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Understand the lesson-the thousand splendid suns-by Khaled Hosseini
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In Khaled Hosseini’s “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, you read a story about two women named Mariam and Laila. They were brought jarringly together by war, loss and by fate. The novel extends over a period for 50 years and follows the upbringing of the two main characters. As a result of this, this essay will deal with Mariam and Mariam’s life through four years of rough marriage.
Nana (Mariam’s mother) didn’t seem to love her own child. The book opens with a young Mariam being verbally chastised for breaking a tea set that belongd to her mother, who called her a “harami”, a bastard child. Already at the beginning of the book, you get a feeling that Mariam doesn’t feel loved by her mother. Mariam's shame at being illegitimate makes her unable to stand up for herself. Her father was never there for her, which made her a woman who doesn’t seem very brave.” What a stupid girl you are! You think you matter to him, that you’re wanted in his house? You think you are a daughter to him? That he’s ‘going to take you in?” quote from Nana (page 27). Because of her father never being there for her, she has grown into a brave woman, even though she doesn’t seem like it.
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Mariam’s inability to have children turned her into a resentful, bitter and fearful woman.
In her early ages, she was married to an older man named Rasheed. He raped her at an age of only fifteen years old. This traumatized her both mentally and physically. As her stomach grew and she got further into the pregnancy, she actually loved the thought of having a baby! “When Mariam thought of this baby, her heart swelled inside of her” quote from Mariam (page 88). The pregnancy got her mind of that she was married to an older man and that her mom no longer was there for her since she committed suicide. She went to the doctor for a normal examination, but they told her that she was unable to carry her child and it died. As a result of this, she became a strong and fearful
woman. Mariam became a loving and caring woman because of Laila’s children Aziza and Zalmai. When Laila came into Mariam and Rasheed’s family, Laila became pregnant with Tariq and Rasheed’s children. Mariam looked forward to having a pair of young lively children who brought her into her sad and miserable life. Laila brought forth two beautiful children named Aziza and Zalmai. Although Mariam was furious that Laila and Rasheed were together, she always loved Laila’s kids and was a second mother for them. “As soon as she was in Mariam's arms, Aziza's thumb shot into her mouth and she buried her face in Mariam's neck. “Mariam had never before been wanted like this. Love had never been declared to her so guilelessly, so unreserved.” quote from Mariam (page 246). As Laila and her children entered her life she achieved a new wisdom and carefulness. Following the dramatic events in Mariam’s life, it changed her both mentally and physically. In the beginning of the book, she was an insecure woman who couldn’t stand up for herself. As the time went – she grew up as a strong independent woman who stood up for not only herself, but for all the women in Kabul.
In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Mariam fulfills the hero journey. She goes through many tests and hardships to accomplish the journey throughout her life. The obstacles she overcomes helps her to grow and become a much stronger person. Mariam undergoes a hero’s journey in A Thousand Splendid Suns because she is born and raised in a rural setting away from cities, the hero meets monsters or monstrous men, and suffers an unhealable wound, sometimes an emotional or spiritual wound from which the hero never completely recovers.
Mariam and Laila face a lot of social injustice yet they do not attempt to challenge the issues because they are told to endure all forms of pain and social injustice. From a very young age, Mariam was told by her mother that all she needed to do was to withstand any pain and suffering, it’s the one skill she needed.” Endure . . . Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have”(17). In addition, Laila also suffered the injustice of society since she was a single mother it was not safe for her to live on her own so she had no choice but to marry Rasheed. The society gave women no choice but to endure and that’s the main reason why Laila and Mariam were unable to take a stand. However, close to the end of the novel Mariam decides to take initiative and fights back. She finally takes action because she is driven by the love she has for Laila and her child since they are the only family she’s had that loved her. So when Rasheed her husband attempts to choke Laila to death, Mariam reflects on how much injustice she has faced and how unjust both her husband and the society have been towards her and other women. At this point, Mariam realizes that she must end her and Laila’s suffering once and for all. So she takes Rasheed’s life. Although Mariam is executed as a form of punishment, she is very successful at taking a stand to end the oppression and injustice. Mariam knew her actions were fatal yet she still did what she knew was right. Furthermore, she sacrificed herself and didn’t regret her action instead she was pleased that “she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother” ( 329). Her actions freed Laila and her child from Rasheed’s abuse and helped them build a better life. Thus Mariam was successful and did not want to endure the injustice or see Laila suffer, she did it by
