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Literary analysis of A Thousand Splendid Suns
Literary analysis of A Thousand Splendid Suns
Literary analysis of A Thousand Splendid Suns
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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.
Foreshadowing reveals that Mariam’s life will ultimately be miserable. Specifically, in Chapter 8, the author describes Rasheed’s fingernails as “...yellow-brown, like the inside of a rotting apple, and some of the tips were curling, lifting” (Hosseini 49). The looks of Rasheed’s fingernails foreshadows how his attitude and relationship with Mariam may “rot” and decay in the future. Additionally, in Chapter 8, the author talks about how Rasheed was forceful with Mariam’s wedding band. Hosseini says, “Her own band was a little tight, but Rasheed had no trouble forcing it over her knuckles” (Hosseini 49).
This distinction illustrates the imbalance of power between the two, and the fact of Rasheed’s voice being heard over Mariam’s is a symbol for how Mariam’s desires and beliefs are drowned out under his. Mariam’s unspokeness stems from the immense shame she’s carried with her since childhood—because Nana’s death had occurred after Mariam defied her instructions, she’s now afraid to make major decisions of her own, and especially to disobey her husband. Mariam is only ever able to overcome her shame when it’s for the sake of Laila or her children. Near the end of the story, when Rasheed strangles Laila nearly to death, Mariam finally realizes how her shame has limited her–it says “Mariam saw now in those same eyes what a fool she had been . . . Had she not given this man her youth?
Rasheed treated Mariam as property instead of an actual spouse. Mariam had no voice of her own, Rasheed controlled every aspect of her life, from what she wore to where she went. Mariam could not carry out a pregnancy causing Rasheed to build anger against Mariam, this led Rasheed to lash out and abuse her. Mariam dealt with endless beatings from Rasheed, over the simplest mistakes, because she was too afraid to stand up for herself or leave Rasheed. “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.
Mariam sacrifices her freedom for Jalil by marrying Rasheed. In the novel, when the wives told Mariam they found a suitor for her, she tells Jalil to say something and he says “‘Mariam don’t do this to me’”(49). Even though Mariam did not want to marry Rasheed, she knew Jalil wanted her to and so she did, forever surrendering her freedom to him. Marrying Rasheed deprived Mariam of her freedom because when Rasheed tells Mariam “‘a woman’s face is her husband’s business only’”(70), it indicates that she is his and he controls her.
The motif of Relationships is prominent throughout The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini uses relationships to develop characters and move plot. “I was Sunni and he was Shia’a” Hosseini continues to use character opposites to express diversity in successful relationships. He does this to emphasize how different ideologies can coexist. This is inspired by his life in Afghanistan living under the Soviets, then moving to the US where people from all races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds live together.
When Mariam unexpectedly killed Rasheed, Laila was terrified by what had happened and Mariam “had Laila lie down, and, as she
She knew how much of an abomination killing her husband would be to society, but she loved Laila enough to risk the punishment. Instead of running away from Kabul with Laila, Mariam stayed behind so that Laila would never get in trouble for killing Rasheed. She was then arrested and later shot for murder (371). Mariam sacrificed her own life so that Laila could marry Tariq and live happily and freely with her family. She gave up everything, even her life for those whom she loved, even though they biologically were not her children.
They make common cause and endure degradation, starvation and brutality at the hands of their husband until they are forced to take up a desperate, joint struggle". After being severely beaten, locked up and starved by their husband, Laila and Mariam's differences lead to a conflict that ends in Rasheed's death and Mariam takes the blame; and is killed by the Taliban for killing his husband. This novel deals with many deep topics under the surface, mainly feminist issues, I have critically discussed the statement that says "A Thousand Splendid Suns shows the social and cultural- and, ultimately political structures that support the devaluation, degradation, and violence endured by Mariam and Laila". This was done by focusing and taking into consideration the events that take pace in the novel; which include the decisions that the two women made that led to their conditions that they find themselves in, and the hardships that the women went through, throughout the
Rasheed treats her lovingly and assures her that she will get whatever she needs. He says, “anything you need done just ask Mariam and she will do it for you.” “And if you fancy anything, I will get it for you” (Hosseini, 2007, p.
Ernest Hemingway’s fictional writing, The Sun Also Rises, describes a tragic relationship between two characters. The two characters that are in love with each other are Jake Barnes and Brett Ashley. The setting of the novel is in Paris, France, after World War I. This is perhaps fate that they are in the city of romance. The actions of the characters along with fate have forged a tragic relationship within The Sun Also Rises.
Her husband happens to become Rasheed. He finds Laila unconscious after a bomb went off, dissipating her entire family. Rasheed then takes her in and nurses her back to health. He feels that because he saved her, he should be rewarded, “The way I see it I deserve a medal”. Rasheed later practically forces her to have sex with him.
Hosseini 104).When Rasheed forces Mariam to eat pebbles, he represents the corrupted person, or vampire, who only perceives his wife as an object that seeks to serve him and his relentless demands. After a while, Rasheed begins to look at Mariam as a burden that needs to be lifted off of his shoulders, so he tortures and abuses her, turning himself into a monster in the process. Furthermore, Rasheed does the same thing to his other wife, Laila, and his daughter. When Laila and Aziza attempt to escape, Rasheed is outraged, so he asserts his power when, “ [He] had not given them any food, and worse, no water. That day, a thick, suffocating heat fell on them.
“But in Rasheed’s eyes she saw murder for them both. And so Mariam raised the shovel high, raised it as high as she could, arching it so it touched the small of her back.” (349). This quote was the moment before Mariam’s life would end, she killed Rasheed to save the people she loved which was Laila, Aziza, and Zalmai. But, Mariam’s action would have conscious she knew that she would have to admit to the police.
In regards to the historiography of gender politics in the Victorian era, the social position of women and femininity had become a problematic issue. Similarly, the gender apartheid instilled prior to the civil war in Afghanistan. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, initially published in 2007, is set in Afghanistan from the early 1960s to the early 2000s. In this, it explores the story of Mariam and Laila as the protagonists, who teach the reader the reality of life as a woman in a backward Islamic country. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny seen from the perspectives of these two women and observes how they become to create a bond, despite having come from previously living in very different backgrounds.
