critical essays on a thousand splendid suns

Advertisement

Supported by

Books of The Times

A Woman’s Lot in Kabul, Lower Than a House Cat’s

• Share full article

By Michiko Kakutani

• May 29, 2007

It’s not that hard to understand why Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, “The Kite Runner” (2003), became such a huge best seller, based largely on word of mouth and its popularity among book clubs and reading groups. The novel read like a kind of modern-day variation on Conrad’s “Lord Jim,” in which the hero spends his life atoning for an act of cowardice and betrayal committed in his youth. It not only gave readers an intimate look at Afghanistan and the difficulties of life there, but it also showed off its author’s accessible and very old-fashioned storytelling talents: his taste for melodramatic plotlines; sharply drawn, black-and-white characters; and elemental boldfaced emotions.

Whereas “The Kite Runner” focused on fathers and sons, and friendships between men, his latest novel, “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” focuses on mothers and daughters, and friendships between women. Whereas “Kite Runner” got off to a gripping start and stumbled into contrivance and sentimentality in its second half, “Splendid Suns” starts off programmatically and gains speed and emotional power as it slowly unfurls.

Like its predecessor, the new novel features a very villainous villain and an almost saintly best friend who commits an act of enormous self-sacrifice to aid the hero/heroine. Like its predecessor, it attempts to show the fallout that Afghanistan’s violent history has had on a handful of individuals, ending in death at the hands of the Taliban for one character, and the promise of a new life for another. And like its predecessor, it features some embarrassingly hokey scenes that feel as if they were lifted from a B movie, and some genuinely heart-wrenching scenes that help redeem the overall story.

Mr. Hosseini, who was born in Kabul and moved to the United States in 1980, writes in straight-ahead, utilitarian prose and creates characters who have the simplicity and primary-colored emotions of people in a fairy tale or fable. The sympathy he conjures for them stems less from their personalities (the hero of “Kite Runner” was an unlikable coward who failed to come to the aid of his best friend) than from the circumstances in which they find themselves: contending with unhappy families, abusive marriages, oppressive governments and repressive cultural mores.

More Video »

In the case of “Splendid Suns,” Mr. Hosseini quickly makes it clear that he intends to deal with the plight of women in Afghanistan, and in the opening pages the mother of one of the novel’s two heroines talks portentously about “our lot in life,” the lot of poor, uneducated “women like us” who have to endure the hardships of life, the slights of men, the disdain of society.

This heavy-handed opening quickly gives way to even more soap-opera-ish events: after her mother commits suicide, the teenage Mariam — the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man, who is ashamed of her existence — is quickly married off to a much older shoemaker named Rasheed, a piggy brute of a man who says it embarrasses him “to see a man who’s lost control of his wife.”

Rasheed forces Mariam to wear a burqa and treats her with ill-disguised contempt, subjecting her to scorn, ridicule, insults, even “walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat.” Mariam lives in fear of “his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not.”

The life of the novel’s other heroine, Laila, who becomes Rasheed’s second wife, takes an even sharper trajectory toward ruin. Though she is the cherished daughter of an intellectual, who encourages her to pursue an education, Laila finds her life literally shattered when a rocket — lobbed by one of the warlord factions fighting for control of Kabul, after the Soviet Union’s departure — lands on her house and kills her parents.

Her beloved boyfriend, Tariq, has already left Kabul with his family — they have become refugees in Pakistan — and she suddenly finds that she is an orphan with no resources or friends. When she discovers that she is pregnant with Tariq’s child and learns that Tariq has supposedly died from injuries sustained in a rocket attack near the Pakistan border, she agrees to marry Rasheed, convinced that she and her baby will never survive alone on the streets of Kabul.

At first Mariam sees Laila as a rival and accuses her of stealing her husband, but when Laila’s baby, Aziza, arrives, Mariam begins to soften. Gradually, she and Laila become allies, trying to shield each other from Rasheed’s rages and demands. Mariam becomes a second mother to Aziza, and she and Laila become best friends.

In the opening chapters of the book the characters are so one-dimensional that they feel like cartoons. Laila is the great beauty, with a doting father and a protective boyfriend — a lucky girl whose luck abruptly runs out. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a bitter woman and a disloyal father — an unlucky girl whose luck turns from bad to worse. And Rasheed is the evil bully, a misogynist intent on debasing his two wives.

Gradually, however, Mr. Hosseini’s instinctive storytelling skills take over, mowing down the reader’s objections through sheer momentum and will. He succeeds in making the emotional reality of Mariam and Laila’s lives tangible to us, and by conjuring their day-to-day routines, he is able to give us a sense of what daily life was like in Kabul — both before and during the harsh reign of the Taliban.

He shows us the Taliban’s “beard patrols,” roaming the streets in Toyota trucks “on the lookout for clean-shaven faces to bloody.” He shows us hospitals turning away women in labor because men and women are supposed to be seen at different hospitals. And he shows us the “ ‘Titanic’ fever” that gripped Kabul in the summer of 2000, when pirated copies of that film turned up in the city: entertainment-starved people surreptitiously dug out their TVs (which had been hidden away, even buried in backyards) and illicitly watched the movie late at night, and riverside vendors began selling Titanic carpets, Titanic deodorant, Titanic toothpaste, even Titanic burqas.

In the end it is these glimpses of daily life in Afghanistan — a country known to most Americans only through news accounts of war and terrorism — that make this novel, like “The Kite Runner,” so stirring, and that distract attention from its myriad flaws.

The Books of The Times review yesterday, about “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khaled Hosseini, misspelled a character’s name. She is Laila, not Lila.

How we handle corrections

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

What can fiction tell us about the apocalypse? The writer Ayana Mathis finds unexpected hope in novels of crisis by Ling Ma, Jenny Offill and Jesmyn Ward .

At 28, the poet Tayi Tibble has been hailed as the funny, fresh and immensely skilled voice of a generation in Māori writing .

Amid a surge in book bans, the most challenged books in the United States in 2023 continued to focus on the experiences of L.G.B.T.Q. people or explore themes of race.

Stephen King, who has dominated horror fiction for decades , published his first novel, “Carrie,” in 1974. Margaret Atwood explains the book’s enduring appeal .

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled hosseini, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

None of the characters in the novel is a stranger to pain and suffering, either physical or emotional. However, this suffering takes different forms. The loss of loved ones brings its own kind of acute pain—often in a way that seems to lack any kind of redemption. On the other hand, there are other types of suffering that the characters willingly endure in the service of others.

A Thousand Splendid Suns seems to grapple with how to create a hierarchy of grief and suffering: is the loss of Laila’s brothers, after Babi (or so Mammy accuses him) allowed them to fight the Mujahideen, somehow worse than the random rocket that killed Laila’s friend Giti ? The characters grapple with such suffering in different ways. Mammy takes refuge in her dark bedroom following her sons’ deaths and never quite seems to be able to overcome her grief. Laila is more pragmatic: she marries Rasheed not despite but because of her parents’ death, which she sees as her only option. The novel seems to promote this kind of perseverance over the immobilization that can stem from suffering. Though the suffering that the characters have experienced might be impossible to undo, there is value and strength to be drawn from their ability to endure.

