How Is Mariam Portrayed In A Thousand Splendid Suns

Aubrey Mumashe Magodlyo

Professor Stauffer

LA 201

Paper #2

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini wrote A Thousand Splendid Suns which is an account of life in Afghanistan during a time when there was a lot of violence in the country. Unfortunately, this violence was often carried into the houses of many families with women being the greatest victims. In the novel, Hosseini seeks to portray that although there are a lot of negative things going on in Afghanistan, not all Afghani people are defeated; some individuals manage to thrive and live life to the fullest. One of the most remarkable people who proves to be one in a thousand splendid suns is Mariam who is a child born out of wedlock. Her dad, Jalil sends Mariam’s mother, Nana away

since he is ashamed of impregnating his housekeeper outside of marriage. As an illegitimate child, Mariam grows up facing a lot of challenges in life. She has to deal with harsh words from Nana like being called “harami” which means bastard. Additionally, she is married early to Rasheed and sent to a faraway place. Furthermore, Mariam has seven miscarriages and gets beaten up by Rasheed. However, some of the worst experiences actually enable Mariam not only to survive, but to go after a life that is fulfilling to her.
Nana lowers her daughter’s expectations in life by instilling in Mariam that women must take whatever is thrown at them. She suggests that women should not have hope despite having to suffer. Nana says, “Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have” (19). These words hint that Mariam should not look forward to anything in life since the life of women is about tolerating experiences. This advice helps Mariam later on in her life, for example, her husband’s violence results in her losing two molars. Rasheed forces her to chew pebbles because Mariam had given him rice which was not properly cooked. As a hopeless person, she didn’t expect to be treated any better, so Mariam endured tormenting without protesting just as Nana had suggested. Had Mariam stood up against Rasheed, protesting against his commands, she would have most likely been killed for challenging him. Mariam proves to be one of the thousand splendid suns of Kabul in that she does not give up when she goes through hard times.
Nana lowers Mariam’s self-esteem by saying “You are a clumsy little harami” (4).

Being called a harami probably made Mariam feel unwanted. Just as Nana’s low expectations help Mariam, so does her mother’s degradation of her; being called a bastard prepared Mariam for the encounter with Rasheed when she was instructed to wear a burqa. Although the burqa was uncomfortable, Mariam’s low self-esteem made her view wearing a burqa as an opportunity to cover herself and become invisible from the world. This frees her from being bothered about being illegitimate. By using prior experiences which had lowered her self-esteem and expectations, Mariam proves to be one of the thousand splendid suns by turning lessons acquired from bad experiences into positive outlooks on

life.
Mariam doesn’t anticipate being loved by Mullah Faizullah, a Koran teacher from Gul Daman.

Faizullah loves and cares for Mariam because he gives her a picture of God, a loving and caring being. He shares with Mariam that she could always get comfort from the scriptures written in the Koran. He says according to the Koran, “God’s words will never betray you” (17). After her first miscarriage, Mariam is sad and angry and she prays to God. When Mariam is down, her religious faith helps her go through life’s sad moments. Due to the plethora of suffering which Mariam is exposed too, she could have killed herself but somehow she holds on to some faith that God will help her like Faizullah had hinted from his teachings. Clinging to her faith regardless of hard times seems to give Mariam strength to carry on with life. Additionally, before she was killed, Mariam says a prayer; this gesture suggests she valued prayer as the go to activity in difficult times. Praying gave her hope that God was always there for her and he was forgiving. Mariam was able to be one in a thousand splendid suns of Kabul in that she always motivated herself and found the strength to keep living regardless of the problems she was facing. All her life Mariam wanted someone to love her and to show her that she belonged and Faizullah was able to do this for

her.
Mariam is abandoned by her parents; Nana commits suicide while Jalil marries her off to Rasheed at a young age. Jalil’s abandonment leaves Mariam angry and longing for someone to love her. The neglect by Nana leaves her feeling guilty of contributing to her mother’s death and she discusses this emotion with Faizullah when she says, “I keep thinking of what she said to me before I left” (43). Mariam goes against Nana’s threat to take her life if she went to Jalil’s place. Although the guilty feeling probably made Mariam feel bad about herself, it made her connect with Laila, Rasheed’s second wife whom Mariam and her husband rescue from a rocket attack. Laila had survivor’s guilt because she survives an attack which claims the lives of her parents.
Like most married couples Mariam and Rasheed try to have a child which results in Mariam having seven miscarriages. This was a traumatic experience since Mariam witnessed seven deaths of her own children and she had to bury them alone without her husband’s help. Rasheed seemed not to care about the children’s death, instead, he grew bitter which most likely hurt Mariam. The miscarriages help Mariam not to completely despair in life, having lost several lives, nothing life would throw at her would be too difficult. The pain of seeing her children dead probably prepared her for her own death. As a result of killing Rasheed, Mariam is given a death penalty. Although Mariam cried on her way to her death place, she was probably emotionally prepared because she had experienced deaths of her children and knew it was a point of no return. By dying, perhaps she would reunite with all the children she had lost. In this case, her seven miscarriages prepared her to endure the pains of facing death. Since Mariam was able to remain focused and composed while facing death, her courage distinguishes her as a splendid in a thousand suns.
Regardless of all the dirt which life had thrown at Mariam, she would be justified if she was bitter and stopped caring about other people since she had been let down numerous times. However, Mariam showcases being a splendid in a thousand suns by caring for Laila, Aziza and Zalmai. Mariam loved and played with Aziza and Zalmai as if there were her own children; she had a soft spot for them in her heart. Additionally, when Rasheed was unemployed, Mariam takes a motherly role and tries to contact her father seeking help. She humbles herself and allows her bitterness of being forced to marry to fade off in an effort to save her family’s lives. Mariam kills Rasheed as she protects Laila and herself because had she failed to do that, she would have probably been killed by Rasheed. In her last moments Mariam thinks:
of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, complain, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings (370).
This proves that Mariam left the world as a true hero having defied all odds, viewing her earlier challenging life experiences as stumbling blocks to a fulfilling life in which she ended as someone who belonged to a family and was proud of what she had turned out to be. She sacrificed her life for people she loved and cared for, for the family she always wanted to have. Laila, Aziza and Zalmai were the individuals who drove Mariam to perform all her heroic actions since she cared for them and they were the beneficiaries of Mariam’s bravery.
Mariam experiences a lot of misfortunes earlier her life, however, her drawbacks help her survive since they prepare her to deal with the adversities she faces in her marriage with Rasheed. In contrast to the violent society in which Mariam lived in, she never shows signs of being defeated, she manages to be outstanding and live life to the maximum. In doing this, she proves to be a splendid in a thousand suns and brings out Hosseini intent in writing the book. This is because Mariam defies all odds and is exceptional and proves the existence of nice people in Afghanistan. One of the gestures which Mariam does in order to show her incomparable exploits is by going far and beyond her motherly role at the hospital when Laila is giving birth. The nurses ask what she needed help with and she refers to Laila as her daughter. Additionally, she provides Laila with support while she was giving birth through surgery without any pain medicine. Even in her death, Mariam continued being a splendid in a thousand suns in that her portion of her heritage was used to renovate an orphanage where kids were taken care of.

WORK CITED
Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2007. Print.