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The Relationship Between Literature And Society
The Relationship Between Literature And Society
Literature and society
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Lovely Reputation
In 1996, Taliban’s take control of Afghanistan. This political organization mandate a strictly regulated and extreme Islamic policy. International committees and leaders strongly critique the Taliban regime for their extremist actions and interpretations of religious texts. These times are especially difficult for women who are persecuted and whose rights are constantly violated by the government in place. War goes on as international leaders are trying to set free the handcuffed population of Afghanistan. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini takes place in these times, exposing the characters to the strict regime of Talibans. Hosseini exposes that the patriarchal culture in Afghanistan influences how male-female relationships are experienced. This can be seen through many relationships in the novel such as Mariam and Rasheed’s marriage, Mariam’s relationship with her father and Laila’s marriage with Rasheed.
The patriarchal society gives Rasheed the ‘’right’’ to abuse Marriam in many ways. Many times in the book, Mariam is treated horribly by her husband. The passage where Marriam is “mouthful of grit and
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pebbles … and tears were leaking out of the corners of her eyes” because she did not serve tasteful food demonstrates how bad the treatments toward women are awful. (Hosseini 104) By illustrating shocking situations like that, Hosseini shows what Rasheed can do without getting any trouble. In the following passage, Mariam tried to escape but Rasheed learns her plan. When Rasheed tells Mariam: “’You try this again and I will find you. … And, when I do, there isn't a court in this godforsaken country that will hold me accountable for what I will do” reveals how struck she actually is between his claws. (272) Hosseini describes that Rasheed truly has the governmental support for it’s actions. Fault is always put on women in the Taliban regime which leads men to constantly be in control of their marriage. The court’s inaction, driven by Taliban’s beliefs, gives Rasheed the right to mentally and physically abuse Marriam. Another example of the regime acknowledging women treatment is when they run away, and the officers send them home even if they know the women will face more abuse. There are absolutely no considerations for women. In effect, officers are sending them home with the only goal to enforce the men’s rights in their marriage. These quotes show how governmental policies are not only giving Rasheed a shocking superiority over Marriam but also supports his actions. The patriarchal society gives Marriam’s father, Jalil, the right to oust her and arrange a marriage to save his own reputation. When “Mariam fixed her eyes on Jalil [and] her heart [was] somersaulting in her chest” while Jalil announced his decision, it strongly shows how she disagrees with the situation, but she has the obligation to listen to him. (47) Her daughter’s well-being seems to be secondary for Jalil. She is in total disagreement bu,t as she says, her father has the final say. In an article from Frontier magazine published in 1996, Mrs. Shalinsky reports the life of a little girl named Nadia who grew up in a typical afghan family. As a teenager, Nadia was old enough to be married so her father was looking for a husband. Such as for Marriam “the amount of pressure on [Nadia] was great, and her father, [was looking] for religious observance and an honorable family background as indispensable for the match” (Shalinsky) Just as Marriam’s father, Nadia’s father is searching for an husband according to his own values, regardless of his daughter happiness. According to Hosseini and Shalinsky, father-daughter relationship is impacted negatively while wedding time has come mainly because of the different point of view father and daughter can have about future The patriarchal society gives Rasheed the “right” to marry a young woman to have a good reputation. That’s Laila’s purpose in Rasheed’s life. Having a young and beautiful woman is well-seen in Taliban’s society. Polygamy is encouraged and increases the reputation of men. Fact is that relationships are not necessarily driven by love but by reputation. This is a terrible concept for women who are imposed husbands. Love is not present in any relationships, so women are not treated in a privileged way by their husband. We can see from this quote that Rasheed is now the controlling figure and that he need to manage how her wife acts to maintain it’s reputation When Rasheed tells Laila that “[he is her] husband now, and it falls on [him] to guard not only [her] honor but [their].
