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Violence In A Thousand Splendid Suns

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War is different from violence in that it mirrors itself in the society involved; Violence directly affects ones participating. Author Khaled Hosseini sets the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, in Afghanistan during a bloody war with unprecedented amounts of carnage and violence. The savage nature of war leaves any person susceptible to its primal influence. The horrific scenes are not easily forgotten, mentally scarring many from witnessing them. The violence is reflected in dialog and interactions between characters; non-violent characters are forced to participate to save their own lives. Catalyzed by the onset of war, violence seeped into the Afghan culture. It subsequently mirrors its gruesome qualities in the changes concerning characters' …show more content…

They participate in incidents they normally wouldn’t or become unusually cautious, all because of their fear towards violence. Mariam, the wife of Rasheed, had put up with his torture for years never once retaliating until she was forced to. “Mariam swung. She hit him across the temple…this time she gave it everything she had”(348-349). Rasheed was about to kill someone she cared for, Laila; she had to do something. Mariam wouldn’t have killed Rasheed if he weren’t so violent; His violence forced her to respond with the same, illuminating why she had to kill him. Her fear of Rasheed forced her hand, but even now that she was free of him free of the man that abused her but still chained by the society she lives in Laila, the woman that Mariam saved, similarly changed because of what she had experienced. Laila’s parents were killed in a blast that left a mark on her. She is forever fearful of war because she loves her family and doesn’t want them to get hurt. Her husband, Tariq, believes a new war might be beneficial to the country by forcing the bad men out. Laila disagrees with Tariq about the benefits, scarred that the same thing that happened to her parents will happen to others. “Not so bad? People dying? Woman, children, old people? Homes destroyed again? Not so bad?” (386). The war has changed her because she has been hurt by it and wouldn’t want the same hurt to fall upon others. Laila and Miriam have both been affected by violence and both changed into hardened woman that want no violence or war, proving how a war torn society can change a

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Laila was forced by the fear of being punished for having a child out of wedlock. Mariam and Laila both had very different reasons for ending up with Rasheed. Mariam had been completely forced and torturing her but Laila was out of the need to not be punished for having a child without

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3013 Words | 13 Pages

Laila states, "I wanted to escape, to leave behind the only world I had ever known". Mariam goes further by killing Rasheed, her oppressive husband, as she states "I did it for myself. And for you, too", The technique of irony is used here, as the reader knows that Mariam is not only referring to her own death but also to the death of her abusive husband, Rasheed. This creates a sense of tension and anticipation in the reader as they wait to see how Mariam will carry out her plan and how the other characters will react. Furthermore, the impact of this quote on the reader is significant as it represents a pivotal moment in the story.

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842 Words | 4 Pages

But sometimes there were public beatings, lashings of soles and palms” (Hosseini 267). Journal Entry: (C) Rasheed uses violence as a way to control the defenseless women. He is able to nearly break Laila’s sense of self worth via this form on control. Likewise, the Taliban gain power through fear.

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War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath. Some people cave under the pressure when put in a situation where there is minimal hope or optimism. Two characters that experience

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All people are constantly changing based on their experiences, but there are few circumstances in life that can alter a person more than war whether it be physically, emotionally, or both. World War I was one of the bloodiest wars with over 31 million deaths, wounded, and missing people. Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, is a novel set in this bloodshed, and focuses around the changes brought by the war on one young German soldier. This text depicts the overwhelming effects and power war holds to weaken the human spirit and is able to scar the soldier not only physically but mentally. This is done through the authors ability to convey the unrelenting realism and agony of battle action.

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This theme of destruction will shape how Charley and the readers view war. In “Soldier’s Heart” by Gary Paulsen, the first words are “War is always, in all ways, appalling”. Lives are stopped in youth, worlds are ended”. This immediately describes the overall message of the novel, ‘war will never be triumphant’.

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This somber nightmare from Beah shows the oppression he faces from the war as he has killed men by shooting, stabbing, and slicing their throats as well, just as the men around him do in the nightmare. In conclusion, the oppression of the

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Everyone has to fight a battle, whether that’s internally, externally, or both. Many people fight internal wars, and have scars similar to those on the outside. Internal battles can sometimes be overlooked, since the wounds aren’t visible to those around them, but sometimes these wounds can be deeper on the inside than they are on the outside. The book A Separate Peace touches on the struggles of internal and external wars and the toll they take on the human mind. The universal theme of internal war is predominant in A Separate Peace, and affects not only every character in the book, but

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(Hosseini 96). Her final act of heroism is going to jail to save her friend, Laila, and her two kids, Zalmai, and Aziza. She wanted to save them from getting executed because of the death of Rasheed. Mariam wanted to show her apologies for earlier in life when Laila first came and they showed their hatred for one

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there there” we find out later that all this was fake, a sort of persona to make Mariam believe he’s what she’s been looking for after Jalil failed that role. His false persona ultimately comes crashing down on her at the end of part one when he forces her to eat rocks after he didn’t like her food and Mariam “talks back” all of these things change her in a similar way like what happened with Jalil but to a more extreme because after this some characters like Laila’s family mention how hidden away and distant Rasheed's wife is in part two showing how she has hidden herself away from people and interactions because she’s afraid to form another relationship

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1251 Words | 6 Pages

In the time that Mariam is married to her husband Rasheed, she initially struggles to find comfort in her new life. This difficulty is further intensified when Mariam discovers she is incapable of bearing a child. After hearing the news, Mariam’s “grief washed over her, swept her up, tossed her upside down… [and she became] envious, suddenly, of the neighborhood women and their wealth of children” (Hosseini 92).

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We begin to recognise the change of character, from before the war, and after, and how such events can alter the characteristics of each group member with ease, this is the price of war being explained as the novel continues. The change from other-reliant, more civilised people, to leaders and cooperative identities is drastic, and ideas or other themes are easily revealed through the evoking of curiosity in the reader. The main themes of the novel are easily provoked through the focus on emotional variability and an

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1275 Words | 6 Pages

She witnessing Rasheed in the act of strangling Laila into unconsciousness, putting her in the position to try and protect her co-sister. Mariam steadied her feet and tightened her grip around the shovel’s handle. She raised it. She said his name. She wanted to see him...

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1036 Words | 5 Pages

A quotation to emphasize the women’s despair and loss comes from one of Rasheed’s many abuses, with the narrator writing, “Rasheed raised the belt again and this time came at Mariam. Then an astonishing thing happened: the girl lunged at him. She grabbed his arm with both hands and tried to drag him down, but she could do no more than dangle from it. She did succeed in slowing Rasheed’s progress towards Mariam.” This quote is an excellent display of a similarity between the two on the basis of solitude, and it also shows a turning point in Mariam and Laila’s relationship with each

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779 Words | 4 Pages

War obliterates not only the minds and bodies of soldiers involved, but a multitude of aspects of the societies from whence they came. It is incredibly naive to think that such battles that took place during the great wars, or any other large conflict, could only limit their destruction to the grounds on which they took place. Works such as A Tale of Two Cities, All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Book Thief, cannot emphasise this scale of devastation that war is able to achieve to a greater extent. In one of the most quintessential examples of first-hand war experience, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, horrors of war that go almost unnoticed are revealed.

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