This is especially the case when the characters choose willingly to suffer. Laila, for instance, willingly submits to beatings by the Taliban for traveling as a woman alone, just so that she has the chance of seeing and spending time with her daughter Aziza at the orphanage. Mariam, of course, chooses to kill Rasheed so as to give Laila a chance of a better life, knowing all the same that she will be convicted and executed by the Taliban as a result. This ability to suffer willingly for the benefit of others is portrayed as something women in particular excel at. From Laila’s horrifically painful childbirth to Mariam’s sacrifice, women endure their own suffering and even add to it themselves.

Suffering and Perseverance ThemeTracker

Suffering and Perseverance Quotes in A Thousand Splendid Suns

She understood then what Nana meant, that a harami was an unwanted thing: that she, Mariam, was an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance.

“It’s our lot in life, Mariam. Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have. Do you understand?”

For the first time, Mariam could hear [Jalil] with Nana’s ears. She could hear so clearly now the insincerity that had always lurked beneath, the hollow, false assurances.

“ One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

“But I’m a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman’s face is her husband’s business only. I want you to remember that. Do you understand?”

It wasn’t easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults, his walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid.

“To me, it’s nonsense—and very dangerous nonsense at that—all this talk of I’m Tajik and you’re Pashtun and he’s Hazara and she’s Uzbek. We’re all Afghans, and that’s all that should matter. But when one group rules over the others for so long…There’s contempt. Rivalry. There is. There always has been.”

It was hard to feel, really feel, Mammy’s loss. Hard to summon sorrow, to grieve the deaths of people Laila had never really thought of as alive in the first place. Ahmad and Noor had always been like lore to her. Like characters in a fable. Kings in a history book.

It was Tariq who was real, flesh and blood.

“And that, my young friends, is the story of our country, one invader after another. [...] Macedonians. Sassanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we’re like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing.”

There would come a day, in fact, years later, when Laila would no longer bewail his loss. Or not as relentlessly; not nearly. There would come a day when the details of his face would begin to slip from memory’s grip, when overhearing a mother on the street call after her child by Tariq’s name would no longer cut her adrift. She would not miss him as she did now, when the ache of his absence was her unremitting companion—like the phantom pain of an amputee.

All day, this poem about Kabul has been bouncing around in my head. Saib-e-Tabrizi wrote it back in the seventeenth century, I think. I used to known the whole poem, but all I can remember now is two lines:

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls .’”

The girl was looking back as if waiting for Mariam to pass on some morsel of wisdom, to say something encouraging. But what wisdom did Mariam have to offer? What encouragement? Mariam remembered the day they’d buried Nana and how little comfort she had found when Mullah Faizullah had quoted the Koran for her.

She was remembering the day the man from Panjshir had come to deliver the news of Ahmad’s and Noor’s deaths. She remembered Babi, white-faced, slumping on the couch, and Mammy, her hand flying to her mouth when she heard. Laila had watched Mammy come undone that day and it had scared her, but she hadn’t felt any true sorrow. She hadn’t understood the awfulness of her mother’s loss. Now another stranger bringing news of another death. Now she was the one sitting on the chair. Was this her penalty, then, her punishment for being aloof to her own mother’s suffering?

But, miraculously, something of her former life remained, her last link to the person that she had been before she had become so utterly alone. A part of Tariq still alive inside her, sprouting tiny arms, growing translucent hands. How could she jeopardize the only thing she had left of him, of her old life?

Laila examined Mariam’s drooping cheeks, the eyelids that sagged in tired folds, the deep lines that framed her mouth—she saw these things as though she too were looking at someone for the first time. And, for the first time, it was not an adversary’s face Laila saw but a face of grievances unspoken, burdens gone unprotested, a destiny submitted to and endured.

“Why have you pinned your heart to an old, ugly hag like me?” Mariam would murmur into Aziza’s hair. “Huh? I am nobody, don’t you see? A dehati. What have I got to give you?”

But Aziza only muttered contentedly and dug her face in deeper. And when she did that, Mariam swooned. Her eyes watered. Her heart took flight. And she marveled at how, after all these years of rattling loose, she had found in this little creature the first true connection in her life of false, failed connections.

[Mariam] had passed these years in a distant corner of her mind. A dry, barren field, out beyond dream and disillusionment. There, the future did not matter. And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion.

Laila dropped the spoke because she could not accept what the Mujahideen readily had: that sometimes in war innocent life had to be taken. Her war was against Rasheed. The baby was blameless. And there had been enough killing already. Laila had seen enough killing of innocents caught in the cross fire of enemies.

Mariam regretted her foolish, youthful pride now. She wished now that she had let him in. what would have been the harm to let him in, sit with him, let him say what he’d come to say? He was her father. He’d not been a good father, it was true, but how ordinary his faults seemed now how forgivable, when compared to Rasheed’s malice, or to the brutality and violence that she had seen men inflict on one another.

[Laila] thought of Aziza’s stutter, and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor.

Though there had been moments of beauty in it. Mariam knew that life for the most part had been unkind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it. […] Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami daughter of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Analysis Essay

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini. The story follows the lives of two women, Mariam and Laila, who are born in Afghanistan in different centuries but share a similar fate. Despite their differences, the two women develop a strong bond and support each other through the many trials and tribulations they face. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a powerful tale of love, loss, and hope in the face of adversity.

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American author who was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. He moved to the United States in 1980 and became a doctor. Hosseini is best known for his novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Both books are set in Afghanistan and explore the themes of war, exile, and family. A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in 2007 and was a New York Times bestseller. The novel was also nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is an emotionally powerful novel that tells the story of two women who are forced to confront the many challenges of life in Afghanistan. Mariam and Laila share a strong bond that helps them survive the many trials they face. The book is a testament to the power of friendship and love in the face of adversity.

A veil of silence descended on the room. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel by Khaled Hosseini that tells the story of two women, Mariam and Laila, who are forced to marry a man they do not love. The novel follows their lives as they are subjected to abuse and violence at the hands of their husband.

Despite the horrors they experience, Mariam and Laila find moments of happiness and friendship. The novel explores themes of love, courage, and resilience in the face of adversity. A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in 2007 and was adapted into a Broadway play in 2013. The novel has been translated into over forty languages.

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American author who has written two other novels, The Kite Runner and And the Mountains Echoed. Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. He moved to the United States in 1980 and became a citizen in 1992. A Thousand Splendid Suns was highly acclaimed by critics and won several awards, including the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Novel and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.

When A Thousand Splendid Suns was published, it became an instant bestseller. The book tells the story of two women who are forced to marry a man they do not love. Mariam is from an upper-class family, while Laila is from a lower-class family. Rasheed is a warlord who has killed many people. Mariam and Laila are both subjected to abuse and violence at the hands of their husband.