… That is the husband's burden.” He also tells her that she will not have to worry about any single details of their reputation; he will manage everything. (223) Rasheed acts like that because he must get a good reputation to be considered a real man according to the public opinion. Hosseini shows how women are used as object that serves only their image. In this second passage, Hosseini uses imagery combined with a comparison which is a great example of the objectification of Marriam and Laila by Rasheed: “Well, one does not drive a Volga and a Benz in the same manner. That would be foolish, wouldn't it?” (223) Rasheed explains how the patriarchal society values women’s beauty, but only when it embellishes men’s
one. Taliban’s regime has been a nightmare for women. Hosseini develops the situation by looking at different relationships, intimate or not. Men superiority, encouraged by the regime in place, gives men like Rasheed to abuse mentally and physically women because they are basically seen as object with the only usage to give succession to men. The patriarchal society’s point of view also gives Jalil the right to decide of her daughter future to make sure his own reputation is safe. As a matter of fact, according to Taliban’s ideology, women are there to ensure men happiness. Since Taliban’s regime is based on an extremist interpretation of Islamic religious texts, generalizations are going on. Differentiating extremist’s points of view from original Islamic religious texts can be difficult from an occidental basis. It is important for media to deliver information accurately to avoid any sorts of stereotyping.
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
Social injustice is revealed throughout the novel and Hosseini really goes in depth and indulges the reader by portraying every aspect of the life of women in Afghanistan at the time period. He also reveals most of the social injustice women still have to deal with today. This novel is based on two young women and the social injustices they face because of their gender. Gender inequality was very common in Afghanistan
A Thousand Splendid Suns takes place in Afghanistan, more specifically in cities like Kabul, Irat and Muree. The story of this novel happen on a long period of time, approximately from 1974 to 2003. What should be retained from those facts is that the story is going in the Middle East, a Islamic country in which the religion has a major influence in the culture and that Afghan society is known to be misogynist. Also, during the
Women are beaten, and it is culturally acceptable. Like routine, women are beaten in Afghanistan almost every day. When a person purposely inflicts sufferings on others with no feelings of concern, like the women of Afghanistan, he is cruel. Cruelty can manifest from anger, irritation, or defeat and is driven by self-interest. An idea that is explored in many works of literature, cruelty also appears in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns in the relationship between a husband and wife. In their case, the husband uses cruelties in the form of aggression are to force his wife to submit. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini’s use of cruelty elucidates the values of both Rasheed and Mariam as well as essential ideas about the nature of
Justice and perception are words that often overlap. What is seen as justice by one generation can be seen a hateful act of violence by the next. The point is, justice can only truly be construed by the one perceived as the victim. In A Thousand Splendid Suns a picture of sorrow and desperation that grasp Afghanistan is painted as the backdrop to the story. Mariam, a harami, was taught by her mother to endure. That her sole purpose as a woman was to endure the suffering that a man causes. Then, one day, she takes justice into her own hands and kills her abusive husband to save her sister wife and only true companion in her life. This crime leads to her execution; even her final moments a sense of purpose fulfills her because she knows that by sacrificing her life and saving Laila’s, Laila can start anew.
The systematic victimization of women by patriarchal societies is extremely prominent throughout the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, written by Khaled Hosseini. For example, Mariam has been victimized since birth with her father not being around, her not getting a proper education, she is outcasted by everyone around her. This patriarchal society allowed her to be married off to Rasheed at the age of 15. Another way this theme is displayed is through Laila. She was a young girl that was living a fantastic life but once her father and mother were killed she was taken in by Mariam and Rasheed, which then lead to her becoming a victim. Rasheed abused her mentally, and physically with no remorse. She had to abide by his
In the story “In Camera, Saadawi illustrated how women were treated by the legal system in Arabic country when they did something against the system. The protagonist, Leila Al-Fargani, who was a young woman on trial for calling the “mighty one”, which is a respective title for the President of their country, a stupid man. Moreover, during the time she was waiting for the court date, she was brutally beaten and raped by ten men who seem to be the guards. At the time she was in the court, she was still suffering from the pain both in physical and mental way, but she did not collapse. When the time the judge and those with him declared that ten men raped Leila and also her father’s honor got trampled. (This is the way we torture you women- by depriving you of the most valuable thing you possess”). For the response she said: “You fool! The most valuable thing I possess is not between my legs. You are all stupid. And the most stupid among you is the one who leads you.” In one hand, this quote completely showed that the man thought this sexual violence was totally right when the woman had committed a crime. In anther hand, it also showed that in the very deep of Leila, the...
