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Examples Of Hope In A Thousand Splendid Suns

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Nneoma Azuakoemu Vance English IV 17 April 2024 Hope: A Tool for Surviving Adversity Inapplicable. Naive. I am a naive. These are words that many would use to describe hope, a belief so strong it can often lead to a path of heartache. Many tend to place their desires above their reality, but is this always an issue? A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini unpacks this idea through the characters of Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women whose lives are wracked by war, loss, and abuse at the hands of their husband, Rasheed. The two eventually find themselves in a situation where their beliefs prove to be stronger than they ever thought. While hope can sometimes hinder one’s ability to survive, it is important for survival as it provides an escape …show more content…

When she is married off by her father and his wives, she attempts to find comfort with the situation. Mariam falls pregnant and it is expressed that “when Mariam thought of this baby, her heart swelled inside of her. It swelled and swelled until all the loss, all the grief, all the loneliness and self-abasement of her life washed away” (Hosseini 80). From birth, she was outwardly made to feel ashamed of her presence by her mother as well as subtly by her father. This causes Mariam to possess very little self worth, so much so that she clings to the slightest bit of fulfillment within her dire circumstances. This reigns true for a majority of modern Afghan youth, especially women. Documentary photographer, Kiana Hayeri, declares that “this is a generation that I identify with. A generation that fights for the strain of life in the midst of constant conflict.” (Hayeri 5:14-5:22). Many people reach for hope, even if it is only temporary. They do so in spite of hardship because it will ultimately invoke a sense of …show more content…

Two new flowers had unexpectedly sprouted in her life [...] she pictured Mullah Faizullah twirling his tasbeh beads, leaning in and whispering to her in his soft, tremulous voice, But it is God Who planted them, Mariam Jo (Hosseini 229). The company of Laila and Aziza makes Mariam realize that the life she endured prior was anything but bearable. They have become her family. After Mariam bravely overtakes Rasheed, she holds no reservations about protecting Laila and the children from the authorities. Mariam protests, “Who will take care of them then? The Taliban. Think like a mother, Laila Jo. Think like a mother of three. I am” (Hosseini 319). While Laila longs for all of them to escape together, Mariam reminds her of the reality of the situation. She places her safety above her own in a sheer act of selflessness. Mariam’s growth as a person allows her to remain content with her fate, knowing that she protected those close to her. Throughout the novel, Hosseini utilizes the characters to detail how hope can contribute to the progression of mental

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By the end of the novel, Laila has had two children, Aziza and Zalmai, fulfilling Rasheed’s desires for a son to replace his previous family. However, when Rasheed lashes out on Laila over trouble started by Zalmai, Mariam gets involved and tries to stop him from hurting Laila. Laila was surged with strength and went on, “Mariam raised the shovel high, raised it as high as she could, arching it so it touched the small of her back. She turned it so the sharp edge was vertical, and, as she did, it occurred to her that this was the first time that she was deciding the course of her own life. And, with that, Mariam brought down the shovel.

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After years of being married to Rasheed is when he met Laila. Laila had just been a young girl that had lived down the street with her family. But when Laila was injured and alone is when Rasheed started to find interest in her. Rasheed had not been genuine like Laila thought and asked for her hand. Laila starts to share the same discomfort Mariam had felt, she reflects on her feeling when she states, “She pictured herself in a refugee camp, a stark field with thousands of sheets of plastic to makeshift pokes flapping in the cold, stinging wind” (Hosseini 219).

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1169 Words | 5 Pages

Laila fondly recalls listening to the women gossip, their hopeful talk of the boys' return from war, and the matchmaking they'd do. In real-world Afghanistan, the theme is reflected; is through the inequality and discrimination women face. The Taliban's tendency to restrict women's rights and opportunities demonstrate the gender roles in Afghanistan that often favor men and discriminate against women. "The Taliban’s inclinations will be to weaken women’s rights, further tighten cultural restrictions on women, and shrink socio-economic opportunities for them, even if the Taliban in government did not formally embrace as brutal a system for women as in the 1990s," (Allen and

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1230 Words | 5 Pages

(Illegitimate child) In Afghanistan, being a harami, people treated Mariam differently and unfairly. She had to persevere through this her whole life and even to her death towards the end of the book, it is still one of the key personality traits of Mariam. “The years had not been kind to Mariam. But perhaps, she thought, kinder years were waiting still.

