A Thousand Splendid Suns Dialectical Journal Analysis

Dialectical Journal Entry #1
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Passage:
“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?”(Hosseini 63).
Journal Entry:
(Q) What is it that causes Rasheed to hold to such beliefs? Previously, Mariam had much more freedom, but Rasheed is strict about her behaving in a way that he deems proper and wearing a burqa. After doing some research, I have found that it is commonly understood that women wear these burqas to demonstrate their religious devotion. However, according to the Koran, the Islamic religious text, wearing a

And, really, what could be said, what needed saying, when you’d shoved the barrel of you gun into your wife’s mouth? It was the raids, the reason they were in the yard digging. Sometimes monthly raids, sometimes weekly. Of late, almost daily. Mostly the Taliban confiscated stuff, gave a kick to someone’s rear, whacked the back of a head or two. But sometimes there were public beatings, lashings of soles and palms” (Hosseini 267).
Journal Entry:
(C) Rasheed uses violence as a way to control the defenseless women. He is able to nearly break Laila’s sense of self worth via this form on control. Likewise, the Taliban gain power through fear. They do this through public shaming and exercising control by banning media. This means of attaining power parallels World War 2 and The Hunger Games. In World War 2, Nazis were known to make a public showing out of brutally torturing and killing. This was a power tactic in attempt to show Jews that they should turn themselves in, and to cause civilians to fear hiding Jews or disobeying. In The Hunger Games, a similar tactic is used. Despite the fact that the civilians do not want to partake in the games, the government continues to administer and publically broadcast the games in order to turn their control into a constant reminder every time someone were to glance at the TV or hear a news update. This is also effective in that it turns the factions against each

In this chapter, Foster discusses the importance of viewing a story from the perspective of the character. This accounts for fully understanding the character’s background and weighing that with the current occurrences. After taking into account Laila’s familial and religious background along with her new situation with Rasheed, this passage has a lot more weight. In the situation Laila is in right now, she likely feels repressed and alone. Because of this, she confides in her memories with Tariq. After considering this, I was able to fully understand the meaning of this as a metaphor. Mariam sees her and Tariq as the same person in some regard. Tariq is missing a leg and she imagines that the void he feels from its absence is comparable to that she feels when she misses him. Only from careful analysis of Tariq and Mariam’s relationship can one emphasise with the pain she feels in his absence. It is easier to follow Foster’s guidelines when picturing a time I felt this way in my life. I had a comparable experience to this in the absence of my grandma after she fought a chronic illness for 12