Despite the horrors they experience, Mariam and Laila find moments of happiness and friendship. The novel explores themes of love, courage, and resilience in the face of adversity. A Thousand Splendid Suns was highly acclaimed by critics and won several awards, including the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Novel and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, the focus is on women’s rights, particularly in the Taliban era. Mariam and Laila live through regimes that are not horrible. Despite her father’s family forcing her to marry Rasheed, Mariam has the final say as to whether she will accept his proposal.

Laila’s family is much more traditional, but her mother does not lose her identity after marriage. Both women must deal with Rasheed’s increasing control and violence as the Taliban takes over Afghanistan.

Despite the challenges they face, Mariam and Laila are both strong women. They find ways to help each other and to resist Rasheed’s abuse. In the end, they are able to escape his grasp and create a better life for themselves and their children. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an important reminder that women have always been strong and capable, even in the most difficult circumstances.

It is also a testament to the power of friendship and love between women. Khaled Hosseini has written a beautiful and moving story that will stay with readers for a long time. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an excellent novel and deserves all the accolades it has received.

The women in this group were—what was Rasheed’s term? —”modern.” Yes, modern Afghan women married to modern Afghan men who did not mind that their wives walked among strangers with makeup on their faces and no head coverings.

They had attended universities in America and Europe. They worked as doctors and lawyers and wore pantsuits to the office. A thousand splendid suns Mariam born illegitimate in a small village in rural Afghanistan, Mariam has spent her entire life as a virtual prisoner of her conservative father.

When she is not under lock and key, she is busy laboring in the family fields. So when an opportunity arises for her to escape—to go live with her mother’s sister in Kabul—she takes it, even though she must leave behind her beloved young son.

When Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in 2007, it became an instant bestseller, spending over two years on the New York Times Best Seller list. A rich and complex story set against the backdrop of Afghan history, A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the tale of two women, Mariam and Laila, whose lives are forever changed by the Taliban’s rise to power in the 1990s.

The story begins in the late 1970s, with Mariam living as a virtual prisoner of her father. A product of an illegitimate union, she has always been treated poorly by her father and other members of her village. So when she is offered an opportunity to escape to Kabul and live with her mother’s sister, she takes it, even though she must leave her young son behind.

Laila is born into a more fortunate family in Kabul, but the rug is pulled out from under her when the Soviets invade and occupy Afghanistan. Her father is executed, her brother disappears, and her mother flees to Pakistan, leaving Laila behind to fend for herself.

The two women eventually cross paths in Kabul, where they are both living as refugees during the Taliban’s rule. Mariam has been working as a servant for a man named Rasheed, while Laila has been selling flowers on the street to support herself and her young daughter. The two women become unlikely friends, despite the many differences in their backgrounds.

However, the Taliban’s rule is a difficult time for women, and both Mariam and Laila must face increasing restrictions and dangers. Mariam is forced to marry Rasheed, an abusive man who takes pleasure in controlling and humiliating her. Laila is nearly raped by a member of the Taliban, but is saved by her former fiancé, Karim.

As the years go by and the Taliban’s grip on Afghanistan Tightens, Mariam and Laila are increasingly desperate and frustrated. Finally, they find an opportunity to escape—but it comes at a high price.

More Essays

• Feminism In A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay
• Theme Of Fascism In A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay
• Analysis Of A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay
• Women’s Rights In Afghanistan Essay
• Essay on The Theme Of Love In The Kite Runner
• The Kite Runner Redemption Analysis Research Paper
• Rhetorical Analysis Of Janie Crawford, By Hurston Essay
• Love In The Kite Runner
• The Kite Runner Pomegranate Tree Analysis Research Paper
• Argumentative Essay On Malala

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the second novel written by Khaled Hosseini. A Thousand Splendid Suns essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provid...

A Thousand Splendid Suns Material

• Study Guide
• Lesson Plan

Join Now to View Premium Content

GradeSaver provides access to 2359 study guide PDFs and quizzes, 11007 literature essays, 2767 sample college application essays, 926 lesson plans, and ad-free surfing in this premium content, “Members Only” section of the site! Membership includes a 10% discount on all editing orders.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Essays

Symbolism in a thousand splendid suns by khaled hosseini nkiru okocha 12th grade, a thousand splendid suns.

Symbolism is a powerful tool used to represent key points and messages across in stories. The symbols present in A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini reveal important details in the development of the story. The table, where Mariam sits...

The Lasting Effects of Abuse in Miriam’s Life Joseph Ryan Baker

Miriam, a main character in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, experiences extreme physical, mental, and sexual abuse from virtually every authority figure in her life. Using Hosseini’s book and Erik Erickon’s Psychosocial stages of development,...

Strength Within Struggle Anonymous 12th Grade

There are certain aspects of the human experience that every one of us can identify with on a certain level. This is what allows us to connect with one another and to develop empathetic and compassionate outlooks. That being said, there are...

Oppression of Women: A Comparison of A Thousand Splendid Suns and Tess of the D'Ubervilles Anonymous 12th Grade

Andrea Dworkin, claimed that, ‘Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge’, this is shown within both novels as the female characters are presented as being controlled within...

The Sun Shines on Olympus Aaliyah Warrington 12th Grade

Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns does more than tell the story of two ordinary women struggling in war-torn Afghanistan but, describes what would happen if the Gods of Mount Olympus were sent to live in the country during its pre and...

Comparing "Osama" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" Hannah Wittenstein 9th Grade

After years of abuse, Mariam, the protagonist of A Thousand Splendid Suns , looks back and examines herself: “What harmful thing had she willfully done to this man to warrant his malice, his continual assaults, the relish with which he tormented...

Cultural and Historical Influences Found in Six Characters in Search of an Author, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and Candide Anonymous College

Every culture has certain historical events that alter the way that culture functions and appears. For much of the world, the world wars were this historical influence. Many countries had not experienced such a sudden loss in population, and for...

Laila's Character Development Dean Lundie College

When Laila is introduced at the beginning of part two, the reader recognises that she represents the new, modern ideals that stem from the communist revolution in 1979. From being called ‘Revolutionary girl’ by her teacher, due to her being born...

Pride and Afghanistans Nicole Rong 10th Grade

When pride is prioritized, morality is compromised at the expense of others. Despite this being a desparingly unfortunate scenario, this case appears more often than one would think. As shown in the bildungsroman The Kite Runner by Khaled...

Overcoming the Ultimate Tragedy: Understanding 'Life Is Beautiful' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' Anonymous College

As a victimized African-American man living in America during a time of discrimination, Martin Luther King, Jr’s influential words are still repeated fifty years later: “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but...

Resistance to Rasheed in Everyday Life Anonymous 10th Grade

In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini, it is evident that Laila and Mariam face an overwhelming amount of abuse from their husband, Rasheed. Although Rasheed was brought up in a patriarchal society, this does not serve...

Different Voices in 'Wuthering Heights' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' Alysia Jackson 11th Grade

In both ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ the writers use different narrative voices to portray their story. Within ‘Wuthering Heights’ Bronte uses Lockwood as the outer narrative and Nelly as the inner narrative to further...

