A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

From the very beginning, Mariam grew up in cruelty. She was a Harami, which means “bastard child,” and her mother didn't let her forget that. Her mother blamed for her not so good life. Mariam’s mom was a cleaning lady and she had Mariam with her boss, she was shunned because they weren't married. Her mom blamed her for all this even though they were all her mistakes. Even Mariam's father was ashamed of her since she was born. When Mariam’s mother passed away and he was the only one that could take her in, he sold her off to a man thirty years older. Laila in the other hand didn't have a rough childhood. It

Mariam has a basic understanding of justice. She believes that she does not have it, will not have it, and even that she does not deserve it. The beginning of the novel

“Women like us. We endure.” (Hosseini, 19). For the female protagonists Laila and Mariam in the novel A 1000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and the two unnamed female protagonists of the movie Osama, oppression is something they face and endure everyday. Both stories take place in Afghanistan around the 1990’s and 2000’s. In A 1000 Splendid Suns, the two female protagonists, Laila and Mariam, are wives to Rasheed, an abusive Islamic shoe maker (220). In the movie Osama, there are three generations living in one small home: a grandmother, mother, and a daughter. They have lost all of their male relatives who have died from fighting various Afghan wars (Osama). Osama and A 1000 Splendid Suns both display how women are oppressed and how it

Since Mariam and Laila grew up in different homes, they have different views on how a household should be. Mariam didn’t get the support she needed, so she felt like she had to be a mother figure to Laila and her children. Mariam and Laila’s different backgrounds shape how they act in different situations. Mariam and Laila’s personalities are unique to one another and it shapes the overall novel.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is a beautiful tale of two women in Afghanistan during the Taliban uprising. They grow up on complete opposite sides of Afghan culture. The main character, Mariam, grows up in a more traditional way caused by her forced marriage to Rasheed. Laila on the other hand, grows up with a supportive father who encourages gender equality and education. There are many cultural differences such as, women’s rights, public executions, and the Taliban. The two main characters, Mariam and Laila, develop greatly throughout the novel. They push each other to be better and to stand up for equality. This plays into the themes of the novel. Women’s strength and loyalty are the two most important themes. They

People are different in many ways. Ranging from colour of their skin to their ethnic backgrounds. How society copes with these differences is what defines prejudice and discrimination. Racism, social class and ethnicity have become a never ending cycle that begins to shape the opinions of how people treat one another. The novel The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini revolves around a society constructed around two socially diverse ethnic groups the Pashtuns who practice Sunni Islam and the Hazaras who follow Shia Islam. Throughout the novel The Kite Runner, a variety of characters have made decisions that affect the overall outcome of the novel which base around ethnicity, race and social class.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, a book written by Khaled Hosseini, gives us a unique and informative glimpse into life in Afghanistan in the early 1960’s to the 2000’s. In it we can see many different political and social issues ravaging the country, with the most evident being gender inequality. Though many diverse groups of people were being discriminated against at the time, most of the subordination fell onto women as they had more and more rights taken away from them when various ruling powers took control. The author relays this information to us and educates us as to what happened through compelling and thought-provoking literary devices such as symbolic characters and objects, and allusions. By using these

“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, is the complex story about a father and a son who struggle to find common ground. They are from Kabul during a time where danger was everywhere. Amir was a conflicted boy trying to find his place and purpose. He believed his father; Baba disliked him because his birth was the reason his mother passed. While Amir’s father favored the son of their family servant, Hassan. Amir’s friendship with Hassan was genuine until a tragic event Amir witnessed of Hassan and Amir did not step into help. Amir’s father once told him he needed to learn to stand up to people. That crime against Hassan changed Amir for the worse, something he could never let go of throughout his life. These are the main characters of the

Mariam struggled often with the constant rigor of her daily housewife work. As a child, Mariam encountered many horrific adversities and obstacles that she had to fight through. She lived with her mother, who she refers to as Nana. Nana was a very strict, bitter, and nasty woman. Mariam was the only thing she had in her life and she constantly treated her as dirt. She referred to Mariam as a harami, which translates to a sinner and/or a bad person in our culture. Her mother’s source of bitterness derived from the fact that Mariam’s successful father Jalil

For as long as our society has existed, gender inequality has been a constant problem that plagues our lives. For a long time, women were heavily discriminated around the world, but generally, their situation has improved through time. Throughout the 19th century and most of the 20th century, western women were denied basic rights, including access to higher education, right to own properties, right to vote and run for office. (Ahmad) Yet, in many parts of the world today, not only are women not granted these rights, they are also heavily oppressed and abused. Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, demonstrated this through two women, Laila and Mariam, and their life journey in the war-torn country of Afghanistan. To continue living,

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini chose the title because the title consequently relates to Laila and Mariam because of their backgrounds of life, also their beauty and the hardships that they have endured. Hosseini chose the title because it fits well into the story and within the story of Laila’s and Mariam’s life, also the lives of women in Afghanistan. Hosseini also gets the title from an old poem Kabul. The title simply symbolizes the women of Kabul, Kabul may be beautiful, but it has its imperfections just like Laila and Mariam. “May Allah protect such beauty from the eye of evil man!” This quote, simply talks about protecting Kabul, from evil mankind, this quote also pertains to Mariam and Laila because they are such

Protagonist 1: Mariam; first a young girl, a harami, who lives in a tiny kolba on the edges of the city of Herat. After her mother commits suicide, Mariam is married off by her father to Rasheed because her illegitimacy shames his family name. She then is abused through several years of marriage and several failed pregnancies.

Mariam’s alienation prompted by her mother, father, and husband, in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, reveals the oppression and shame around being a woman in the society of her native Afghanistan. Mariam’s countless, inescapable struggles throughout her life were all regulated by the systematic dehumanization of women in a patriarchal society, which resulted in her living in constant shame and fear. Starting from her birth, she was seen as a bastard because she was conceived out of wedlock, from both her parents, Jalil and Nana, and her society. In her childhood, Mariam is marginalized, by living in a cottage far off from the public eye, because of her father’s fear of humiliation and her mother’s fear of Mariam experiencing the

As a passionate reader, there are many books I have come across which offers enjoyment and a range resourceful figurative language. However, none have been as captivating and inspirational as Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. This novel not only offers a pleasurable experience, but also stresses many aesthetic values that allow the story to be considered a literary merit. Hosseini’s novel tells a tale of how two young women, born from different generations and raised under different circumstance, have crossed paths in their lives due to tragic circumstances. Throughout the novel, Hosseini offers a first hand view into the Afghanistan culture, and highlights the story’s main values on the discrimination of women, human capacity for evil, importance of education, and strengths that results from bonds.

The story also acts as an example for every woman in the world who sacrifices everything she has, for her family and how in the end she needs to survive any tribulations. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini shows the inner strength and resilience of women through the lives of Mariam and Laila, which ultimately becomes the key for their survival. It helps them face their fate and they are able to overcome many social restrictions such as lack of education, forced marriages, lack of basic facilities and male oppression due to their perseverance.