women are given equitable opportunities as men. A