Symbolism In A Thousand Splendid Suns

In classic literature, sexual influences depict a valuable and symbolic significance to the plot and theme of specific novels. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini uses sex as a controlling act that dehumanizes and condemns his characters into the stereotypical role portrayed by women. Mariam and Laila--Hosseini’s main protagonists--both experienced frequent sexual trauma, among other methods of abuse, that molded them into victims of their environment and culture. Their culture--including the setting of the novel and the circumstances in which their culture functioned traditionally--provided this trauma to them through men, or a particular man, who felt that violence and sexual distress towards Mariam and Laila would help control

the emasculation he felt in general. A Thousand Splendid Suns represents a realistic depiction on the roles that women play and stands as a reason why authors use sex and profanity within their novels in order to accurately depict the emotional and mental pain of a character through a physical and symbolic act. By using Mariam’s symbolism of flowers, Hosseini provided accurate examples within A Thousand Splendid Suns that showcased the beauty that could result from one’s sexual anguish within literature and how this particular beauty helped contribute to the subjects of endurance, suffering, and forgiveness.
Within A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini conducted the subject of endurance through Mariam’s innocence and buoyant attitude during the hardships in her early life. Unlike the rest of the novel, Mariam’s early childhood lacked the use of sex and profanity but did not lack the paucity of suffering and pain. The act of dominance and control still played a huge role in Mariam’s endurance as she began to understand how the world worked for women just as her Nana had told her many times before. Her mother--Nana--stated that “it’s” their “lot in life” and that “women like” them “endure. It’s all” they “had” (19). From the very beginning of the novel, Hosseini emphasized the subject of endurance from several point of views, indicating its significance to the plot and theme. Mariam’s early life specified and foreshadowed her inevitable hardships that would continue to disregard her hope and crush her optimism for the beauty in the world. Khaled Hosseini’s first indication of a sexual nature in his novel included Nana’s affair with Jalil and the painful childbirth that resulted from it. Unlike the sanguine attitude and uplifting mood that the readers receive from Mariam’s point of view, Nana’s dialogue and personality make the readers find it difficult to support her constant cynicalness. Hosseini wrote Mariam’s birth as one that seemed filthy and painful for Nana. Following Hosseini’s symbolism of flowers, Mariam’s birth resulted as one of the most powerful and supporting scenes. Mariam stated that “Jalil” “chose the name because Mariam, the tuberose, was a lovely flower” (12). Hosseini’s first sign of flowers resulted from this quote, stating that Mariam bloomed from her mother but in a painfully awful way, one that resulted in Nana cutting “the cord between them” herself (11). Unlike other births in the text, Mariam’s birth included an importance within the novel that eventually foreshadowed her death scene--which showed powerful character development and progress. Mariam bloomed as a flower that her mother could not appreciate or continue to water with harsh reality. The forbidden sexual relationship between Jalil and Nana resulted in a positive child that continued to use the beauty of flowers to show the optimism in life even when it showed signs of darkness and sexual trauma. The subject of endurance played an accurate role in Mariam’s early life as an innocent and vibrant child that held hope for the world only for Hosseini to throw her into an abyss of sexualized suffering in order to further prove the trauma endured by women in society.
As he continued to symbolize and incorporate flowers into A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini introduced the subject of suffering through Mariam’s--and eventually Laila’s--marriage with Rasheed.

Mariam’s sexual suffering began forcefully through Rasheed--a man who Jalil had arranged for Mariam to marry in order to ship her away from his actual family. Mariam’s deflowering showed the readers that sex played a huge part in the novel and that the symbolic act would continue as one of the most controlling methods used by the men in the text. Mariam became pregnant with Rasheed’s child--or son, as Rasheed hoped--after enduring the pain of this controlling act. She began to have hope once more because she felt that a child could bring her happiness during her suffering, so she “asked God not to let all this good fortune slip away from her” (89). Hosseini’s symbolism of flowers soon found another purpose within his novel as Mariam began to criticize Rasheed’s spoiling of the child before it had even grew in her belly, cursing it before its life had begun. She asked herself why he would spoil something, “to catch the fleeting grace of a new season, a lovely beginning, before it was trampled and corrupted” (87)? Mariam saw this unborn child as a flower of a new season that would bring happiness and light to her life, but the subject of suffering within her marriage taught the readers that Mariam’s optimism paralleled with her innocent but naive personality. Hosseini symbolized

