Symbolism In A Thousand Splendid Suns

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In Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns the protagonist, Mariam’s father, Jalil, uses gifts, false compassion, and lies into deceiving his daughter into believing that he loves her unconditionally just as much as he loves his other children resulting in Mariam feeling betrayed and unloved throughout her adulthood.

Jalil is a wealthy movie theater owner in the small town of Kabul who is a well known figure of the village and lives in a large house with his three wives who have given him many children. Mariam is one of his children however she was born into the world as a harami, a bastard child, so she lives with her outcasted mother at the edge of the village in a Kolba. Jalil visits Mariam every week, when he visits he pretends to care deeply for her due to his own pity and guilt …show more content…

Jalil regretted giving Mariam away when she was fifteen after she had just lost her mother. At the time he felt like it was the only thing he could do in order to protect himself from a public shunning. When Mariam sees Jalil’s true colors she feels betrayed, angered and hurt for not accepting her as his own. Mariam had idolized him but after her arranged marriage with Rasheed she was so beyond hurt that she never forgave him for the way she treated her. Jalil showed up at Mariam’s house years after to try and apologize for everything that he had done but she treated him the way he had treated her years back and refused to see him. Hosseini brings to light that a reputation can make a person but it can also break a person, someone who is so consumed with it could end up losing everything but by that time it is too late to apologize for the things that they have done and the people they have

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