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Who Is Mariam In A Thousand Splendid Suns

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In A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, Mariam is a strong character whose foundation is tested throughout her life. This base is constructed upon her own experiences and her connection with the people of her past. Mariam’s sense of self, loyalty and hope for the future all stem from her relationship to the past. Mariam’s sense of self directly relates to her parents. Mariam’s mother often twisted her words, and her manipulations lead Mariam to question herself throughout her later life. “For a moment, Mariam heard Nana 's voice in her head, mocking, dousing the deep-seated glow of her hopes” (20). Mariam often thinks of her mother’s opinions in moments of self-doubt such as this one, as she knocks on her father’s doorstep. Mariam’s sense of self is largely defined by one of her mother’s words, in particular, harami. As she grows, Mariam encounters the obstacles being a harami, or bastard, means in her life. “She imagined they all knew that she 'd been born a harami, a source of shame to her father and his family” (39). In her lowest moments like this one, Mariam questions herself and …show more content…

Mariam takes the relationships in her life very seriously. Due to a lack of people in her life in her childhood years, Mariam is truly grateful for every positive connection she finds. Her strongest of these bonds is her faith. The first positive influence on her life was Mullah Faizullah, who taught her the Koran and how to pray. "You can summon them in your time of need, and they won 't fail you. God 's words will never betray you, my girl" (11). When she and Laila become friends, Mariam treasures the relationship because of the deficiency she had in her early life. Mariam shows her gratitude by sharing her faith with Laila’s daughter, Aziza; “It 's the only thing I have to give her… this knowledge, these prayers. They 're the only true possession I 've ever had” (153). It is because of this gratitude that Mariam becomes a loyal friend even to the point of her

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PART 1: CHAPTERS 1-15 Characters introduced: Mariam Mariam is the protagonist in the novel. She grows up outside of the city of Herat in a small shack and is raised by her mother, Nana. She was thought to know that she is a “harami”. She dreams of bigger things for herself and tends to question authority.

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At the kolba, her earliest and only education is on the Koran, taught by Mullah Faizullah. Whenever she encounters hardship, she turns to religion and prayer for comfort, such as after she loses her first baby. It is the only thing that stays consistent throughout her tumultuous life, so she always relies on it for solace and to return to normalcy. In addition, religion allows her to further connect with Aziza, as Mariam teaches her verses from the Koran. Religion, however, would also be her downfall.

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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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The motif of Relationships is prominent throughout The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini uses relationships to develop characters and move plot. “I was Sunni and he was Shia’a” Hosseini continues to use character opposites to express diversity in successful relationships. He does this to emphasize how different ideologies can coexist. This is inspired by his life in Afghanistan living under the Soviets, then moving to the US where people from all races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds live together.

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The novel starts by introducing Mariam, in the beginning, she’s a self-conscious young lady with a mother who is despicable and suffers from depression. Her father has entirely different family and shuns her when she tries to be indulged in his life. Mariam is the banished child, due to Nana and Jalil having intercourse while unmarried, resulting in Mariam being illegitimate. At a young age, she was forced to marry a severely abusive man named

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One night when Mariam was constantly awaken by the scorching heat she went downstairs to drink a glass of water and she noticed Aziza lying awake beside Laila on the floor. Mariam immediately noticed that the little girl was “dressed like a damn boy” (243). A few days later Laila “found a stack of baby clothes, neatly folded, outside her bedroom door” (247). Laila knew that Mariam had generously given these clothes to her for the reason that Mariam knew that Rasheed was not going to buy any for her, and since Aziza was the first person to love Mariam “so undeservedly” (252) Mariam felt a connection between both of them. This interaction causes Mariam and Laila to come closer together also, and therefore the drinking of “chai” (251) became a “nightly ritual” (251).

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The character of Rasheed is an epitome of the male dominated Afghan society. He is an unsympathetic patriarch who treats his wives as pieces of property. He exercises his power over them and uses them for the satisfaction of his physical needs. In the beginning after marrying Mariam, Rasheed treats her well. He takes her out to show around the City of Kabul and also buys a beautiful shawl for her.

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Nevertheless, Mariam is not a fallen warrior but a victor. Contrasting from Nana, Mariam fought her battle with resistance rather than endurance. She broke free of the oppressive culture and realized her self-worth in the end. Fariba is one of first non-submissive females of the novel and was portrayed as the woman with a progressive mindset.

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While reading the story, you can tell in the narrators’ tone that she feels rejected and excluded. She is not happy and I’m sure, just like her family, she wonders “why her?” She is rejected and never accepted for who she really is. She is different. She’s not like anyone else

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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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Laila on the other hand was raised by both parents except her mother did not focus much on her. She therefore had a strong bond with her father than her mother. The two grew up with the knowledge they were brought up with. My essay will focus on the comparison between Mariam’s relationship with her mother and Laila’s relationship with her mother and how these relationships prepare them for adulthood.

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Maria is trying to grow up too fast and she put her family to the side instead of being grateful. In this story, conflict, characterization, and symbolism all have an effect on the overall theme.

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“But in Rasheed’s eyes she saw murder for them both. And so Mariam raised the shovel high, raised it as high as she could, arching it so it touched the small of her back.” (349). This quote was the moment before Mariam’s life would end, she killed Rasheed to save the people she loved which was Laila, Aziza, and Zalmai. But, Mariam’s action would have conscious she knew that she would have to admit to the police.

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