In Chapter 16 of A Thousand Splendid Suns, our focus is shifted from Rasheed and Mariam to Laila who is a new protagonist to the story. Khaled Hosseini establishes parallels between Laila and Mariam, and between the two married couples - Rasheed and Mariam, and Fariba and Hakim. Through the lives of Mariam and Laila, one can perceive that the personal suffering of both Fariba and Nana limits them to fulfill their roles as mothers. Both mothers care for their daughters, but are unable to focus on their needs due to their own misery. Because the author changed the third person point of view from Mariam to Laila, Hosseini can compare and contrast the two characters. Laila and Mariam are influenced by their mother’s behaviors. At times, both girls have hard feelings towards them, but at other times are empathetic. Nana and Fariba have experienced a lot of grief in their lives, but both of them can not look past it. Their inabilities to overcome the different losses in their lives affected the egos of their daughter’s, which is why Laila and Mariam feel much closer to …show more content…
“Harami” is the afghan term for “bastard”. The narrative, which takes place in Afghanistan, is filled with Afghani phrases that are sometimes directly defined. For example, the reader is introduced to the word “harami” before it’s actual definition is given. Other words such as “jinn” and “kolba are left for the reader to determine based on the context. Khaled Hosseini is an afghan born writer who left Afghanistan during the soviet invasion. This novel was written based on some of his memories and contains autobiographical elements. We familiarize ourselves with Hosseini’s style from chapter 1 where he uses these pashto terms to not only establish the setting, but to also signify that some phrases and thought cannot be