A Thousand Splendid Suns

70 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapters 21-25

Chapters 26-30

Chapters 31-35

Chapters 36-40

Chapters 41-45

Chapters 46-51

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

What is the role of childhood in the novel? To what extent are Laila and Mariam’s adulthood experiences shaped by their childhoods?

To what extent do the changes in Afghanistan’s political regimes affect Mariam and Laila?

“‘Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman,’” Nana tells Mariam in her girlhood (7). How do Mariam and Laila encounter misogyny, and how successful are they in confronting it?

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By Khaled Hosseini

And the Mountains Echoed

Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner

Featured Collections

BookTok Books

View Collection

Middle Eastern Literature

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Books — A Thousand Splendid Suns

Essays on A Thousand Splendid Suns

Prompt examples for "a thousand splendid suns" essays, the role of women in afghan society.

Explore the portrayal of women in Afghan society as depicted in "A Thousand Splendid Suns." How do characters like Mariam and Laila challenge or conform to traditional gender roles?

Motherhood and Sacrifice

Discuss the theme of motherhood and sacrifice in the novel. How do Mariam and Laila's experiences as mothers shape their characters and the trajectory of the story?

The Impact of War and Conflict

Analyze the effects of war and conflict on the lives of the characters. How do the political upheavals in Afghanistan impact their personal journeys and relationships?

Friendship and Solidarity

Examine the evolving friendship between Mariam and Laila. How does their relationship evolve, and what does it symbolize in the context of the broader narrative?

Social Injustice and Oppression

Discuss the themes of social injustice and oppression in the novel. How are characters like Rasheed representative of the oppressive systems in Afghan society?

Redemption and Healing

Explore the concepts of redemption and healing in the story. How do Mariam and Laila find ways to heal and rebuild their lives in the face of adversity?

The Importance of Education

Analyze the significance of education in the lives of the characters. How does access to education empower Mariam and Laila, and what does it represent for Afghan women?

Family and Identity

Discuss the theme of family and identity in the novel. How do Mariam and Laila's backgrounds and family histories shape their sense of self and belonging?

Symbolism in "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

Examine the use of symbolism in the novel. What do elements like the burqa, the Kabul River, and the title itself symbolize in the story?

The Afghan Cultural Landscape

Explore the rich cultural tapestry of Afghanistan as depicted in the book. How does the author convey the traditions, customs, and folklore of Afghan society?

The Power and Struggle of Women in a Thousand Splendid Suns

A close anaylsis of the effect of abuse as depicted in miriams life, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences

+ experts online

The Confusion Towards The Rights of Women in "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

Role of history and culture in different plays, "a thousand splendid suns": the development of laila's character, sexism in a thousand splendid suns by khaled hosseini, let us write you an essay from scratch.

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Gender Roles and Male Dominance in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'

Mariam’s resilience in 'a thousand splendid suns', a thousand splendid suns: marginalization of women in afghan society, a review of the book 'a thousand splendid suns', get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind

A Thousand Splendid Suns: Oppression of Women and The Veil Controversy

The issues of bravery or cowardice in "the kite runner" and "a thousand splendid suns", "a thousand splendid suns" and "tess of the d'ubervilles" comparison, the theme of the sun shining on olympus on a thousand splendid suns, shakespeare’s "hamlet" versus khaled hosseini’s "a thousand splendid suns", similarities between "osama" and "a thousand splendid suns", the main characters' personalities in "the color purple" and "a thousand splendid suns".

May 22, 2007

Khaled Hosseini

Novel, Domestic Fiction

Mullah Faizullah, Zalmai, Mariam, Jalil, Aziza, Nana, Fariba, Tariq, Laila, Rasheed, Hakim

Relevant topics

• A Modest Proposal
• A Rose For Emily
• Bartleby The Scrivener
• Between The World and Me
• A Farewell to Arms
• A Long Way Gone
• A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
• A Cup of Tea
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Plot Summary

A thousand splendid suns, by khaled hosseini.

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is about Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women, whose paths meet after being coerced into union with the same cruel husband. In a patriarchal culture during times of conflict and hardship, the narrative describes their battles to remain alive and fight against injustice.

About the Book

Article written by Charles Asoluka

Degree in Computer Engineering. Passed TOEFL Exam. Seasoned literary critic.

Two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila, are forced into marriage to the same cruel man, Rasheed, in Khaled Hosseini’s book ‘ A Thousand Splendid Suns , ‘ which chronicles the narrative of how their lives become interwoven. The tale highlights their battles against oppression, war, poverty, and the harsh patriarchal society in which they reside. Mariam and Laila grow close throughout the novel, eventually being one another’s only source of comfort and hope. In the end, they can get past their difficulties and discover a means to create a brighter future for their family.

In ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ by Khaled Hosseini , there are four sections. Mariam, a small child born in Afghanistan in the 1950s, is the focus of Part 1’s story. The early years of Laila, who was born in Kabul in the late 1970s, are discussed in Part 2. In Part 3, the lives of the two ladies collide. Laila is the narrator of Part 4. Power battles on a national and international scale devastate Afghanistan and the lives of both women throughout the novel.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Summary Part 1

Warning – This article contains important details and spoilers

Part 1 centers on Mariam and her mother, Nana, formerly Jalil’s housekeeper. Jalil, a successful businessman in Herat, has three wives. Nana was expelled from the home after he caused her to become pregnant. In 1959, Mariam was born. Jalil travels miles from his home every Thursday to visit Mariam and constructed Nana a kolba, or hut. Nana warns Mariam as she gets older that Jalil is deceiving her with his lavish presents and his devotion, but Mariam idolizes him. Nana advises Mariam’s Koran instructor, Mullah Faizullah, not to send her to school because she has little faith in Mariam’s chances as a harami, a kid born out of wedlock. Mariam informs Jalil that she wants to attend the movie Pinocchio at the municipal theater he owns when she is 15 years old. Although he advises against it, she persists and eventually persuades him to meet her there and drive her there. Mariam is being shamed into staying home by Nana, who is unhappy. Mariam decides to travel to Herat in search of Jalil after he fails to arrive. She approaches an elderly man operating a horse-drawn cart and asks for instructions. The elderly man decides to drop Mariam off at Jalil’s residence as it is on his way home.

Jalil’s driver tells Mariam to leave the house because Jalil is not there, but Mariam resists. She waits for someone to let her inside while she sits outside. She waits all night, dozing off on the porch, waking up with a blanket covering her. The chauffeur promises to take her home when she gets there in the morning, but she heads straight toward Jalil’s garden. A face can be seen at the window when she glances up. Jalil answers the door and draws the drapes. Mariam is kicked and screamed at as the driver picks her up and loads her into the vehicle. She understands that her father had given her permission to spend the entire night on the streets. Mariam exits the vehicle. The driver hurries to re-insert her, but it’s too late. Mariam witnessed her mother’s hanging death from a tree. Mariam is returned to Jalil by the driver, who is forced to provide her with a place to stay. Instead of dining with the family downstairs, she remains in a guest room and eats there. Jalil, who is uncomfortable with her presence there, quickly permits her to remain in her room. One of Jalil’s wives summons her downstairs after a few days. Jalil has consented to give Mariam in marriage to a widower from Kabul named Rasheed, who is a shoemaker and far older than she is.

