A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay
A Thousand Splendid Suns Theme
Poverty
Most of Afghanistan is overwhelmed in poverty. Many people live in dirt floored huts and have very limited resources. Only the rich in this country have all of the westernized luxuries available to them such as cars, well built homes, servants, etc. Mariam has suffered from a life of poverty at the beginning of the story. After Rasheed’s store burns down, he and his family suffer the obstacles of poverty. They had to sell everything they had in order to make ends meet. Rasheed couldn’t find a job and was fired from two restaurants. The amount of food they had begun to run out and the family is forced to skip meals often. Rasheed also takes up stealing food, but even that won’t help them escape from …show more content…
starvation. They even had to leave Aziza at an orphanage in order to reduce the amount of mouths to feed.
Gender Conflict The theme of the discrimination against women reinforces how cruel men can be to the other gender. Afghanistan allows men to have complete power over women; the Taliban brutally enforces the law. Discriminatory practices such as beatings, murder, loss of control of their children, and humiliation continue even today. Mariam and Laila are two of the Afghani women in the story who are abused and mistreated by both their husbands and society.
Women are never really free even in the more democratic government because of the belief that the Koran allows them to have total control over their wives. A man, like the character of Rasheed, can decide that their wives must wear the burqa. They are allowed to beat their wives and female relatives, even possibly kill them in the name of honor. They lock them at home and deny them basic rights. Men who do this do not even face any form of punishment, doing it to societal approval. All of this is further forced upon all women, no matter the attitudes of their husbands, when the Taliban comes to power, making even more laws to retain women from doing anything productive. Laila’s Babi believed that a society could not flourish if their women were suppressed.
Survival
Survival becomes an essential part of Laila and Mariam’s lives. In addition to the wars going on the Afghanistan, the two much face the threat of abuse or even death on a daily basis against Rasheed. The women face the hardships of hunger, restrictions, and cruelty during their time under Rasheed’s abusive control. Laila is forced to accept Rasheed as her husband after her parents were killed in an explosion and finding out that she was carrying Tariq’s baby.
Mariam’s mother, Nana, was already struggling with survival in the world of poverty before Mariam was born. Every day she went through with the rigors of surviving the poverty of her own life, living just a few miles from Mariam’s wealthy father. Nana eventually decides to end things in an instance, hanging herself rather than facing life without her daughter.
War
The novel shows the senselessness of war, particularly as the Mujahideen battle each other for control of Kabul. According to Hakim, the warlords’ divisions are meaningless, and they are willing to utterly destroy the city in their attempt to win it for themselves.
Fear
Nana, Mariam’s mother, had been abandoned all her life. She had fallen in love with Jalil, who got her pregnant with Mariam and abandons her. After Nana’s father finds out about her being pregnant with Jalil’s baby, he abandons her and leaves the city, never to be heard from again. Again Mariam decides to leave her to find Jalil, Mariam grows the fear of being left alone again. She tries to stop Mariam, but Mariam refused to stay and leaves. This results in Nana hanging herself.
Love
Tariq and Laila are deeply devoted to each other through their love, despite everything they have experienced: death, depression and suffering. They both love each other unconditionally. Tariq was willing to drop everything he had earned and escape with Laila and her children back to Kabul due to Laila’s determination to return to her home. Another is Mariam’s mother, Nana, who was damaged herself and loved her daughter in a very flawed manner that ultimately resulted in a tragedy. Nana’s story (which is probably the true story of what happened during Mariam’s birth) of how she gave birth to Mariam shows her determination to let her child enter the world, even despite the number of ways to prevent it and the pain she went through to deliver Mariam.
Death
Mariam’s mother’s, Nana, life did not end up well but rather in a tragedy. Nana’s story begins with her being abandoned by Jalil after causing her to become pregnant with Mariam. Her father upon finding out about this also abandons her, never to be heard from again. When Mariam leaves her for Jalil, she finally loses her will to live and hangs herself. When Mariam finds out about this, she is violently traumatized by the event and decides that she’ll never be happy again and that it is all her fault.
Devotion
Devotion and loyalty occurs between Laila and Tariq as well as between Mariam and Laila. Laila’s devotion to Tariq began during her childhood and continues on in her adulthood when Tariq proposes to her. She refuses, for her father said that education is most important, but still makes love with him and brings him a daughter. Thoughts of Tariq never leave her mind even after he left and supposedly died. The devotion between Mariam and Laila is a very important part of the novel, symbolizing their alliance created silently between each other when they had a cup of tea together.
The two face an abusive husband together. Then when Rasheed threatens to kill Laila, Mariam rescues her and accepts her fate of execution as his murderer.
Adversity
The theme of (misfortune or suffering) is dominant in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Women are mostly the victims of adversity in the novel. Mariam and Laila are forced to marry Rasheed because they have no other alternative. Also, they are both the victim of his various abuses in the novel. Hosseini demonstrates how these misfortunes shaped and built up their character to feel safe, be defensive, and form a strong bond with each other. It is seen how the adversities suffered by Mariam and Laila helped to shape and build their characters. When Mariam marries Rasheed, he buys her a burqa, symbolizing the start of an oppressive marriage. Rasheed feels it is necessary for Mariam to be completely covered up in order to control her. Mariam has no choice but to obey him and wear the Burqa, finding it uncomfortable at first when she wears the burqa but later adapts to it. Rasheed does not like the fact that Laila gives birth to a baby girl. He dislikes the fact that the girl is disturbing his peace in the house, so he yells at Laila about
it.
