Khaled Hosseini And The Mountains Echoed Essay

Alyssa Kallerae
3UENG-F
Ms. Sidhu
13 June 2018
Relationships in Hosseini’s And The Mountains Echoed
Families are built according to their strength which continues to have a major influence amongst all family members. Khaled Hosseini’s And The Mountains Echoed is based on how people love, care for another, and how the decisions made effects their loved ones. Through the gender criticism lens, the author's purpose is to show how the society creates hardships for biological and chosen relationships. This is shown through the character of Pari, the conflict in the sacrifice an individual makes and the technique of symbolism and irony.
Additionally, Hosseini characterizes what females endure when society is pressuring them to create difficulties in a relationship. A female in an Afghan culture is always brought down and does not have any opportunities to prove what they are capable of to their families. As of this case, Pari is not given the chance to assist her

father, Saboor, to build a guest house instead she is in charge of the water because it relates to the notions of society. After denying Pari’s assistance, “he sensed [that] Pari wanted to get her hands dirty, climb down into the mud, and that she was disappointed with the task [he] had assigned her. ‘Without you fetching us water, we'll never get the guesthouse built’" (Hosseini 30). This quotation shows that a female must conform to society's beliefs and values in spite of destroying their aspirations, which relates to how Pari is always interested in attempting new things but has never given the opportunity. Besides, in today’s society a female is taught that beauty comes in all size, shapes and form, but Pari’s family taught her that too much beauty corrupts things. Pari believed that “she didn’t resemble her father much either… He had been a tall man with a serious face, a high forehead, narrow chin, and then lips” (Hosseini 188). This quote demonstrates that Pari attempts to find herself in her adoptive father, which is impossible. She finds it difficult to remember her father because she was taken away from him due to his sickness, Mrs. Wahdati was discontented with the society accusing the abandonment of her loyal husband. Mothering is an act that only a few can fulfil, which Mrs. Wahdati failed to do. She decided to follow her mother’s path because she is not prepared to sacrifice her life for daughter. Pari starts wondering why her mother disappears leaving her alone, “‘[she] [is] gone to Alsace with Marc. You remember him. [Will] [be] back in couple of days. Be a good girl. Pari had stood shaking in the kitchen, eyes filling up, telling herself two days wasn’t so bad, it wasn’t so long” (Hosseini 178). This shows that Mrs. Wahdati is repeating her childhood and even though Pari is her non-biological daughter they shared an emotional bond together. To conclude, Pari experiences many obstacles that puts her in a position where she has no right to decide for herself.
In addition, when an individual makes a sacrifice, it always results in a negative consequence. Saboor, Pari’s biological father, is responsible for making the agonizing choice to sell his daughter to a wealthy childless couple, Mr. and Mrs. Wahdati, because Pari is a financial burden on him. In society's belief, a male will always be superior to a female and with this idea Saboor decides to give away his daughter rather than his son, Abdullah. Parwana, Abdullah's stepmom, makes him realize that “it had to be [Pari]... She had to be the one [to] [leave]” (Hosseini 48). This quotation displays the fact that Saboor is trapped in society’s beliefs and values immensely that he forgot what his family meant to him. Not to mention that Pari feels the absence of both biological and non-biological fathers. Mrs. Wahdati determines to demolish a father-daughter relationship by reason of her selfishness. Mrs. Wahdati informs Nabi to not “tell anyone where [she] [is] going, it would be… [for] the best” (Hosseini 109). This quotation represents that Mrs. Wahdati choses to abandon her husband because she does not want to live in a substandard house that lacks love and acceptance. Besides, maternal abandonment for Thalia is unexpected. She is raised by Odelia, her friend’s mother, because Madeline, Thalia’s narcissistic mother, abandons her in order to unburden herself by the fact that Thalia has revealed her deformed face. Markos, Thalia’s friend, hopes “that they had adapted to this dynamic out of necessity, the quiet daughter eclipsed by the attention-diverting self-absorbed mother routine, that Madeline's narcissism was perhaps an act of kindness, of maternal protectiveness” (Hosseini 297). A woman must conceal their inner thoughts and feelings because they are not given the right to speak up for themselves and with this idea she makes the agonizing choice. Odelia neither feels ashamed nor embarrassment of Thalia’s disfigured face. Withal, Hosseini unfolds the act of injustices that occurs how character’s commit a sacrifice.
Hosseini uses the technique of symbolism and irony to portray the character’s hardships in relationships. Abdullah finds a feather and keeps it as a souvenir for a memory of his sister because she had a collection of various feathers. Abdullah is carrying a yellow feather in his hand, and “he opened the tea box. They were all there, Pari’s feathers, shed from roosters, ducks, pigeons; the peacock feather too. He tossed the yellow feather into the box” (Hosseini 49). This feather represents the love between a brother and sister and also how females are known to be gentle and precious. On the other hand, Thalia unwillingly agrees to wear a mask to cover her deformity, not for the sake of herself but for her mother because females are seen without imperfections. Madeline, Thalia’s mother, cannot help herself with such disgrace and so advices Thalia to wear the mask. After observing Thalia, Odelia:
“knew right then that [she] couldn't bear to see it, whatever the mask was hiding. And that [she] couldn't wait to see it. Nothing in [her] life could resume its natural course and rhythm and order until [she] saw for [herself] what was so terrible, so dreadful, that [she] and others had to be protected from it. The alternate possibility, that the mask was perhaps designed to shield Thalia from [people]” (Hosseini 285-286).
Odelia perceives that the mask is not to avert Thalia from humiliation, but for Madeline’s sake who used happiness to cover her depression.

Along with symbolism, situational irony is also being applied in the text by showing how an individual will only care for their biological child. Abdullah came to an understanding that “if one night their house caught fire, [he] knew without doubt which child Parwana would grab rushing out. She would not think twice. In the end, it came down to a simple thing: They weren't her children, he and Pari...They were another woman's leftovers”(Hosseini 22). Expecting that Parwana will escape with Abdullah and Iqbal, his step-brother, and not Pari is because society has shown that a male is dominant than female disregarding their age. This thought unfortunately does not turn out as it is supposed to be, which causes Abdullah to remain motherless. In this manner, Hosseini depicts how people will respond to a situation related to their biological and non-biological

relationships.
In conclusion, the character’s in this novel become victims of deprivation and lifelessness that results in a hopeless destiny. Through the feminist criticism lens, the author's purpose is to show how the society creates hardships for biological and chosen relationships. This is shown through the character of Pari, the conflict in the sacrifice an individual makes and the technique of symbolism and irony.

Work Cited
Hosseini, K. (2013). And the mountains echoed. New York: Viking.

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