During her first week of marriage, Mariam primarily stays in her room, which is apart from Rasheed’s. Rasheed tells her he detests her crying and that he anticipates her acting more like a wife by the end of the week. The following day, Mariam attempts to bring the dough to the nearby tandoor, the oven where the ladies of the neighborhood bake their bread, but their inquiries overwhelm her, and she is forced to return home, feeling dreadfully alone. Rasheed brings a burqa home for Mariam to wear, informing her that only her spouse should be concerned about her appearance. The following day, when he visits with people he knows, he gives Mariam a tour of the neighborhood without introducing her to anyone or allowing her to interact with them. Later that evening, he visits her room and demands that they have a sexual encounter. She is forced to consent, and the rest of the night is spent in agony.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Summary Part 2

Now nine years old, Tariq, Laila’s best friend, has left her feeling abandoned. Yet Tariq will return, says her father Babi (referred to as Hakim in Part 1). While she’s not battling with Babi, Mammy (referred to as Fariba in Part 1) is frequently in bed. Ahmad and Noor, Mammy’s sons, have joined the rebels battling the Soviets, and while she despises them, she does not want to lose them. She accuses Babi of allowing them to enlist with the Mujahideen. Babi has lost other things as a result of the Communists, such as his teaching position. So, to make ends meet, he must work at a bakery. Laila’s instructor disallows girls in her class from donning a hijab or headscarf, since she backs the Soviet Union. Laila observes a blue Benz automobile in front of Rasheed and Mariam’s home as she and her friends Hasina and Giti walk home from school together because Mammy neglected to pick Laila up once more. Then Khadim, a little boy, chases Laila while spraying her hair with a water cannon dripping with pee. Laila, sobbing and angry, rushes home. Mammy sympathizes, but after learning that Laila has had a bath, she retires to bed. A few days later, Tariq returns, and Laila spends time with him and his parents, who call her their “daughter-in-law” with affection.

Because Mammy stays in bed, Laila and her father eat dinner by themselves. Babi informs Laila that the Soviet Union is improving conditions for women. They are attempting to raise the marriage age to 16 and ban forced marriage in addition to emancipating women in the workplace and schools. They learn that Ahmad and Noor had perished in battle when a stranger comes to the door. The following day during the funeral, Mammy is unable to talk, and Laila, who hardly knew her elder brothers, is unable to cry. Her only thought is that of her “real brother.” Babi tells Laila he dreams of going to America to flee the conflict as he takes her and Tariq to view the two enormous stone Buddhas at Bamiyan. But, Mammy would never accompany him, and he is unable to leave without her, as Babi and Laila are aware. Mammy desires to remain to witness Mujahideen’s triumph against the Soviets. Mammy is not sure if the Soviets’ departure in April 1988 constitutes a meaningful victory. They witness the final Communists leaving the city a few months later. After three years, the Soviets placed Mohammad Najibullah (1947–1996) as their leader. He poses as a Muslim but is eventually overthrown and ends up hiding in the UN compound. Mammy organizes a sizable party to celebrate, beaming now. Laila gets reprimanded by Mammy for her proximity to Tariq at the party because she is concerned about her reputation. He’s only a friend, Laila insisted.

Tariq continues entering the kitchen as Laila and her friends are cooking to steal food. He eventually catches Laila’s attention and motions for her to follow. She waits for five minutes before leaving. When discussing how others perceive them, Tariq quips that he only has eyes for Laila. Later, to Laila’s horror, a brawl breaks out between a Tajik and a Pashtun, and Tariq gets involved. The government’s executive branch is also terrible. Burhanuddin Rabbani (1940–2011), a Tajik by ethnicity, is president; Tajik leader Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953–2001) makes peace appeals; and all of the factions turn on one another. Civil war has erupted in Afghanistan . Because of his father’s heart issues and inability to subsist in Kabul, Tariq and his parents decide to move to Pakistan. Tariq and Laila fall in love. Laila can’t leave her father alone, despite Tariq’s desire to marry her. The family of Tariq goes. Babi can persuade Mammy to leave Kabul two weeks later. The house is destroyed by a shell as the family leaves. The lone survivor is Laila. She goes in and out of consciousness, unable to hear, seeing shadows and a man’s face before seeing the long, narrow face of a lady who gives her pink pills to ease her pain and help her fall asleep once again. The pink pills help her feel better and allow her to go back to sleep.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Summary Part 3

Mariam cares for Laila, who has been ill for days. Rasheed buys Babi’s vitamins and saves some of her books. He boasts that he was the one who pulled her from the rubble and makes up stories about the metal fragment he removed from her shoulder. Even though he is aware that it will anger Laila, he informs her that the Pashtun guys are now living at Tariq’s house. Mariam tries to come up with consoling ideas for Laila. A month after Laila’s recuperation, Abdul Sharif appears and requests to speak with her. He claims that Tariq lost his other leg and passed away while they were both hospitalized. According to Sharif, Tariq wanted Laila to know that he loved her. Rasheed makes a show of apologizing to Laila and then exhibits uncharacteristic behavior. He asks her opinion on current political events politely, uses a napkin, and makes the flat-out false claim that he used to frequently discuss politics with Babi. Mariam also observes that since Laila entered the family, Rasheed has not hit her. She recognizes Rasheed’s courtship of Laila. Rasheed responds to Mariam’s question by warning that if he doesn’t marry the 14-year-old girl in the house, people will speak about him. He believes that leaving her in the street, where she would either be raped or forced to become a prostitute, is the only other option. Mariam is incensed that she has been designated as a co-wife or an ambagh. Laila concurs.

Even after learning of Tariq’s passing, Laila had meant to go to Pakistan. However, when she found out she was expecting a child, she knew she had to stay with Rasheed to ensure the well-being of their unborn child. While knowing it is unethical to treat Mariam this way, she believes she has no other option. On the eve of their wedding, Rasheed visits her for sex. When he falls asleep, she uses a concealed knife to slash one of her fingers, dripping blood into the bed sheets. Rasheed will believe that he has stolen her virginity as a result, and he will accept the child as his own. Rasheed joyfully informs Mariam in front of Laila that Laila is pregnant. This won’t stop her from doing duties, Mariam assures Laila. The following winter, Laila is confined to her home while warfare breaks out in Kabul. Even after their first altercation, Laila makes an effort to shield Mariam from criticism or physical abuse. Rasheed is stern and irate, and the infant is a girl. Laila’s intent on soothing the infant and the commotion are both intolerable to him. Additionally, he insisted that she dress the youngster in the clothes he had purchased for him. Rasheed becomes aggressive and accuses Mariam when Laila refuses to have sex with him. He then pursues her with a belt. Laila tries to stop him by promising to comply with his requests. Rasheed halts but informs Mariam he knows what Laila and she are up to, and he won’t let them conspire against him. To have sex, he forces Laila back into the bedroom.