From start to finish, one could see how much Mariam values Laila, Aziza, and their friendship. The first example is when Mariam vows to help Laila while they are in the hospital for Laila’s unborn child: “I’ll get you seen, Laila jo. I promise” (287). This simple promise is a deep portrayal of Mariam’s desire to help Laila find a doctor and deliver her baby. Additionally, one can see Mariam’s love for Laila when she protects her from Rasheed’s grip of death, “‘Rasheed.’ He looked up. Mariam swung. She hit him across the temple. The blow knocked him off Laila” (348). Rasheed was going to kill Laila, but Mariam steps in and knocks him off of her with a shovel to save her life. Mariam forms a tight-knit bond with Laila, and when Hosseini includes their relationship, one can see how Mariam values Laila enough to kill another man. The author also describes their relationship after Mariam and Laila discuss plans for leaving: “When they do, they’ll find you as guilty as me. Tariq too. I won’t have the two of you living on the run like fugitives.” … “Laila crawled to her and again put her head on Mariam’s lap. She remembered all the afternoons they’d spent together, braiding each other’s hair, Mariam listening patiently to her random thoughts and ordinary stories with an air of gratitude, with the expression of a person to whom a unique and coveted privilege had been extended” (358). The love Mariam has for
Mariam has built a mutual relationship with Jalil in her childhood, with weekly visits every Thursday. Mariam has hid behind a wall of innocence, and Jalil helped her get past the wall with the harsh realities of the world. Mariam was an innocent being at childhood: she was stuck indoors in Kolba. Mariam does not know what is going on around her home, because she has not experienced the outdoors as well as others. All she gets at is from Jalil’s stories, and Mullahs teaching. She does not understand that the world is not as as happy as it seems. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini uses Jalil’s character to show development in Mariam's life, in order to emphasize how significant the impact of trust breaks Mariam’s innocent in the story.
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
Mariam’s strength is immediately tested from birth and throughout her whole childhood. She has been through a lot more than other children of her age, and one of those challenges is the hope for acceptance. She is looked at as an illegitimate child by her parents, and they say there’s no need to attend school. We learn right away what the word “harami” means when Nana uses that to describe her own daughter. She says, “You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I’ve endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harami” (Hosseini 4). Nana especially pushed Mariam away from pursuing her goals. She said there was no need for education and men always find a way to blame it on a woman. This pushed Mariam away from her mom and closer to Jalil, but he refuses to acknowledge her and his wives look at her with cold stares of disgust. Mariam only feels loved by Jalil through all of this, mainly because he brings her things and shows her some love. She asks him to do something with her outside of the kolboa and he first agrees, but never brings her because of his fear with his wives and the structures of Afghan culture that frown upon it. He starts to act as if she was a burden to him and Mariam’s hope for acceptance is crushed. She realizes the truth, especially once she reaches adulthood. In Afghanistan, marriage is not all about love for eachother, it is about traditional role...
Hosseini's novel is quite intriguing as he profoundly explains the life of both Mariam and Laila with depth. Throughout the novel he is able to characterize the life a woman had in Afghanistan.This is exemplified through the the structure Hosseini uses, he separates the lives of Mariam and Laila into many distinct parts, the two individual stories of the protagonists are within parts one and two. As a result, parts three and four reside to the shared experiences of them both. By doing this he is able compare and contrast the lives of Mariam and Laila, which is an exceptional way of doing it. Throughout the novel, Hosseini is able to depict the themes of oppression to women, affects of love, and impacts on war. One of the themes is war in which
After the takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Quran was pressed upon the whole country, and women were most affected. Women were not given any choice in their lifestyles, but the change had only been beneficial to them. In 1973, the country selected President Khan to be their leader. President Khan fought for women’s rights to ban veils and freedom, but only larger cities were reformed. Those in rural areas still had the traditional customs. Then in 1979, the People Democratic Party of Afghanistan persisted women get an education, abolished bride prices, and raised the marrying age for girls. From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban placed rules that forbid women from committing any sin or harm, such as, having a job and seeking medical help
The major irony for the wives in “A Field of Wheat” (Sinclair Ross) and “A Garden of Her Own” (Shani Mootoo) is that the isolation both experience in their marriages is also that which connects them the most. Although the two stories may be set in completely different locations and time periods, the underlying themes of loneliness, of loss, and of dissatisfaction with their husbands and with their lives transcend time and place. However, the motivations and coping methods employed by Martha (“A Field of Wheat”) and Vijai (“A Garden of Her Own”) are vastly different. Martha draws strength from her children, while Vijai reminisces about her happy family growing up and dreams of a happier life for herself. This essay will explore the parallelisms
Fatima Mernissi is a superb writer who introduces the reader into a harem through the mind of a nine-year-old girl. In this autobiographical novel young Mernissi talks uncensored about the contradictions of life in a harem, surrounded by the extraordinary women in her family who are restrained from leaving the family courtyard. These women’s is a struggle of complete lack of freedom. They are not allowed to leave the courtyard except on very few occasions, and escorted by men (Mernissi 39). Their lack of mobility is also accentuated by lack of other freedoms such as education and financial freedom, although they have a voice in the decision making of the crucial changes in the harem life.
