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How Is Jalil Portrayed In A Thousand Splendid Suns

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In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini illustrates the difficulties of living in Kabul, Afghanistan during the rule and control of the Taliban. Throughout the book, he incorporates aspects that display poor self-esteem which influences behavioral activities. When living in such a rule-heavy, grim environment, it is common for characters to develop conflicts within themselves. Jalil, a very distant parental figure in the story, experiences many conflicts within himself overall affecting those around him, such as Mariam and Nana. The public has a great influence on the way people perceive themselves and those around them. On account of this, many people tend to obsess heavily over their image, title, or “ranking” in society. …show more content…

On her fifteenth birthday, Mariam was promised that she would be taken to the cinema to watch Pinnochio. Coincidentally, this occurred at the same time Jalil decided to start distancing from her. On her way to meet with her dad, Mariam undergoes a few hardships; including her mother’s threats and suicide, resentment, discouragement, and loss of hope. When she arrived at his doorstep and was told that he refused to see her, she broke down crying. Jalil, watching from his bedroom window, did not go out to comfort her. Mariam, on the floor, ends up catching Jalil’s eye and they make eye contact. But this shocked Jalil and his “hand appeared and frantically pulled at a cord…[making] the curtains [of the window fall] shut” (Hosseini 24). Jalil’s actions only showed fear, implying that he understands what he is doing wrong. Avoiding the situation and not taking responsibility, Jalil orders his driver to take care of her and send her back to her mother. This only shows that Jalil does not want to go through the trouble and risk ruining his image more. This greatly relates to the impact of the public eye as it damages and inflicts changes in a person’s mindset. It is implied that Jalil cares more for the comments and reactions of others rather than his relationship with his own family. Again, in his letter, he confesses that he “has known so much sorrow” and reminisces about the old memories he had with

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This time, she gave it everything she had” (Hosseini 280). While Mariam had never expected her life to turn out this way, she was still able to overcome her trauma and regain her strength. She fought off Rasheed to save Laila, who was being strangled halfway to death. This was the first time Mariam was sure of herself and had enough confidence to save Laila. She didn’t second guess herself or hesitate to grab the shovel to resist Rasheed’s attack.

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Mariam states "Was this what he did then, those nights that she did not visit her room? Had she been a disappointment to him in this particular regard?", showing that Mariam is blaming herself for Rasheed's inappropriate acts. Mariam blames herself because her anxious ambivalent attachment style internalizes her guilty and leads her to believe that Rasheed is only doing that because she's not able to satisfy all his needs. Mariam's tendency to blame herself in situations that are not her fault in her relationship reflects her need for validation and fear of

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This scene shows how she takes action for the things she cares about. She even cares for others even though the child is not hers and takes charge as the mother who was supposed to take care of the baby. Another way Mariam’s change was made evident was when Mariam goes to the hospital for Laila’s baby and tries to shove other people to get treated earlier and realizes what Nana had to go through and changes the way she thinks about Nana. The Narrator states, “Mariam saw now the sacrifices a mother made. Decency was but one.

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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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Hosseini gives Mariam many Christ-like qualities in the novel like forgiveness. Like Jesus, Mariam shows forgiveness in the novel towards Jalil when she reflects “he’d not been a good father, it was true, but how ordinary his faults seemed now, how forgivable, when compared to Rasheed’s malice” (309). Mariam reveals that she knows Jalil has faults and that they seem easily forgivable compared to the

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This took great courage to take the actions that Mariam did because typically, people stay with what they know and understand, not taking any chances to lose what they hold dear to themselves. She later finds that her father bluntly lied to her through his chauffeur while she sleeps on the streets. When she goes home, she finds her mother dead. Soon after, she was forced to marry Rasheed, her second act of bravery. Throughout her later life, she tried to get pregnant so many times, however, she could not because she had miscarriages.

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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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A Thousand Splendid Suns’ was written by an Afghan American writer, Khaled Hosseini. The novel narrates the strength and resilience of two women who endure physical and psychological cruelty in an anti-feminist society. It also demonstrates how The Taliban uses fear and violence to control the people of Afghanistan, particularly females. Throughout this story the novel exposes the way customs and laws endorse Rasheed’s violent misogyny and it tells the tale of two women who endure a marriage to a ruthless and brutal man, whose behaviour forces them to kill him. The protagonist Mariam is a poor villager who lives in a remote area in Afghanistan, in contrast to Laila who is a smart, educated daughter of a schoolteacher.

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