Mariam understands that despite Rasheed’s abuse, she has been a wonderful wife to him and never deserved the brutality he has perpetrated upon her. Rasheed turns to Laila after she throws a glass in his direction, attacking her, and chokes her. Mariam hurries to the shed and grabs a shovel as soon as she sees he’s going to strangle Laila. Rasheed’s name is yelled at when she enters again. She smacks him in the head with the shovel when he looks up at her and falls to the ground. She briefly believes she may make out regret in his eyes, but when he sneers, she understands what she must do. Rasheed is killed by Mariam after she drives the shovel’s blade into his chest. Laila urges Mariam to accompany her on the escape to Pakistan, and Tariq’s safety. Mariam explains to Laila that she is unable to leave because she will never be able to face Zalmai again, knowing that she took away his father. She instructs Laila to see Aziza while also preparing dinner for Zalmai. Laila is advised by Mariam to remain subdued and board a bus to the orphanage. They never cross paths again. Mariam admits guilt before the judges after serving ten days in jail. Laila is the only witness she has, and the judges won’t let a woman testify. No matter what her husband did, according to one judge, she must be punished for killing him. She is given the death penalty.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Summary Part 4

Nowadays, Laila and Tariq are a married couple raising Aziza and Zalmai. They reside in Murree, where Tariq and Laila have been providing hotel owner Sayeed with room cleaning services. Sayeed arranged for the mullah, an educated religious man, to officiate their wedding. Aziza is informed by Laila that Tariq is her father and that he adores her, protects her from harm, and won’t ever abandon her. Laila must deceive Zalmai by informing him his father has left and she is unsure of his return date. Any presents Tariq offers Zalmai, he rejects. Laila can indulge in the fantasy that they are an ordinary family with no secrets when Tariq takes the family on outings to parks and shopping centers. Aziza nevertheless continues to have nightmares, while Laila frequently has dreams in which she is at the Kabul house. Mariam can be heard singing, but when she opens the door, she is not there. Laila constantly feels utterly crushed by this loss when she awakens. Laila recalls seeing her parents being blasted apart by shelling when Tariq informs her one day that Massoud has been dead. Although her mother loved and believed in Massoud to bring peace to Afghanistan, the violence continued to deteriorate. The terrorist organization al-Qaeda claims responsibility for his slaying. Two days later, Tariq and Laila learn from the news that planes crashed into the two towers in America. Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, cannot be turned up to authorities, according to the Taliban, since it is unethical for Pashtuns to turn over a visitor. Tariq finds it repulsive that they are misrepresenting a religious practice of his people to use it as an excuse for their behavior.

Laila reacts angrily to Tariq’s assertion that this conflict might not be all that horrible. There is no way that bombs falling on Kabul will be good for anyone since innocent people will get hurt, and she lost her parents to war. She realizes they are having their first argument, and Tariq tries to comfort her. Laila is aware that US engagement could put an end to the fighting, but it is absurd to argue that it is better to have war than to have peace. Suddenly Zalmai starts coughing as she awakens. Tariq approaches him, takes him up, and comforts him by guiding him around the space. Tariq returns Zalmai to his bed after he is calm and quiet. Tariq’s cheeks are dripping with tears, as Laila can see. The Taliban have been driven from major cities by July 2002. In addition to Hamid Karzai, a temporary Afghan president, Kabul is home to peacekeeping forces. Roads are being paved, schools are being constructed, and women are returning to the workforce. Laila desires to return to Kabul to inform her mother of the peace and to determine Mariam’s whereabouts. Laila also wants to help with the reconstruction of Kabul because it is her hometown. Tariq promises to follow her wherever she goes.

Laila and Tariq are residing in a leased home in Deh-Mazang in April 2003. They are employed at the orphanage, which was renovated with their assistance the previous month. Zaman, the director, still works there, and Laila teaches. Kabul is gradually regaining some of its former charms, but Laila finds it repugnant that warlords are now part of the administration. She is aware that Mariam would not want her to harbor grudges, though. Laila can’t go to Mariam’s tomb since she doesn’t know where she is interred, but Mariam is always with her. She is present in every modification they have made to the orphanage and in every child who resides there. Mariam “is in Laila’s own heart,” gleaming “with the bursting splendor of a thousand suns,” more than anything else. Laila touches her stomach, where she had sensed movement. The family had played a naming game the previous evening to come up with names for the newborn, who would be a male. If the child is a girl, her name will be Mariam.

What is ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ about?

In the book ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns, ‘ Mariam and Laila, two women living in Afghanistan amid a time of social and political unrest, recount their experiences. Mariam and Laila’s friendship grows as they overcome challenges like abusive relationships and the dangers of living in a war-torn nation. The book examines issues including women’s oppression, the devastation caused by war, and political conflict.

How does the plot of ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ unfold?

The book’s first section introduces Mariam, a young woman who was born outside of marriage and resides with her mother in a rural village. The story describes the Taliban’s ascent to power and its cruel treatment of women in the third section. The plot culminates in the last section with a shocking development that puts an end to the character arcs .

What is the significance of the title ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ?’

The title ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is drawn from a poem by the Persian author Saib-e-Tabrizi, who lived in the 17th century. The expression alludes to the grace and tenacity of nature, and in the context of the story, it might be seen as a representation of optimism and fortitude in the face of adversity. The term also implies that despite adversity, there are several tales of beauty and resilience to be found.

Why did Mariam kill Rasheed in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns?’

Mariam kills Rasheed in an act of self-defense to protect herself and her friend Laila. Rasheed was an abusive husband who subjected both Mariam and Laila to physical and emotional abuse throughout the story. In a critical moment, when Rasheed was about to kill Laila, Mariam struck him with a shovel, causing his death.

About Charles Asoluka

Charles Asoluka is a seasoned content creator with a decade-long experience in professional writing. His works have earned him numerous accolades and top prizes in esteemed writing competitions.

Discover literature and connect with others just like yourself!

Start the Conversation. Join the Chat.

There was a problem reporting this post.

Block Member?

Please confirm you want to block this member.

You will no longer be able to:

• See blocked member's posts
• Mention this member in posts
• Invite this member to groups

Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

a thousand splendid suns essay

Related Papers

Tania shaikh

This study examines the status of women in the Islamic world, particularly Afghanistan with reference to Khalid Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ through application of feminist literary criticism. Through close reading analysis method, the qualitative study intends to unfold different forms of gender discrimination and the response of women to such oppression. The study uncovers the fact that though Islam has assured the rights of women, but still Islamic world is juggling in gender politics. The findings of the study reveal that women, within the aforementioned novel, are represented as performing stereotypical traditional roles such as caretakers and mothers. They are subjected to different forms of gender subjugation as physical and psychological violence, sexual abuse, forceful marriages, preference to have sons, ill healthcare facilities, marginalization from education and limited mobility. The novel also shows women’s responses to such inequalities; acceptance and resista...

