In 1,000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, a girl named Mariam lives in a small shack with her mother Nana in Afghanistan. Mariam’s father is a wealthy cinema owner who she adores even though Jalil, the father, has numerous wives and children. He only visits Mariam once a week and tells her stories and brings her gifts. “Nor was she old enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born” (Hosseini 4). From the beginning of the book, Mariam was not wanted by either her mother or father, giving her an unstable home life that further affected her outside life. In the novel, Mariam is forced to marry a man named Rasheed who becomes verbally and physically abusive towards her. Rasheed and Mariam take in a woman named Laila to help …show more content…
her heal after a traumatic injury and during this time, Rasheed's behavior changes and Mariam thinks that he is seeing Laila. Mariam then asks Laila if she would marry Rasheed’s and she says yes while being pregnant with Rasheed baby, though he thinks.
Laila and Rasheed marry, and tension arises between the women. Rasheed makes Laila his priority and makes fun of Mariam in order to impress Laila. Throughout Mariam’s and Rasheed’s whole relationship, Rasheed has jurisdiction over her and yet she keeps putting his needs above her own and does whatever to make him happy, i.e. letting him marry Laila and make fun of her. This cowardly flaw of Mariam’s is a huge weakness because it allows Rasheed to do whatever he wants to Mariam because he knows that she will not do anything to stop him or fight back in any way. This human condition gives Mariam a fearful attitude and doesn’t allow her to succeed in life, because she’s always scared. And in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Alec has a huge jurisdiction over Tess by raping her and Tess still having their child together and continuing to get back together with him. Tess allows Alec and Angel to push her around, making her more and more insecure and weak but by the end of the book events and tragedies finally lead Tess to a new inner
person. Cowardliness also leads Mariam and Tess to having fear in their everyday lives. Mariam gets back together with Rasheed after finding out the baby wasn’t his and they try to start a family of their own, but things don’t go as planed. “Soon, Rasheed returns with a handful of pebbles and forces Mariam’s mouth open and stuffs them in. He then orders her to chew the pebbles. In her fear, she does as he asks, breaking the molars in the back of her mouth. He tells her, “Now you know what your rice tastes like. Now you know what you’ve given me in this marriage. Bad food, and nothing else” (Hosseini 94). Mariam is stuck in a marriage where she’s constantly scared of her husband and is always trying to please him. She knows that Rasheed is dangerous, but she’s so scared to leave him that she continues to get emotionally and physically hurt. Eventually Laila and Mariam team up to take Rasheed down after finding out that Rasheed had been lying to them. After being scared for years, the girls finally stand up to Rasheed leading them to the same events Tess does. Tess decides to fight back against Alec after taking his sexually abuse for years. These years of hurting and scariness lead Tess to a whole new person, turning once from a scared-cat to an angry-filled cougar. "I agree to the conditions, Angel; because you know best what my punishment ought to be; only - only - don't make it more than I can bear!" (Hardy 249). Tess is also constantly afraid of losing Angel after telling him about her past, even though he has done just as bad things as her. Tess will suffer anything in order for Angel to stay with her because she loves him so much. A famous coward would be Francesco Schettino. Schettino was the captain of the Italian cruise ship, Costa Concordia, which sank and killed almost 32 people. He is now nicknamed “Captain Coward” because he abandoned the ship of his 4252 passengers. Francesco Schettino has been found guilty of multiple manslaughter in Italy and sentenced to 16 years in jail for his role in one of the country's worst maritime disasters (BBC News). These cowardly actions have lead the characters and real humans to a scare filled life style and has brought upon actions that may not be normal. As the character’s cowardly actions catch up to them, the two girls start to act and thing differently. Tess becomes a strong, independent woman who doesn’t want to rely on any man. But, her actions catch up to her, making her become a whole new woman. "His original Tess had spiritually ceased to recognize the body before him as hers - allowing it to drift, like a corpse upon the current, in a direction disassociated from its living will" (Hardy 372). Pretty soon Angel starts to recognize Tess changing and can hardly tell its even her anymore. By the end of the novel Tess ends up murdering Alec, which leads her to her own execution. Tess’ cowardly actions of letting men overrule her life finally caught up to her and made her become the person she would have never dreamed of being. The same thing happens to Mariam after she finds out about Rasheed hiring a man to tell Laila about her true loves untrue death so she wouldn't run away. When Tariq comes home, Rasheed brutally beats Laila, forcing Mariam to turn. Mariam ends up murdering Rasheed with a shovel, leading her to her own execution. Mariam had entered this world a harami, a weed, but she is leaving it a woman who had loved and been loved back. “This is a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.” She begins to say a few words from the Koran as the executioner tells her to kneel and look down. “For one last time, Mariam does as she is told” (Hosseini 329). Once again Mariam does as she is told, but by the end of the novel she has more confidence in herself and realizes she never needed a man in her life and she always knew the people who truly loved her. It’s sad because Mariam finally became her true self, but it was too late because she wasted a majority of her life being afraid.
The story opens up with Mariam’s mother, Nana, calling her a “harami” for breaking a sugar bowl. “Harami” means “bastard child” and Mariam was born out of wedlock, with her father being Jalil, a wealthy businessman. Although it was Jalil’s fault for having an affair with Mariam’s mother, Mariam gets the pain and backlash from her mother for being a “harami.” She did not understand what this meant, though, because she was
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
In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, the characters Mariam and Nana, though very different, are similar in that they are both victims, illustrating how people can be considered victims for many different reasons.
