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Motherly Sacrifice In A Thousand Splendid Suns

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The Significance of Motherly Sacrifice Many people take the sacrifices that parents make for them for granted. Specifically, many mothers give up important aspects of their lives for their children. Khaled Hosseini, author of A Thousand Splendid Suns demonstrates the significance of motherly sacrifice in several different ways through Nana, Laila, and Mariam. Although Nana is not the epitome of a loving mother, she did make some sacrifices critical in the makeup of Mariam’s life and character. Nana explains to Mariam how she gave birth to her all alone, and even had to cut the umbilical cord herself with absolutely no one there for support (11). She knew that by giving birth to Mariam she would have to give up any social status she had, but …show more content…

When Laila’s parents were killed and she was injured, Mariam took her in and sacrificed her time and space in order to take care of Laila (199). Mariam didn’t have kids of her own, yet took care of Laila as if she were her own daughter. She cared enough for the young girl’s well being to take her in and show her kindness. When Rasheed is about to kill Laila, Mariam hits Rasheed with a shovel so hard that it kills him (349). She viewed Laila as her own daughter, and she wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her daughter. She knew how much of an abomination killing her husband would be to society, but she loved Laila enough to risk the punishment. Instead of running away from Kabul with Laila, Mariam stayed behind so that Laila would never get in trouble for killing Rasheed. She was then arrested and later shot for murder (371). Mariam sacrificed her own life so that Laila could marry Tariq and live happily and freely with her family. She gave up everything, even her life for those whom she loved, even though they biologically were not her children. The author of A Thousand Splendid Suns demonstrates the significance of motherly love through Nana, Laila, and Mariam. The novel gives the reader a better insight of how passionate a mother’s love for her children can be, and how far she may go for the love of her

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