International Journal of Languages and Culture Publisher's Home Page: https://www.svedbergopen.com/

Dr. Bhupendra N . Kesur , zabihullah Adabpal

This paper aims to highlight the conditions of Afghan women in Khaled Hosseini's two novels, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed in which women are seen inferior in a male dominated society. The socio-religious and socio-political conditions of Afghan women led them totally illiterate, poor, inferior, marginalized, and oppressed in post-Soviet era. It also aims to depict the status of Afghan women and their struggles towards the gender discrimination and violence through Hosseini's two selected novels. Previous studies and author's novels were read for data collection and thematic analysis technique was applied in this study to achieve the goals. As a result, in the former novel, Mariam, Laila, and Nana under the male-dominated system suffered some tragic events such as abusive behavior of husband; patriarchy; and loss of freedom. Similarly, in the later novel, Parwana, Pari, and Nila both physically and mentally suffered, viz., women's earlier marriage; selling women for dowry; and women's poor economy.

Dr. Matthew Crosston , Ammna Nasser

Clara Morgan

Review of Applied Management and Social Sciences

Isra Sarwar

Women, the 48.45% of total Afghan population usually termed and referred as the most victimized clan of Afghanistan. It is engendered notion and perceived as reality around the world. Undoubtedly, Mujahidin and later the Taliban have made the situation miserable for women. But, comparatively, women in Afghanistan did not face as many cruelties earlier during Taliban regime as they suffering today. They were secured, honored and allowed to participate equally in all spheres of life ranging from socio-economic to religio-political during the reign of Taliban. Majority of the religious elite among the Muslims interprets the religious teachings according to its own requirements to assure legitimacy particularly in the context of women. Same is the case with Afghanistan, which, being the buffer state, had been remained epicenter for political interests of world powers and who used its soil to expand or legitimize their authority, violate human rights specifically women as wartime strateg...

Reehana yaseen , THE INTERNATIONAL ASIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL Www tiarj com.pk

Afghanistan is a landlocked country with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China, Iran and Pakistan as its neighbours. It is a small country in the benign protection of the Hindu Kush and the great Himalayas with its rugged hills and sturdy people who, till yesterday appeared to be leading a sleepy and indifferent existence under the tyrannical feudal dynasties. Afghanistan has remained geographically, religio-culturally and commercially intimately connected with the neighboring countries. The issue of gender has been utilized as an instrument to serve the centralized state‘s larger political agendas, rather than to meet the basic needs of the majority women. It is true that in both the 1964 and 1977 Afghan constitutions ,women and men were recognized as equal before the law and women were given equal rights and privileges, but in practice ,patriarchy and tribal social conduct continued to dominate gender related relationships.

Sri Lanka Guardian

Sanchita Bhattacharya, Ph.D.

World Literatures and the Global South Conference, The University of Sydney

Hiqma Nur Agustina

This essay is intended to raise the issues writen by Afghanistan diasporic writers. This could be undenial to know the fact many writings written by Afghanistan diasporic writers described about women's repression. How they potray this crucial issue mainly based on the facts happened in Afghanistan. Some writers portrayed how the woman became the main victims reflected in their writings, such as Khaled Hosseini and Latifa. Their novels becomes the main data for this research. The qualitative method and the theory of gender relation and Islamic feminism is used to discuss the analysis. Through the main character, Mariam, in A Thousand Splendid Suns and Latifa in My Forbidden Face, their effort to release from the repression caused by gender relation and local culture of Afghanistan is voiced. The result of this study showed that the women characters are positioned to be the representative of the Afghanistan women roundly. They spoke up to defense their freedom and right to have the role in public domain.

International studies journal (ISJ)

Homayoun Mallyar

After twenty years of endeavor to equalize women's rights in the half-dead democracy of Afghanistan, the dream of equal rights for women in the Afghan society was destroyed by the arrival of the Taliban group. This group and its supporters have committed countless crimes during their rule in Afghanistan. In 2021, when this group comes to power, the women's experience of two decades ago will be repeated, and women will be deprived of their most basic rights. Like two decades ago, the Taliban removed the girls from social life by closing schools and imprisoning them at home. The recent actions of the Taliban against women include the following areas: exclusion from education, exclusion from work, exclusion from political activities, and restriction of activities in the public space, all these decrees and rulings against women's activities are from the source of Sharath and religious fatwas. The Taliban has been issued. In this research, we are looking at the influencing factors of the Taliban's thoughts on restricting the rights of women in the society of Afghanistan. In this research, we have compared the differences between the religious thoughts and beliefs of the Taliban, which are adapted from Islamic rulings, and the religious fatwa of the Taliban leaders with Islamic rulings.

RELATED PAPERS

Hydrobiologia

Gustavo Angel Estrada

Paedagogia Christiana

Witold Starnawski

Rafał Jaeschke

Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international …

Nicoleta David

Motriz: Revista de Educação Física

Márcia Luciane Drumond das Chagas e Vallone

JANUS.NET e-journal of International Relations

Marina Rodríguez Hernández

Journal of Education and Vocational Research

Dina Metwally

BMC Psychology

Zeinab Shayeghian

Bulletin de psychologie

Barbara Smaniotto

Biophysical Journal

gabriela figueroa

Mechanisms and Games for Dynamic Spectrum Allocation

Hazer Inaltekin

Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik

Hans Nutzinger

Olufunmi Salami

Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Andrew Bayor

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

Alice Carolin Susanne Knaf, PhD

Sains Insani

suhaila zailani

Biomolecules

Milena Grossi

International Journal for Parasitology

Richard Wirth

International Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Optimisation

Alan Zinober

Leonardo Lyra Lyrio

Journal of Medical and Health Studies

Mowafaq Ghareeb

Current Health Sciences Journal

Bogdan catalin

Journal of Advanced Veterinary and Animal Research

Djuissi Nadege

IGI Global eBooks

Rakhi Tripathi

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is an outstanding novel published in 2007, written by Khalid Hosseini, who is known as a three-bestselling author. The subjects of this novel reflect on and have similarities in conflict like his previous book, The Kite Runner written in 2003. Khalid narrates the different aspects of afghan woman before and during the soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban.

The time span of the novel from when published, goes back approximately thirty-seven years. Hosseini tells the story of the obedience in the common fate to become co-wives of the same misogynistic, brutal man. He explains the one-sided story of the real-life characters that were brought up in the upheavals of the last forty years. It is a manifestation of the struggle under harsh sociopolitical and economic circumstances which highlights the labeling and diverse issues the afghan woman was once born into. The importance of endurance is not to remain suppressed, instead to stand up against oppressors under harsh conditions.

The book begins with an unhappy little girl named Mariam who is considered a harami, or to American’s, what we would call a bastard child. She was an ethnic Tajik born in Heart in 1959. This little harami lives in an outside hut built by her father Jalil who rejects her in many ways. A few ways would be how he keeps her away from her nine brothers and sisters and only visits her once a week. Her mother Nana was a servant in the household of Jalil. He was a rich and powerful man who took advantage of her and wanted nothing more. Mariam was loved in a very crucial way. Her mother made it known she was the symbol of their shame. Mariam knew she did not have the acceptance of her family and that she never would. Through gritted teeth her mother once told her, “You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I endured, an heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harami.” All this because she broke a treasured heirloom once and her mother never forgave her for it.