and coated Mariam’s suffering with the image of blood. With this image, her suffering never went un-noticed to the readers and continued to accurately portray the realistic pain that women have to suffer through their domestic partners and sexual trauma. A significant scene includes when Mariam miscarries her child. The text states that “then there was blood and she was screaming” (90). This incident triggered an even wider range of suffering caused by Rasheed due to his blame. He blamed the miscarriage on Mariam and believed that she could not hold a healthy son for him. He began to punish her by using violence and dominance, including sexual-based acts of control. Mariam “remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world,” that “all the sighs drifted up the sky gathered into the clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below” “as a reminder of how women like” them “suffer”and “how quietly” they “endure all that falls upon” them (91). Mariam’s suffering continued throughout her twenty-seven years of marriage with Rasheed, and she never gave birth to her own flower even when her husband attempted to “plant his seed” in her, which caused her to lose hope in happiness. Hosseini created the subject of suffering to show the accurate trauma and abuse that women go through because of sex and profanity.
In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini finally introduced the subject of forgiveness through sex and symbolism of flowers when Laila become Mariam’s final hope.

Laila--an originally young girl pregnant with her best friend’s child--became obliged to marry Rasheed once hm and Mariam nurse her back to health after a bomb injuries her and kills the rest of her family. Originally, Mariam and Laila did not understand each other, but after awhile Laila and Zalmai became the reason that Mariam found hope in the world. Through Rasheed’s wrath and lust, they helped each other through their abusive situations and found support in one another. The end of Mariam’s life resulted from Mariam’s love for Laila. She searched all her life for something that gave her life purpose, and she found it in Laila and her children. She described Laila and her children as flowers that bloomed in her life and brought back hope for a better ending. When she began to see the end for Laila, she took matters into her own hands for the first time in her life, stating that she “it occurred to her that this was the first time that she was deciding the course of her own life” (349). After murdering Rasheed, and saving Laila and her children, Mariam faces the inevitable consequences of death. She reminiscents her life, feeling very content with herself and what she has accomplished. She thought “of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable

accident” “a weed” (370). Mariam refers to herself as a weed--an unwanted wild plant. This parallels to Khaled Hosseini’s symbolism of flowers and how Mariam views herself. She then thinks of how “she was leaving the world as a woman who loved and been loved back”; “she was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian,” “a mother,” and how “this was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings” (370). She found it within herself to forgive and forget the suffering and endurance she went through because she finally found peace. She broke her tradition and she awarded life and saved the one person who gave her hope in a lifetime of disappointments. Khaled Hosseini’s symbolism and use of sex and profanity helped Mariam reach this nirvana and helped her reach the subject of forgiveness.
In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini used the idea of sex and symbolism of flowers in order to emphasize the struggles that women go through in their roles as wives and human beings. Hosseini used these literary tactics in order to highlight the subjects of endurance, suffering, and forgiveness. In Mariam’s early life, Hosseini introduced the subject of endurance and stressed the significance it has for the duration of the novel. Nana’s affair with Jalil began the trend of sexual misfortune, following with the painful childbirth of Mariam--named after the tuberose--and the inevitability of her suffrage. Her mother’s pain and father’s absence showed Mariam that endurance reflects the lives of many women. After marrying Rasheed, Mariam gets placed into the role of a wife. This role showed the subject of suffering and let Mariam become a shadow of herself. She endured into this role, tamed by the sexual and abusive control that Rasheed had over her. Everytime she became pregnant with a new child, Mariam hoped for a beautiful outcome and for a healthy son that would make Rasheed happy. Everytime she failed to give Rasheed this wish, Mariam endured more abusive behavior from Rasheed--causing this symbolic act to condition her further into her endurance. Laila’s marriage with Rasheed brought forth a new chapter in Mariam’s life. When Laila became a part of the family, Mariam began to take on the role as a mother to Laila. She describes Laila and her children as flowers in her life that have come to give her hope for the final time. Mariam’s inevitable death--due to murdering her husband and breaking her patterns--conducted the subject of forgiveness, which helped conclude Mariam’s story and show that sometimes suffering and endurance can lead to extraordinary outcomes. The subjects of endurance, suffering, and forgiveness occur throughout the book in different time periods in Mariam’s life. Khaled Hosseini used sex and profanity to showcase the extent of Mariam’s--and eventually Laila’s--suffering. Hosseini’s continuous symbolism of flowers throughout A Thousand Splendid Suns helped keep the book informative and classic. Khaled Hosseini well-written novel obtained symbolism and sex in order to contribute the subjects of endurance, suffering, and forgiveness and to highlight the abuse and suffering that women go through on a daily basis.