How Does Hosseini Use The Weather In A Thousand Splendid Suns

Great writers create great characters. In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini describes the life of Mariam and Laila. They both begin simple lives, but as time progresses, they cross paths and go through the worst hardships they could imagine. Hosseini uses the weather to symbolize and characterizes the outcomes of Mariam and Laila’s life.
Hosseini uses the weather as a symbol to describe the circumstances of Mariam’s life. Nana tells Mariam about the reality of the day she was born and all the struggles she endured during labor. Mariam’s birth story started “ on a damp, overcast day in the spring of 1959” (11). The weather in this story symbolizes the birth of Mariam, because the spring symbolizes the happiness of having

After Mariam had seven miscarriages, Rasheed changes his attitude towards her. While Mariam sits in her living room, she notices “winter is passing” and sees “silvery puffs of snow melting off the branches of tall elms” (95). Winter passing describes the passing of hard times with all of her miscarriages, but it does not mean the hard times are over. Mariam told Rasheed she would like to have a proper burial for her baby so she could let go of what could have been. Rasheed disagreed with her and said he would not have a burial so “One sunny morning that week,” Mariam, “ picked a spot in the yard and dug a hole” (96). The sunny morning describes the happiness that Mariam feels because she will be able to give a proper goodbye to her baby. When the novel describes Laila’s life, her father takes her to the Bamiyan Valley. Laila says the “sky above all of this was an immaculate, spotless blue.” (148). The spotless blue sky means there are no clouds and the sky looks free of problems, unlike the life she has back home, in Kabul. Hosseini uses the weather to characterize the struggles that Mariam and Laila have in their

After the death of her parents, Laila accepts Rasheeds marriage proposal because she bears and illegitimate child, a harami. While living with Rasheed, Laila feels trapped and restricted so all she can think of is the “wide-open skies of her childhood” (231). The wide-open skies symbolize all the lost chances Laila will never have; she had an education and now, she is forced to stay home and care for a husband that she does not love. Laila and Mariam have lived many terrible experiences with Rasheed like getting hurt emotionally and physically. After going through the worst punishment they could receive, “the summer of 2000” came and “the drought reached its third and worst year” (302). The worst year does not only symbolize the drought but also the worst year Mariam and Laila have because Rasheed loses business and forces Laila to give up her daughter, Aziza, because he cannot feed them all. In the end when Mariam and Rasheed are dead and the wars are over, leaving Kabul cleansed of all the war all Laila can think about is Mariam. Laila and her family succeed in their life “And above them, over the mountains, the morning sun is rising.” (414) The morning sun rising symbolizes the life Laila has, will get better as time goes on. Although Hosseini killed Mariam in the novel, her death symbolized the opportunity she gave Laila a chance at a good life, something Mariam herself would never be