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Literary analysis of A Thousand Splendid Suns
Literary analysis of A Thousand Splendid Suns
A thousand splendid suns literary
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Rasheed rushed to have a child with Mariam, going as far to rape her in order to replace his deceased first son. When Mariam proved to be infertile, Rasheed’s physical and verbal abuse intensified, leaving Mariam feeling powerless and inadequate. Rasheed moved on and took Laila, the young girl they had nursed back to health, to be his second wife. In a conversation with Laila, Mariam’s hidden feelings showed when she said, “‘And if you think you can use your looks to get rid of me, you’re wrong. I was here first.
Laila states, "I wanted to escape, to leave behind the only world I had ever known". Mariam goes further by killing Rasheed, her oppressive husband, as she states "I did it for myself. And for you, too", The technique of irony is used here, as the reader knows that Mariam is not only referring to her own death but also to the death of her abusive husband, Rasheed. This creates a sense of tension and anticipation in the reader as they wait to see how Mariam will carry out her plan and how the other characters will react. Furthermore, the impact of this quote on the reader is significant as it represents a pivotal moment in the story.
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.
Rasheed’s sexual advances are recognized at various points during his relationship with Laila. Since Laila is trying to deceive Rasheed, his sexual advances towards her happens almost immediately and she is therefore able to trick him into believing that he is in fact the father of her child. She is early enough in her pregnancy so that he believes that he has made her pregnant. If not for his immediate desire for her, had he waited, the pregnancy would not be attributable to her. Mariam is repulsed by Rasheed and is glad she is no longer intimate with him, proven when the author states “Sex, mercifully, was a closed chapter in her own life.
The novel starts by introducing Mariam, in the beginning, she’s a self-conscious young lady with a mother who is despicable and suffers from depression. Her father has entirely different family and shuns her when she tries to be indulged in his life. Mariam is the banished child, due to Nana and Jalil having intercourse while unmarried, resulting in Mariam being illegitimate. At a young age, she was forced to marry a severely abusive man named
When Mariam unexpectedly killed Rasheed, Laila was terrified by what had happened and Mariam “had Laila lie down, and, as she
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.
Rasheed however asks her to wear a burqa before going out. He makes it very clear to Mariam and later on to Laila, that a “woman 's face is her husband 's business only”. However when Mariam fails to bear a child, after several miscarriages, Rasheed begins to torture her both physically and mentally. Rasheed also becomes cross on Laila when she gives birth to a girl child. Later on Laila gives birth to a boy, but this does not improve her status in front of Rasheed.
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.
Rasheed blames Mariam many times such as her inability to become pregnant and for her bad cooking. It’s not her fault that she can’t have a baby and she tries to make good food for her husband but it could an excuse to hit or abuse her. When Rasheed is angry about this, he takes his anger on Mariam by beating her or such as forcing her to try to chew on rocks.
The novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is a story written by Khaled Hosseini about two women and the lives they had and what they faced as they grew up. It focuses on Mariam and Laila. The two were brought up in very different ways and they were raised by very different parents. Mariam was raised by a single mother since the father was mostly absent, only visited occasionally and she was a bastard child. Her mother bore her before marriage; she got pregnant for Jalil while working as a housekeeper at Jalil’s place who later threw her out.
Maria is trying to grow up too fast and she put her family to the side instead of being grateful. In this story, conflict, characterization, and symbolism all have an effect on the overall theme.
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.
“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.