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Hope motivates many characters in the book A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini but it motivates Mariam the most. For example, when Bibi jo had brought news of Jalil daughters going to a real school, Mariam got caught up in the idea of going to school as the author states “Since then, thoughts of classrooms and teachers had rattled around Mariam 's head, images of notebooks with lined pages, columns of numbers, and pens that made dark, heavy marks.” ( Hosseini 17). This demonstrates how Mariam motivates herself in hope for going to a real school. Instead of getting frustrated and down that Jalil’s other daughters were going to school, Mariam takes the idea that girls her age are going to school and turns it into hope.

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402 Words | 2 Pages

Mariam is married to Rasheed. Rasheed a controlling shoemaker, who is motivated to replace his dead son. After discovering Mariam cannot conceive a child, Rasheed started to abuse Mariam. Rasheed unhappy that he can’t replace his son, he marries Laila. Laila gives Rasheed the son that he wanted.

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Diego Holland Mr. Evans Pre-IB English 2 What Attachment Style Best Suits Mariam? Attachment styles are characteristic patterns for how individuals relate to others in close relationships. These are usually developed early on during one’s life due to their interactions with parental figures. An example of this is a character named Mariam from the novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” (ATSS) by Khaled Hosseini. The attachment style that best described Mariam was insecure: avoidant.

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The injustice Mariam endures in the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, leads Mariam on a struggling journey impacting her future path in life. The injustice that Mariam endures leaves a permanent mark on her life and impacts her from the beginning. Life wasted no time throwing the cruel injustices of life at Mariam. Mariam was marked a harami, otherwise known as a child without a father, even though her father Jalil was alive, near, and well. “She understood then what Nana meant, that a harami was an unwanted thing: that she, Mariam, was an illegitimate person that would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance.”

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Sacrifice happens throughout the novel, yet an important scene in the novel is when Laila stops her husband, Rasheed, from beating his first wife, Mariam, which puts her at risk of getting beaten, “Rasheed raised the belt again and this time has come at Mariam. Then an astonishing thing happened: The girl lunged at him. She grabbed his arm with both hands and tried to drag him down” (Hosseini 241). Laila shows how she cares about Mariam and does not want to see her hurt. Eventually, later on Mariam risks her freedom and life by killing the violent and abusive husband, Rasheed, when he goes to beat Laila Mariam kills him with a shovel ending his life to protect Laila and her children, “And, with that, Mariam brought down the shovel.

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1787 Words | 8 Pages

(Hosseini 96). Her final act of heroism is going to jail to save her friend, Laila, and her two kids, Zalmai, and Aziza. She wanted to save them from getting executed because of the death of Rasheed. Mariam wanted to show her apologies for earlier in life when Laila first came and they showed their hatred for one

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906 Words | 4 Pages

Mariam had turned fifteen in the spring of 1974 and there was one thing she wanted from Jalil. For him to take her to Herat to see the cartoons at his cinema, both Nana and Jalil weren’t approving of this idea. But Mariam was persistent and Jalil agreed and would send someone to pick her up. Though she wanted Jalil to take her personally and be part of the family for once. Mariam began to realize something was wrong when, “it was almost one o’clock.

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727 Words | 3 Pages

When Mariam unexpectedly killed Rasheed, Laila was terrified by what had happened and Mariam “had Laila lie down, and, as she

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1130 Words | 5 Pages

Mariam longed to place a ruler on a page and draw important-looking lines”(Hosseini ). Mariam is an example of how women are banned from an education and whose life could have been changed by education. Instead of being educated, she is sheltered by her mother and lives the rest of her life without high expectations of herself. Nana teaches her that an Afghan woman has to endure the life that is chosen for her because she does not have a say. Nana even says "There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don't teach it in school.

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1317 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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1952 Words | 8 Pages

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.

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