Poverty
Most of Afghanistan is overwhelmed in poverty. Many people live in dirt floored huts and have very limited resources. Only the rich in this country have all of the westernized luxuries available to them such as cars, well built homes, servants, etc. Mariam has suffered from a life of poverty at the beginning of the story. After Rasheed’s store burns down, he and his family suffer the obstacles of poverty. They had to sell everything they had in order to make ends meet. Rasheed couldn’t find a job and was fired from two restaurants. The amount of food they had begun to run out and the family is forced to skip meals often. Rasheed also takes up stealing food, but even that won’t help them escape from …show more content…
starvation. They even had to leave Aziza at an orphanage in order to reduce the amount of mouths to feed.
Gender Conflict The theme of the discrimination against women reinforces how cruel men can be to the other gender. Afghanistan allows men to have complete power over women; the Taliban brutally enforces the law. Discriminatory practices such as beatings, murder, loss of control of their children, and humiliation continue even today. Mariam and Laila are two of the Afghani women in the story who are abused and mistreated by both their husbands and society.
Women are never really free even in the more democratic government because of the belief that the Koran allows them to have total control over their wives. A man, like the character of Rasheed, can decide that their wives must wear the burqa. They are allowed to beat their wives and female relatives, even possibly kill them in the name of honor. They lock them at home and deny them basic rights. Men who do this do not even face any form of punishment, doing it to societal approval. All of this is further forced upon all women, no matter the attitudes of their husbands, when the Taliban comes to power, making even more laws to retain women from doing anything productive. Laila’s Babi believed that a society could not flourish if their women were suppressed.
Survival
Survival becomes an essential part of Laila and Mariam’s lives. In addition to the wars going on the Afghanistan, the two much face the threat of abuse or even death on a daily basis against Rasheed. The women face the hardships of hunger, restrictions, and cruelty during their time under Rasheed’s abusive control. Laila is forced to accept Rasheed as her husband after her parents were killed in an explosion and finding out that she was carrying Tariq’s baby.
Mariam’s mother, Nana, was already struggling with survival in the world of poverty before Mariam was born. Every day she went through with the rigors of surviving the poverty of her own life, living just a few miles from Mariam’s wealthy father. Nana eventually decides to end things in an instance, hanging herself rather than facing life without her daughter.
War
The novel shows the senselessness of war, particularly as the Mujahideen battle each other for control of Kabul. According to Hakim, the warlords’ divisions are meaningless, and they are willing to utterly destroy the city in their attempt to win it for themselves.
Fear
Nana, Mariam’s mother, had been abandoned all her life. She had fallen in love with Jalil, who got her pregnant with Mariam and abandons her. After Nana’s father finds out about her being pregnant with Jalil’s baby, he abandons her and leaves the city, never to be heard from again. Again Mariam decides to leave her to find Jalil, Mariam grows the fear of being left alone again. She tries to stop Mariam, but Mariam refused to stay and leaves. This results in Nana hanging herself.
Love
Tariq and Laila are deeply devoted to each other through their love, despite everything they have experienced: death, depression and suffering. They both love each other unconditionally. Tariq was willing to drop everything he had earned and escape with Laila and her children back to Kabul due to Laila’s determination to return to her home. Another is Mariam’s mother, Nana, who was damaged herself and loved her daughter in a very flawed manner that ultimately resulted in a tragedy. Nana’s story (which is probably the true story of what happened during Mariam’s birth) of how she gave birth to Mariam shows her determination to let her child enter the world, even despite the number of ways to prevent it and the pain she went through to deliver Mariam.
Death
Mariam’s mother’s, Nana, life did not end up well but rather in a tragedy. Nana’s story begins with her being abandoned by Jalil after causing her to become pregnant with Mariam. Her father upon finding out about this also abandons her, never to be heard from again. When Mariam leaves her for Jalil, she finally loses her will to live and hangs herself. When Mariam finds out about this, she is violently traumatized by the event and decides that she’ll never be happy again and that it is all her fault.
Devotion
Devotion and loyalty occurs between Laila and Tariq as well as between Mariam and Laila. Laila’s devotion to Tariq began during her childhood and continues on in her adulthood when Tariq proposes to her. She refuses, for her father said that education is most important, but still makes love with him and brings him a daughter. Thoughts of Tariq never leave her mind even after he left and supposedly died. The devotion between Mariam and Laila is a very important part of the novel, symbolizing their alliance created silently between each other when they had a cup of tea together.
The two face an abusive husband together. Then when Rasheed threatens to kill Laila, Mariam rescues her and accepts her fate of execution as his murderer.
Adversity
The theme of (misfortune or suffering) is dominant in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Women are mostly the victims of adversity in the novel. Mariam and Laila are forced to marry Rasheed because they have no other alternative. Also, they are both the victim of his various abuses in the novel. Hosseini demonstrates how these misfortunes shaped and built up their character to feel safe, be defensive, and form a strong bond with each other. It is seen how the adversities suffered by Mariam and Laila helped to shape and build their characters. When Mariam marries Rasheed, he buys her a burqa, symbolizing the start of an oppressive marriage. Rasheed feels it is necessary for Mariam to be completely covered up in order to control her. Mariam has no choice but to obey him and wear the Burqa, finding it uncomfortable at first when she wears the burqa but later adapts to it. Rasheed does not like the fact that Laila gives birth to a baby girl. He dislikes the fact that the girl is disturbing his peace in the house, so he yells at Laila about
it.