In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author Khaled Hosseini presents the tragedy that Mariam went through. Mariam the unwanted child for her father because he was not married to Mariam’s mother when she get pregnant from him. She lived in a village with her only family member, her mother. One day she left her mother and went to the city that her father lived in. Her mother felt abandoned and committed suicide because Mariam is all she had. After the death of her mother, Mariam moved with her father to Kabul. She was a burden to her father so after some weeks she was forced to marry a forty-five year old man when she was only fifteen year old. She moved to another city with her husband where she had to live with a man that she never
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
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...
The Sun Shines Bright, one of John Ford 's most personal films remains one of his most forgotten. Taking place in 1905 (according to Tag Gallagher), it follows four distinct story lines all of which are based upon the deep fractures found within the small Kentucky town called Fairfield: 1.For all intents and purposes, the main storyline, concerns the protagonist, William Priest (affectionately known as 'Judge ' or 'Billy ' throughout), and his reelection campaign against the haughty, Yankee, racially intolerant son-of-a-carpet-bagger, Horace K. Maydew. 2. The return of orphan Ashby Corwin, and his wooing of the black sheep of the town, Lucy Lee Lake. 3. The arrest of U.S Grant, a black teenage banjo player on the charge of raping a local white girl. The lynch mob that marches into town is driven out by Judge Priest and the real culprit is found, and shot. 4. The melodrama surrounding the town secret of who Lucy Lee 's (birth) mother is and the subsequent reveal.
William Faulkner is often considered to be the greatest writer in the America history. His fame rests largely on his novels, especially for his closely examination of the southern culture. "That evening sun" is a good example of it.
Tess, the protagonist and heroine of Hardy's novel, becomes a victim of rape and in turn, her life grows to become degraded, humiliating and depressing; of which none of these things she deserves. Although initially striving to be heroic and providing for her family, (after she was responsible for the death of Prince) the position she takes on at the d'Urbervilles' ultimately leads to her death as she is raped and then pursued by her seducer Alec d'Urberville until she must murder him. This courageous yet dangerous decision to murder Alec epitomises her character as a heroine as she is brave enough to perform such a malicious act in order to kill her suffering at the root rather than being passive and perhaps choosing to take her own life instead.
In earlier drafts of Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway opens with the words: “This is a novel about a lady. Her name is Lady Ashley and when the story begins she is living in Paris and it is Spring.” Though this exposition was later cut from the novel at the suggestion of F. Scott Fitzgerald—one of Hemingway’s contemporaries—nevertheless it still serves to reveal the objective center around which The Sun Also Rises revolves. As an enigmatic amalgamation of feminine charm, unapologetic androgyny, and sexual promiscuity, Brett captivates the attention of all the other characters of the novel—be it Jake Barnes or Mike Campbell or even Pedro Romero—as she attempts to find individual freedom in a society altered by the general disillusionment and psychological malaise after World War I. Though much critical attention has focused upon Brett’s licentiousness and the resulting Victorian ideals that she violates, surely Brett transcends both the sexual function her critics limit her to and the Victorian values they hold her up against. Indeed, Brett’s loose and meaningless romances play an important allegorical role in representing the broader shattered unity and inconsistencies of the modern world—the world of the Lost Generation.
Next let us examine Mariam's plight. She is denied the chance to go to school. "What's the sense schooling a girl like you? It's like shinning a spitspoon." She lives with a cruel mother. "You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I've endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harmi"(4). She has a neglectful father. "Mariam kept thinking of his face in the upstairs window. He let her sleep on the street. On the street. Mariam cried lying down"(35). Her mother commits suicide and Mariam blames herself. "You stop that. These thoughts are no good, Mariam jo. You hear me, child? No good. They will destroy you. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault no". Mariam nodded, but as desperately as she wanted to she could not bring herself to believe him"(44). She is forced into marriage to a man she does not love. "I don't want to," Mariam said. She looked at Jalil. "I don't want this. Don't make me"(47). She is sent to live in a strange city were she does not know anyone. She has a physically abusive husband. "Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars"(104). Her husband is cruel and says hurtful words to her. She can not do anything right in his eyes. When he is not ignoring her he is being verbally or physically abusive towards her.
Tess throughout the entire novel, develops into a more formidable, tenacious character who rejects the culture which surrounds her, particularly the ideas of social classes and the expectations for purity in women. The reason for Tess’s strength is because of her insurgence of these ideas which lead her on a path that forms her into a stronger, more vehement person. And her strength that develops allows her to continue to reject these ideas in a more radical way. Tess’s life was destined to be tragic, to be riddled with adversity, but despite her hardships, she became stronger, more refined, more courageous; she became Tess of the D’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman.
A thousand splendid suns (2007) is a novel written by the Afghan-American author Khaled hosseini. The novel addresses both aspects, which he evaluates and points out to his readers. Hosseini tries to point out two young women in the following way. Mariam is an illegitimate child, and suffers from both the stigma surrounding her birth along with the abuse she faces throughout her marriage. Laila, born a generation later, is comparatively privileged during her youth until their lives intersect and she is also forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam's husband.
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 Sun Rising” by John Donne is an aubade all about two lovers getting woken up by the sun when all they want to do is lay in bed all day. The entire poem is the speaker, presumably Donne himself, is talking to the sun and telling him to go away. This poem is broken into three stanzas with a rhyme scheme of ABBACDCDEE. Each of those stanzas represents what Donne is telling the sun to do, which is, to go away, I am stronger than you, and that he and his lover are the center of the world. He uses diction all throughout the poem to emphasize that the sun is not welcome in waking him and is lover and throughout all three stanzas to make his three points and to give the overall points of the poem. There are many metaphors used all through the poem and one overall metaphor.