Symbolism In A Thousand Splendid Suns

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.

If we could all put our problems in a pile and see other people's; we'd take ours back. According to Sighn (2013) "women in Afghanistan have been going through gender equity in its severe form since ages. Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns depicts the plight of women behind the walls of Afghanistan during several invasions in the country". In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, we come across two women Mariam and Laila, who endure extreme hardships that most women across the world experience. In the following essay I am going to critically discuss 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 will be done by focusing on the events that take pace in

“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.

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

In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the importance of education in woman. With the importance of education in women comes the endurance of woman. Hosseini displays the endurance of hardships that women face in Afghanistan through his female characters in the novel.

This story features two main protagonist characters, Mariam and Laila. Mariam, an illegitimate child raised by her mother, wishes to live with her father and her nine half-siblings in Herat. Finally, Jalil agrees to take her to watch a movie as her 15th birthday’s wish but later he doesn’t show up. Mariam sets in her own journey to Herat, without informing Nana. She doesn’t meet Jalil but the next morning when Jalil 's chauffeur drives Mariam home, she finds that her mother’s dead body.

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.

For centuries, women have been exploited by the society. Events of women being prohibited from doing things like voting or working and being forced to behave the way it is considered to be socially acceptable have been jotted down in history. Until today women are still viewed as the weaker sex. In some countries, women are regarded less than human and are treated like slaves. Khaled Hosseini goes into the oppression of women in his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. In the story, the women are oppressed by the society. This is narrated through the delivery of the main antagonist’s id, the gender inequality in enforcing laws and the marginalization of women.

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. Rasheed however asks her to wear a burqa before going out. He makes it very clear to Mariam and later on to Laila, that a “woman 's face is her husband 's business only”. However when Mariam fails to bear a child, after several miscarriages, Rasheed begins to torture her both physically and mentally. Rasheed also becomes cross on Laila when she gives birth to a girl child. Later on Laila gives birth to a boy, but this does not improve her status in front of Rasheed. He is also partial in his

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

Staggeringly beautiful and deep and rich and sad and frightening and infuriating. There’s a lot I want to say about this book and so I cry your pardon if this review is a bit of a rambler. You should definitely read this book. I’ll probably repeat this again, but I

Khaled Hosseini not only shows the discrimination of minority groups but introduces the notion that people will discriminate not based on their personal views but upon which they believe as their role in society. In Afghanistan culture “Nang and namoos” defined as "pride" and "honor or dignity" is incredibly valued in the culture with people outwardly going out of their way to maintain their reputation. However, in his two novels Khaled Hosseini presents the idea that this pride inevitably leads to the discrimination of another. This is demonstrated In a Thousand Splendid Suns by the characters Jalil and Rasheed due to the way they treat those closest to them. For instance, Jalil ousts Nana outside of his home upon receiving news that she is expecting his illegitimate child. The readers clearly can identify that his agenda was not to rid Nana of his home but the issue of hiding his child from the world to protect his image as an honorable man. There is evidence that Jalil did indeed have some affections for Mariam which is evident by is visits and the way he lied to please her however his love for her was always outweighed by the fact that he had to maintain his “so called name” to society in the fear of “losing face” thus he could never give Mariam he love she deserved or that he truly wanted leading to Mariam’s discrimination from his other legitimate children. Furthermore, the fact that Jalil visits Mariam years later signifies he did not intend nor take pleasure in this

In Chapter 16 of A Thousand Splendid Suns, our focus is shifted from Rasheed and Mariam to Laila who is a new protagonist to the story. Khaled Hosseini establishes parallels between Laila and Mariam, and between the two married couples - Rasheed and Mariam, and Fariba and Hakim. Through the lives of Mariam and Laila, one can perceive that the personal suffering of both Fariba and Nana limits them to fulfill their roles as mothers. Both mothers care for their daughters, but are unable to focus on their needs due to their own misery. Because the author changed the third person point of view from Mariam to Laila, Hosseini can compare and contrast the two characters. Laila and Mariam are influenced by their mother’s behaviors. At times, both girls have hard feelings towards them, but at other times are empathetic. Nana and Fariba have experienced a lot of grief in their lives, but both of them can not look past it. Their inabilities to overcome the different losses in their lives affected the egos of their daughter’s, which is why Laila and Mariam feel much closer to

In A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini exposes the scenario of that time of society under the rule of fundamentalist government like Taliban and with this also exposes the suffering of women in that environment. He reflects the cultural, political and social structures of Afghanistan in degrading Afghanistan women. At various instances in novel Khaled Hosseini tries to reflect the situation of women or how they are being treated by the male dominant society which reflect other themes as well as relates with their oppression and hope, the senselessness of War, also points toward women education with other issues.

Let's take the scene to Dominos, you’ve just sat down with your family to eat a nice delicious pizza. You only have $15 dollars in your pocket so, your family will have to share one large pizza. Bob, the father loves cheese and claims it is the best possible topping on the pizza. Liza, the mother states the she has to have pepperonis and so does the two children, Jan and Glen. The waiter is furiated by the mother and children and says that there is no pizza without the cheese but, pepperonis are just sub topics you can always replace. Well let's bring it back to A Thousand Splendid Suns, Laila is the cheese on the novel’s pizza crust and characters like Mariam, Aziza, and Rasheed are all of the tiny pepperonis on the pizza that aren’t as significant