The women of Afghanistan have been through every hardship imaginable. Khaled Hosseini uses his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns to show his readers how women’s rights changed through out the last half of the 20th century and how the different governments affected the women differently.
Later on in the book the Taliban have control over Kabul and have enlisted a lot of rules upon all citizens but mostly the women and the way they can act, talk, look like, be treated, and more. Rasheed is almost pleased with the new rules especially since they go hand in hand with exactly what he believes in. Although his younger wife Laila is not so keen on the new rules “ ‘They can’t make half the population stay home and do nothing,’ Laila said. ‘Why not?’ Rasheed said. For once, Mariam agreed with him. He’d done the same to her and Laila, in effect, had he not?.... ‘This isn’t some village. This is Kabul. Women here used to practice medicine; they held office in the government-’ Rasheed grinned. ‘Spoken like the arrogant daughter of a poetry-reading university man that you are. How urbane, how Tajik, of you.” (Hosseini 279). He not only talks down about her beliefs but her culture and family that she was raised in.
Ahmed’s mother is the first to fall into playing her stereotypical social construct after her husband; Hajji Ahmed beats her for not supplying him with an heir, a son. “One day he struck he struck her, because she had had refused to subject herself to a last, desperate ordeal…” This act shows Ahmed’s mothers weakness, a gender normative of women, compared to her husband. However instead of lashing back she accepts the fate she has put herself into. She punishes herself similar to the acts her husband acts onto her. “She, too, began to lose interest in her daughters…and struck her belly to punish herself.” At this point in the novel, it is evident that Ahmed’s mother is adjusting her own belief to match that of Hajji. His reoccurring distaste for his seven daughters has rubbed onto his wife. This compliance to accept her husband’s belief fits into that mold that says that women are not assertive and follow with what their husbands want. The next section femininity is seen in it’s natural essence is seen at the end of chapter three when Ahmed has been attacked and his father confronts him about his girlish ways.
“The Harem Within” is a pioneering work that opens discussion of women’s rights in Islamic societies. With her humble life story Mernissi gives not only a voice to Moroccan women, but stands her advocacy for individual freedom and battle against the harem within. The narrative is a literature example that figures the women discrimination and appeal for
Khaled Hosseini, author of A Thousand Splendid Suns, is indisputably a master narrator. His refreshingly distinctive style is rampant throughout the work, as he integrates diverse character perspectives as well as verb tenses to form a temperament of storytelling that is quite inimitably his own. In his novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, he explores the intertwining lives of two drastically different Afghani women, Lailia and Mariam, who come together in a surprising twist of fate during the Soviet takeover and Taliban rule. After returning to his native Afghanistan to observe the nation’s current state amidst decades of mayhem, Hosseini wrote the novel with a specific fiery emotion to communicate a chilling, yet historically accurate account of why his family was forced to flee the country years ago.
The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns explores the plight of women in Afghanistan; the focus is put on three women Nana, Mariam and Laila. Women in Afghanistan often face difficult and unfortunate situations. In this essay we will examine some of these unfortunate situations for women.
In a nation brimming with discrimination, violence and fear, a multitudinous number of hearts will become malevolent and unemotional. However, people will rebel. In the eye-opening novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini, the country of Afghanistan is exposed to possess cruel, treacherous and sexist law and people. The women are classified as something lower than human, and men have the jurisdiction over the women. At the same time, the most horrible treatment can bring out some of the best traits in victims, such as consideration, boldness, and protectiveness. Although, living in an inconsiderate world, women can still carry aspiration and benevolence. Mariam and Laila (the main characters of A Thousand Splendid Suns) are able to retain their consideration, boldness and protectiveness, as sufferers in their atrocious world.
The author does a great job establishing what the characters are going through and how they feel and react in that situation. In the beginning of the book Mariam is a young girl who has bigger dreams than what her mother thinks she can achieve which makes her view herself in a negative light. As she grows into a woman Rasheed still makes her feel this way, however when Laila comes into her life she becomes a whole new woman with a totally different attitude towards things. After reading the novel I think the author’s main purpose is to inform readers of the woman and their hardships in Afghanistan. The women had very specific rules they had to follow such as, no jewelry, no makeup, they can’t speak unless spoken to and must always be accompanied by a male relative when going outside their homes.