A Thousand Splendid Suns Character Analysis Essay

The book A Thousand Splendid Suns was to show the evil acts that happened in Afghanistan in the end of the 1950’s to almost present day. The books author, Khaled Hosseini mainly showed the unjust treatment of the women in Afghanistan. A Thousand Splendid Suns vividly describes how the afghan people were tortured. This book has high and low points with many plot twist that will keep most people off of their seats.

In “Half Walls between Us,” imagery is strongly expressed through Maria Said’s choice of words. For example, Said says, “On my first visit to Agordat, a small town in Eritrea, a country in the Horn of Africa, I fell in love with its mystery, its quiet, its soft sandy colors,” which gives a strong image of the setting (Said 79). To express strong imagery is to give great detail, explain settings, and compare and contrast the surroundings. To have imagery in a story or essay is to give visual effects for the reader to see while being intrigued into a new story.

Mariam is married off to a disgusting man named Rasheed and he mistreated her just like her mother treated her. Rasheed then gets another wife and things for Mariam and Rasheeds new wife, Laila , don't get off to a great start. Mariam is told to take Lailas orders, but upon one of Laila and Mariam's first conversations with each other Mariam gave a crude tone and let it readers know that “I was here first and I won't be thrown out” (225). Mariam believes that Laila will get rid of Mariam and this causes disagreement and tension between the two. Mariam later opens her eyes and realizes that Laila isn't an enemy and forgives Laila for trying to get her thrown out. Mariam allowing herself to forgive Laila leads to a bond that helps Mariam find meaning in their lives (250). Laila seems to have a better life than Mariam, but that all changes when Laila's parents are killed by a rocket. Laila was not mistreated as bad as Mariam was but still wasn't loved as much as her brothers were. Lailas mom loved her sons and once they were killed Mammy became distant towards Laila. Laila is aware of the change and knows that “She would never leave her

A Thousand Splendid Suns, tells the history of the last three war filled decades of Afghanistan through the lives of two unsuspecting women. Education is a topic discussed in the novel frequently and effects Mariam's and Laila's lives. The similarities and differences between the two focuses heavily on education. Laila's father, Babi, repeatedly urged the importance of Laila's schooling. While Mariam's mother, Nana, wanted Mariam to stay away from any type of school. Although, Mariam is discouraged to pursue an education, Mariam and Laila knew the possibilities of women. Laila was expected to be something important in her life, her childhood friends and Rasheed made a note on how intelligent, independent and determined she was. While Mariam

Stories and memories passed on through generations can help to shape an individual. In many instances, storytelling can tell a lesson or push a person’s opinion about something in a certain direction. Memories can sometimes be unreliable, but can also be all that someone can base their life off of. Judith Ortiz Cofer’s memoir Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican childhood uses storytelling to share her memories in a life lesson manner. She takes the reader on a journey through her memories and childhood and uses her memory as a main tool. Memory and storytelling is an important aspect of Silent Dancing, because they helped to shape the author, told lessons to the reader, and explained a life tied between Puerto Rican and American.

In Maria Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus Estrella is a confused, angry girl who is attempting to figure everything out. Estrella is unable to figure anything out without the help of Perfecto Flores, but with his help she is able to create some understanding about the importance of education and becomes less angry. Viramontes uses tone and figurative language to help show Estrella’s growth and development.

In the beginning of the novel, Mariam wants to go to school and be able to learn like other children,“She pictured herself in a classroom with other girls her age. 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. Look at me... Only one skill, and it's this: tahamul. Endure’’(Hosseini 18). Mariam must be strong and adapt to how she is treated by people. Nana explains snow to mariam at a young age, "She remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world. That all the sighs drifted up the sky, gathered into clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below. As a reminder of how women like us suffer, she’d said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us" (Hosseini 91). Although Nana is

The story starts with two interchangeable characters, Laila and Mariam. Similar in many ways, both of these women are introduced in the novel as young children. The author expertly describes events Laila and Mariam encountered within their everyday lives that has either affected them or helped them progress and deal with the modern rules for women rooted within Afghanistan. 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

In Gary Soto’s short story ‘Growing Up,” the main character, Maria, says, “‘I know, I know. You’ve said that a hundred times,’ she snapped.” Maria is acting ungrateful because she doesn’t want to go on vacation with her family and she is arguing with her father about it instead of being grateful for what she has. Being grateful is feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness and being thankful. In the story Maria argues with her father about not wanting to go on vacation with her family and claims that she is old enough to stay home by herself. 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.

“The greatest sacrifice is when you sacrifice your own happiness for the sake of someone else”. In the book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini writes a story about an Afghan girl name Mariam. Throughout the book it shows her life and growing up in Afghanistan. She learns about her country from events from her personal life and others. As these events grow throughout her life the color black appear more. As it grows it leads to her sacrificing herself for Laila and her children. A Thousand Splendid Suns develops the theme, human nature plays a factor in one who sacrifices themselves for the one they love through the archetypal uses of black, the mother figure, and the villain.

This novel deals with many deep topics under the surface, mainly feminist issues, I have critically discussed the statement that says "A Thousand Splendid Suns shows the social and cultural- and, ultimately political structures that support the devaluation, degradation, and violence endured by Mariam and Laila". This was done by focusing and taking into consideration the events that take pace in the novel; which include the decisions that the two women made that led to their conditions that they find themselves in, and the hardships that the women went through, throughout the

They represent the plight which the Afghan women have been facing since ages. These characters give hope to the countless women who still suffer the dominance and hardships of the Afghan society. The actions of these characters symbolize their strength to endure things as they join together and retaliate against the man, and in turn the society, who has taken away their rights to live their lives according to their own choices. The ‘thousand splendid suns’ represent the thousands of Afghan women with immense potentialities who are still under the clutches of patriarchal domination and are forced to hide behind the walls. Khaled Hosseini has beautifully portrayed the cruel realities of the lives of Afghan women through Mariam and Laila and this is what separates A Thousand Splendid Suns from literary works that deal with Afghan women. The novel aptly portrays the fight of Afghan woman for her rights to education, health, freedom, choice and

While looking through a feminist lens and reading/watching both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story, one notices a lot about women. How they are depicted, how they’re treated, and what opportunities they’re given. However, the question most observed in both stories is how much agency they have. Agency is defined as the ability to change their circumstances and when analyzing text in a feminist perspective, women often have little to no agency. From a feminist literary lense, both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story depict female characters with agency stripped from them.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam is presented as a Christ figure in a Muslim society through her humble and forgiving qualities and the sacrifice of her life and freedom. When Hosseini wrote this novel, many people were stereotypical of Muslims. Hosseini presented Mariam this way to show the readers that although people may have different beliefs, they are not as different as one would

Laila’s feminist identity was influenced by her father, Hakim. Hakim is mostly referred to as Babi in the novel. Babi was a high school teacher, in other word, an intellectual. Intelligence is devalued by the majority in their society, therefore being a teacher makes Babi an extraordinary person in the novel. Since Fariba, Laila’s mother, was distanced from her, Laila had a special bond with her father. Babi’s doctrine of the importance of education was implanted into Laila. “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 this about you. And I also know that when this