Margareta Kulusic-Ho Mr. Schmidt English 3I March 29, 2022 A Thousand Splendid Suns Mariam Characterization Essay In literature, characterization is a key element in how characters are represented and described. Through different experiences, characters can evolve to demonstrate how unique experiences can change their nature and give the characters depth. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini displays Mariam’s progression, as one of the protagonists, who is burdened with shame for being born out of wedlock, going on to marry an abusive man, Rasheed. Mariam begins the story as an innocent and hopeful child, then as the novel progresses she grows from a resentful and inferior woman to being able to defend herself.
The book A Thousand Splendid Suns focuses on two young women and their life experiences as women living in Afghanistan. Mariam and Laila, both face intense issues in life. Their stories are unique in showing the many sides of Afghan women's lives. Mariam and Laila, while both have related tragic lives, show the main differences in their lives and how they affected them. At the beginning of both Mariam's and Laila's lives, they both had innocence in themselves.
The reason Khaled Hosseini wrote A Thousand Splendid Suns was to tell the abuses that the people of Afghanistan, mostly women, had to endure. Hosseini shows the readers this by using the lives of Mariam and Laila. He made these women to help the reader understand the sadistic part of the world. Hosseini gives us a new lease on life, from the horrible lives these women had to live through. I would have liked to recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns to anyone, but because of such adult themes like abuse and murder I think it shouldn’t be given the faint of heart and to anyone younger than thirteen years old.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a beautiful story of the struggles of Afghan women. Two of the character, Mariam and Laila, both have a different beginnings to their lives, but both lives entangles themselves and makes for an interesting story with its own rollercoaster of emotions. On page 250 of the novel, the “unguarded, knowing look” that passes between Mariam and Laila is enough to show that their adventures have just started and that the relationship has much to flourish. Throughout the book, you will see Mariam and Laila prosper and grow as characters and ladies in general. To know the details of their struggles, inner turmoil, and honest victories you will just have to read the book.
What makes one willing enough to sacrifice her own life for others? How difficult can it be to willingly die for what one believes? What does it take to be a Christ-figure? Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the concept of sacrifice in A Thousand Splendid Suns. In this novel, Hosseini presents Mariam as a Christ-figure through her qualities and sacrifice.
With Mariam growing closer to Azzia, the readers see a shift in how she acts and feels. Mariam evolves more throughout part 3, growing closer to Laila and Azzia. Laila and Mariam's relationship was rough at first, but Mariam sees Laila as a daughter to her. Mariam reasons “Had Mariam been certain that he would be satisfied with only shooting her, that there was a chance he would spare Laila, she might have dropped the shovel. ”(Hosseini 349).
Rory Kopelson Larson English 10 24, April 2023 The Upbringing of Mariam A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a novel that takes place in Afghanistan from the 1960s to the 2000s. It illustrates the warring that the Afghans experience through the perspective of Mariam, a woman, born of illegitimate status, and sold into marriage at a young age.
When Laila’s parents were killed and she was injured, Mariam took her in and sacrificed her time and space in order to take care of Laila (199). Mariam didn’t have kids of her own, yet took care of Laila as if she were her own daughter. She cared enough for the young girl’s well being to take her in and show her kindness. When Rasheed is about to kill Laila, Mariam hits Rasheed with a shovel so hard that it kills him (349). She viewed Laila as her own daughter, and she wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her daughter.
They represent the plight which the Afghan women have been facing since ages. These characters give hope to the countless women who still suffer the dominance and hardships of the Afghan society. The actions of these characters symbolize their strength to endure things as they join together and retaliate against the man, and in turn the society, who has taken away their rights to live their lives according to their own choices. The ‘thousand splendid suns’ represent the thousands of Afghan women with immense potentialities who are still under the clutches of patriarchal domination and are forced to hide behind the walls. Khaled Hosseini has beautifully portrayed the cruel realities of the lives of Afghan women through Mariam and Laila and this is what separates A Thousand Splendid Suns from literary works that deal with Afghan women.
In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the importance of education in woman. With the importance of education in women comes the endurance of woman. Hosseini displays the endurance of hardships that women face in Afghanistan through his female characters in the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Mariam wants to go to school and be able to learn like other children,“She pictured herself in a classroom with other girls her age.
A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay Women in the 1990’s had it rough after the Mujahedeen take over. After his takeover, an increased number of laws were made to limit the freedom of women when before, women were happy, they could get educated and roam freely. The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini demonstrates the life of an Afghan woman before and after the Mujahedeen take over. Babi, the father of Laila tells the reader that women were lucky to be living during their time, “It’s a good time to be a woman in Afghanistan.”
Hardships endured by Two Afghan women. If we could all put our problems in a pile and see other people's; we'd take ours back. According to Sighn (2013) "women in Afghanistan have been going through gender equity in its severe form since ages. Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns depicts the plight of women behind the walls of Afghanistan during several invasions in the country".
A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the lives of two Afghani women who meet during the Taliban takeover. They bond to overcome struggles of starvation, brutality and fear, with their newfound uncovering of hope and love. Hosseini successfully communicates to the audience the importance of the transformation of the women’s values through literary devices such as vivid imagery, repetition and extended
The war and prejudice against women in Afghanistan changes everything for Laura. Her parents die in a bombing and she is left to find her way and determine her fate by herself. Just like Mariam, she is married and like fate would have it, as a second wife by Mariam’s husband, Rasheed. Laila however bears two children for Rasheen unlike Mariam who has none and is treated much differently from Mariam. He compares her to a brand new first-class shiny Benz.
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.
