Examples Of Paradox In A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Power Paradox: Not So Splendid
Power is an influence that affects people every single day. Whether it is born into or gained, it can affect the individuals that have it in their lives positively or negatively. Usually, however, it affects the individuals negatively. When it does affect the individual negatively, it is usually referred to an idea known as “the paradox of power.” In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the paradox of power is a recurring theme, and plays hand-in-hand with gender role in the novel. The men portrayed in the novel are taught to think that they are supposed to control women and their freedom, while the women are taught to be submissive to the men. Many of the men are conservative and believe

that the women should be obedient to their orders. One of those men who think that way is Rasheed, a shoemaker from Kabul. Rasheed is the perfect depiction of the paradox of power. He is conservative, manipulative, and moody to begin with, but after having certain life events happen, it worsens. Throughout the novel, his actions prove that the power he has not only causes corruption within himself, but also in the life around him. With that, it proves that he has indeed been affected by the paradox of power.
In the novel, Rasheed is first introduced when he is picked to be a suitor for Mariam, a 15 year old “harami.” He is a Pashtun shoemaker. Rasheed, like most men not part of the military in the novel, gained his power from being a husband, which relates to Machiavelli’s 12th law, stating to “use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victims” (Keltner The Power Paradox). He manipulates the women, and basically tricks them into thinking he is the best husband out there by treating them like queens and referring to them as “my flower, my gul” (Hosseini 207).
Rasheed’s marriage to Mariam is the first example of how he is corrupted by the paradox of power. He, at first, treats Mariam with respect, but still makes sure she was in her place. Rasheed expected Mariam to clean, cook, and just be a typical housewife. But overall, he was impressed by her in the beginning. Rasheed would buy her small gifts, such as a shawl, which caused him to “win over” Mariam. Mariam begins to feel as if Rasheed prizes her. Again, this relates to Machiavelli’s 12th law, as he is acting loving in a manipulative way to gain his power. “While a little compassion might help us climb the social ladder, once we're at the top we end up morphing into a very different kind of beast” (Lehrer The Power Trip).
One day, Mariam was cleaning the house. She decided to go into Rasheed’s room, which she really was not supposed to do. She starts to go through his things. While going through drawers, she finds pictures of Rasheed’s dead wife and son. Rasheed has since been wanting another son, due to losing his first and only son. Later on, Rasheed and Mariam find out that they are going to have a baby. Mariam, however, has a miscarriage. This is when Rasheed starts to distance himself from Mariam. However, they kept trying, yet after seven or eight miscarriages, they give up. Rasheed was not tolerable of this. With Mariam not being able to give Rasheed the son he wanted, he became bitter. He did not get what he wanted from Mariam, so therefore, she was like a broken toy to him. This is where the abuse began. This is really the first official time where Rasheed displays how he was the one in charge, and how he was the one who had the power.
When Rasheed and Mariam take in a neighbor, Laila, after she suffered from injuries from her house being hit by a rocket, this causes a whole series of events to occur.

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

despise them from him being abusive to have the power that he has than to have healthy, loving relationships with them. This also can be seen as Machiavelli’s 18th law, which states to “keep others in suspended terror” (Keltner The Power Paradox).
A couple years later, Laila gets pregnant again. This time, it’s conceived by Rasheed. And this time, it’s a boy, just as Rasheed had hoped and had been wanting. He is named Zalmai. This is where Rasheed shows just how loving and caring he can be. He treats Zalmai as his pride and joy. He spends much of his time with Zalmai, taking him around town and to work. He starts to spend so much time with Zalmai, he actually begins to strip Laila’s time with her son away from her. Zalmai, even though being oblivious comes with being young, is completely blindsided by his father. Zalmai worships the ground that Rasheed walks on, despite the fact that Rasheed abuses his own mother. The love that Rasheed has for Zalmai, in a sense, displays how gender really does play a role in the novel. Rasheed respects Zalmai more than he respects either of his wives. It is easy to assume that it is because Zalmai is a male. Not only that, but because Zalmai is what Rasheed has always wanted: a son of his own.
However, like almost every rise to power, there is a downfall. Rasheed’s wives begin to grow tired of his manipulative and abusive ways after dealing with them for years upon years. While they had been rebelling against him for quite a while, they begin to rebel even more. When Rasheed physically abuses either one of them, they fight back. Laila finds out that Rasheed had hired Abdul Harif to lie to her about Tariq’s supposed death, as Tariq had shown up at their house. Laila and Tariq start to make up for all of the time that had been lost. Rasheed finds out about Tariq visiting Laila, as Zalmai had told him about how he visits and how Laila let Tariq see her face. This enrages Rasheed, not because he is jealous of the relationship between Laila and Tariq, but because he has been humiliated by the situation. His property, which is Laila, is slowly being taken away from him, which is why it humiliates him. however, it got too violent for both Mariam’s and Laila’s liking. “One way to obtain power is to manipulate others, but people are reactive: they will not necessarily sit back and let others manipulate them” (Chynoweth Where Machiavelli went wrong).