If Hosseini aims to convey a message that women are tantalizing and provide warmth to society but are hidden and masked, evidently there must be an issue causing this suppression of women in society; thus the political and cultural backdrop plays in to the impression the reader takes away from the novel. Hosseini conveys his message of enduring and optimism profoundly through these two characters. If not for the political and cultural backdrop of the novel, the story could not have been developed with the significance and comprehensiveness that it currently has, which essentially are the backbone of the impact this novel has on the reader through a striking presentation of reality that has never been seen in this light, sending a motivational message to fight for the right cause and endure when necessary to achieve the ultimate target.
The majority of the women, females of the age 14 and higher, are arranged to marry men much older than them, and in this case, at the age of fifteen, Mariam is forced to marry her husband, Rasheed, who is at least 35 years older than her. The first sign of dehumanization is shown when Rasheed, newly wedded to Mariam, rapes her in her bed and then leaves her to bleed. Although Mariam doesn’t experience much of dehumanization until she lives with her husband, her mother, Nana, was definitely a victim of it. Despite the fact that little Mariam loved her father, Nana always ranted about him to Mariam. She told Mariam that “like a compass facing north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.” (Hosseini 7). She was also never shy about telling her daughter the truth about women in Afghanistan: “There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don’t teach it in school . . . Only one skill. And it’s this: tahamul. Endure . . . It’s our lot in life, Mariam. Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have. Do you understand?” (17). Later on, Forty-year-old Mariam, suddenly realizes that her crazy mother was right. She grows bitter and slowly starts becoming like Nana. She collectively starts hating men, not only the ones she personally know, but also the men in the
“The Harem Within” is a life story that portrays Mernissi’s childhood experiences while growing up in her family house in Fez, Morocco. Fatema Mernissi was a daughter of wealthy landowners and agriculturalists family. Even though she was raised in indulging and a privileged neighborhood, detached from the poverty most Moroccans experienced, her childhood was spent in the limits of her household shape. Mernissi was raised in a “classical domestic harem”, which abides of extended family and was designed to keep the women sheltered from men outside of the family and the public in general. Occasionally, this exceedingly limitation nurtured feelings of frustrating separation and isolation. Mernissi’s upbringing in this habitat influenced her progress as a scholar and writer.
Both Laila, the lucky girl with breathtaking beauty, whose luck suddenly vanishes, and Mariam, the unlucky and illegitimate daughter, whose luck goes from bad to terribly worse, become dynamic and complex characters. This transformation is brought about by the gradual revealing of Hosseini’s motivation. In fact, Hoesseini is evidently motivated to reveal the truth, and let the emotional and physical realities of Afghani women’s lives be known to the
Residing in a country where one is born as an illegitimate child and is rebuked upon their presence nearly everyday can be mentally and emotionally heartbreaking, specifically when the individual is a child growing up with no initial love or care. , Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns is a powerful novel stressing the follies of eastern society and worldwide ignorance. He delves into the archaic ways in which women’s rights are dealt with through the eyes of the women themselves, providing an influential emotional impact on the reader. The novel’s unlikely heroine, provides insight into the ways in which identity can serve to be a hindrance. According to Charles Cooley’s looking glass self-theory, identity is the result of the concept in which we earn to see ourselves as others do. From early on in her life, Mariam was given the identity as an illegitimate child. Due to her illegitimacy she was never accepted into a family and wasn't nurtured for. She was not able to attain a rightful place in her parents lives or her husbands. Her mother never lets her forget that she ruined her life and deserves nothing, constantly reminding her of her illegitimate birth. Mariam’s father never accepts her into his life and treats her as a hidden sin leading Mariam to believe that due to her illegitimacy she can never be accepted in her fathers home. Her husband never lets her forget her illegitimate beginnings and blames all her faults on the circumstances of her birth, which make her to believe that she will never be accepted for who she is. The following characters all keep Mariam from achieving true happiness, as none of them accept he and she fails to become apart of a family.