After her mother’s death Mariam is married off at the age of fifteen to a shoemaker named Rasheed, who was an ethnic Pashtun. Rasheed was a very stern and aggressive man and he emotionally, mentally, and physically abused Mariam. Some days he seemed to have love and endured her, but only if she did as she was told. She could do nothing but take this treatment, though she feared him in every way. Strangely, she felt some connection to him since he was the only person she had, there was no other choice then to love him as her husband. Her mother always told her, “It’s our lot in life, woman like us, we endure and it’s all we have.” The warnings of her mother were the validity of every afghan woman’s life. Soon the story takes a sad turn and the suicide of Nana, Mariam’s mother, is a depiction of the way women are positioned in the afghan society. Women in these times were being blamed for everything with no way out, surviving only on their great strength to endure the inequalities and injustice-ness of their lives.

Mariam and Rasheed lived the life of a semi-normal married couple. They went on walks, he showed her the town, and bought her gifts from time to time. Mariam soon became pregnant and they shared the joy together. Mariam finally felt like she had a purpose and she told herself that her unborn child was the reason she was brought into this world. Not to long into her pregnancy Mariam lost the baby. Once this happened, her and Rasheed disconnected and shut down. They did not speak often, nor did they connect in the little ways they had before. Their home became an unhappy home and Mariam no longer found purpose in her life. For now, she was empty and alone once again.

Over the years Rasheed’s hatred against Mariam grew, no matter what she did to please him it was never enough. Mariam awoke every day to do her wifely duties and made sure she did nothing to upset Rasheed, but he no longer looked at her as his wife. She could not give him what he truly wanted which was children, he viewed her as a failure. She had failed him seven times. After four years of marriage, Mariam was now just a burden and he constantly yelled and ridiculed Mariam. He even made her chew on pebbles until she drew blood and her molars broke because she couldn’t cook rice his way. This was his way of describing how he felt about her cooking. He had no mercy for her and she was nothing but a harami once again.

In these chapters, Hossieni describes the position of a woman in the afghan society as the one’s to reproduce and take care of their husband with very little say. The domestic abuse is not due to lack of abiding by woman to the informal laws and traditions; rather it is the men’s privilege to blame woman for anything irrespective of woman’s fault. At one point in the beginning of the novel, Nana explains to Mariam the future code of conduct, “Learn this now, and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.” I believe Hossieni wrote this to illustrate the way woman are being blamed and treated despite their pure innocence. The society has laws and customs that prohibits woman from arguing with men, let alone the right to end unequal treatment.

Through out the book Hosseini also told the story of another young girl named Laila, an ethnic Pashtun who was born in 1978. Her upbringings weren’t quite the same as Mariam. Laila’s father was university educated and was a teacher. Her faher was very fond of her and they had a close relationship with her, unlike Mariam and her father. Laila and her mother’s relationship was not the best. Her mother did not mistreat her, however she just did not connect very well with her. Through out the chapter’s of Laila’s life, a close relationship blooms between her and her best friend Tariq, an ethnic Pashtun born in 1976. Laila was in love with Tariq, but even though she wanted him to be her husband one day, her family refused because he had a fake leg and they looked poorly at him for being handicap.

Laila’s life was lived through the war and one day during the war her town was wiped out. When this happened most of her family and friends were assumed dead, this including the life of her beloved Tariq. Soon after this, Mariam and Laila’s lives became worse when Rasheed takes Laila as his second wife. Even though Laila and Mariam were unhappy about the marriage they both knew neither of them had a say. Later on Laila shared secrets with Mariam about her pregnancy with her beloved Tariq who was assumed dead. Even though the girls were unpleased about the sharing of the household they soon softened once the baby was born. Since Rasheed was uncomfortable that the baby was not a boy, Mariam and Laila raised the baby with no help from Rasheed. This behavior from a husband was normal in the life for an afghan mother that could not birth a son.

Over the years Mariam and Laila live their lives as Rasheed’s wives, multiple times they try to escape their miserable life. In the afghan society when a woman is seen traveling alone it is a red flag. It is not allowed and they in most parts can be risking their lives. When the women were caught the first time, it was very scary for them as it would be for any afghan woman. Rasheed was not happy and punished both of them harshly for their misbehavior.

A little later Tariq, who Laila thought was dead showed up and in that moment changes everything for Laila. Rasheed found out the child was not his and makes Laila give her up. Laila already hated her life and wanted to escape, now this just gave her more will to leave. Once again Laila and Mariam risk their lives trying to escape with Tariq’s help and try to get Laila and Tariq’s child back. During this, they are caught once again and Mariam risks her own life for the others to escape and is given a public execution. Mariam believed she finally had a purpose once again and this was to help her new friends, known now as family, to live the life that they deserved and always wanted. She wanted no more suffering for neither her or them.

Mariam’s sacrifice was not just for her sake nor her friends, it was to represent the strength for every afghan woman in this society. Hosseini identifies the inequalities within the society and narrates the story of the two young woman who are positioned unequally and treated very poorly. These women live in a country that is ruined by war and religious-political oppression. Women in Afghan society are deprived of many rights and freedoms, especially in the after math of the Mujahideen movement. At one point Hosseini writes, “In a few years, this little girl will be a woman…turbulence that washed over her” (Hosseini 355). The story of Laila and Mariam has proved the endurance of woman. The subsequent public execution of Mariam is reflective of the way woman in most suppressed societies of the world struggle to achieve individual and collective freedom.

The story “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, is not only a narration based on true life situations, instead provides a deeper understanding of the struggle of an afghan woman. In this novel, both religious and political dimensions of the afghan society is depicted. Hosseini greatly emphasizes the role of women providing women with strength to endure and to make it through life with the lack of their fundamental rights as human beings. Though the efforts are not always significant, the endurance of Mariam and Laila, along with the supportive relationship they received from one another gives us hope. Coupled with progressive thinking and women holding up women in strife, there is light at the end of the tunnel for women in these societies.

Works Cited

• Hosseini, Khalid. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Riverhead Books, May 22, 2007.
• Wikipedia contributors. ‘Khaled Hosseini.’ Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Sep. 2018. Web. 25 Sep. 2018.

Cite this page

Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns. (2021, May 06). Retrieved from https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/

"Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns." supremestudy.com , 6 May 2021, https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/

supremestudy.com. (2021). Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns . [Online]. Available at: https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/ [Accessed: 17 Apr. 2024]

"Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns." supremestudy.com, May 06, 2021. Accessed April 17, 2024. https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/

"Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns," supremestudy.com , 06-May-2021. [Online]. Available: https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/ . [Accessed: 17-Apr-2024]

supremestudy.com. (2021). Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns . [Online]. Available at: https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/ [Accessed: 17-Apr-2024]

Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns. (2021, May 06). Retrieved April 17, 2024 , from https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/

This paper was written and submitted by a fellow student

Our verified experts write your 100% original paper on any topic

Having doubts about how to write your paper correctly?

Our editors will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Leave your email and we will send a sample to you.

Please check your inbox

Sorry, copying content is not allowed on this website

Please indicate where to send you the sample.