A Thousand Splendid Suns Gender Roles

As the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini came to an end, the emotional turmoil never lessened. As both Mariam and Laila’s stories progressed, so did the tragic war in Afghanistan. The consistent combat changed both their lives in dramatic ways. I chose this novel due to my cousin being deployed to Afghanistan, and I am interested in the culture and daily life of those who live in Afghanistan. Previously, I had taken into consideration gender roles. This became a prominent part of the storyline, and never really did go away. The rights of women had been completely diminished, which happend in a lot of the cultures we have studied. It may have started to get better in the end, but there was still much to change. However, educational rights did improve
It is observed in the novel by Khaled Hosseini multiple times. One heartbreaking moment is when we find out that Jalil, Mariam’s father, finally owns up to his mistakes, although Mariam has already passed away. He refused to accept Mariam as his daughter when she was younger., but later in his life, Jalil wrote a letter that had said, “I lost the privilege of your good graces a long time ago and for that I only have myself to blame” (Hosseini 405). This directly correlates to regret found in my own family’s life. Recently, my grandmother on my father’s side passed away. My family was down in Tennessee visiting my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Beth when we received the call that she had a week left to live. My family had considered postponing the trip and returning to Michigan, but never went through with it. We thought we still had time to say goodbye when we returned home. That is regret that my own family faces every day because no one, had the ability to say their goodbyes. Both my own family and Jalil went through hardships that made us feel like we let someone down. Also, these feelings will never disappear, which makes it much more