Laila In A Thousand Splendid Suns

BACKGROUND
Socrates was convinced that our souls are where virtues and vices are found, they are vastly more important for our lives than our bodies or external circumstances. The quality of our souls determines the character of our lives, for better or for worse, much more than whether we are healthy or sick, or rich or poor. If we are to live well and happily, as he assumed we all want to do more than we want anything else, we must place the highest priority on the care of our souls. That means we must above all want to acquire the virtues, since they perfect our souls and enable them to direct our lives for the better. If only we could know what each of the virtues is we could then make an effort to obtain them. As to the nature of the virtues,

Women and young girls were discouraged to receive a proper education as men and young boys. “I know you’re still young, but I want you to understand and learn this now, Marriage can wait, education cannot. You’re a very, very bright girl. Truly, you are. You can be anything you want, Laila I know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more, because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance” (Hosseini, 2009: 103). These are words from father to daughter, words of encouragement. Despite the rules and regulations of Kabul at the time, Hakim encouraged Laila to attended school and enrich her knowledge. To Laila this was not a problem because she had her own dreams and aspirations, and marriage not being one of them. She wanted to become something of great importance so that she could bring change to her home town. It took her real courage to understand that it is through education that a son of a miner can be the head of the mine, a daughter of a cleaner can become a Doctor, that it is through education that she can bring change to Kabul. She understood that education would help her and everyone else in Kabul understand the difference between right and wrong, that an uneducated person is well aware of the consequences of the laws that are set in Kabul and the Soviets war, but he/she is not influenced to do

Through the author Harper Lee we are exposed to another definition of courage. Atticus Finch being the character who portrays great courage throughout the whole novel To Kill A Mocking Bird. On all instances Atticus serves his courageous deed with pride, for some situations he acknowledges that his chances of overcoming the battle are very low, yet he tackles them and strives to do his best, irrespective of his expectations. Considering the fact that the context of the novel was based on the apartheid era in Maycomb, one would expect that as a white male Atticus’ courage includes fighting and killing of other races, but this was no it. He was more of a man that stoop up for what he believed was right and he was always determined to persist in good not only for himself, but for everyone else that was around him, irrespective of their age, gender or race. Atticus had the courage to stand up against the people of Maycomb and fight for the justice of an innocent man, this innocent man being someone from a different race and social group as him. He believed that he is not only doing it for the accused and himself, his courage had on the other hand helped him to build a legacy and developed a good example for his children Jill and Scout. He knew that if he leads a good example for his children, they would not have a problem doing the same someday when they