Happiness In A Thousand Splendid Suns

In Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini suggests that the factors outside of our control often significantly impact our potential to achieve a sense of happiness in life.

This is first seen with Mariam in part 1 of the novel. Mariam’s wants to go to Jalil’s cinema with him, but when the time comes Jalil doesn’t show. She goes to his house to try to find him but he won’t see her, it is here she realizes that he may love her, but he is also greatly ashamed of her. This is something she can’t control because she was born a harami. It’s because of this that her potential for happiness is affected. She may want to be with Jalil but she can’t change how he feels about her.

Later in the novel when Mariam is married to Rasheed,

No matter what Laila says this doesn’t stop. It reaches the point where Laila’s whole family is starving. This would impediment Laila in being able to achieve a sense of happiness as she has to worry about Aziza possibly starving to death. Rasheed’s decision often have a profound effect on Laila’s ability to achieve happiness her life because she has almost no influence on them and they usually make her life harder. For example, when Aziza is put in the orphanage Rasheed rarely goes with Laila to see her no matter how much Laila asks. This forces her to try to sneak out to see her, but the Taliban repeatedly catch and beat her for it. Laila can’t be happy unless she is able to see Aziza and be with her. Rasheed’s debt and lack of work is what put Aziza there in the first place.

There are many cases of someone’s potential to achieve happiness being affected by factors they can’t control throughout A Thousand Splendid Suns. This notion effects many of the characters in Hosseini’s novel and one could say that it might affect our own lives as well. In our lives our potential to achieve happiness may be impacted by factors we have no control