Gender Roles In A Thousand Splendid Suns
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Set in the ever changing country of Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel that follows the unfortunate lives of two Afghan women whose fates mysteriously intertwine toward the middle of the detailed story. They live in a time that ranges from the Soviet Invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding stage when their stories end. The first section of the book follows the life of Mariam, which begins with her painful childhood. Being an illegitimate child of a well-to-do cinema owner and his maid, her mother, she lives her days in a dirty shack with her scornful mother. Weekly visits from her father keep Mariam happy until one day he doesn’t show up. After going to his house to look …show more content…
Women are seen more as objects rather than people. This is partly because of their religious beliefs, but even more so because of the Taliban. The Taliban completely destroyed the idea of women’s rights. Women were beaten behind closed doors, not allowed outside without an escort, and forced to cover themselves in traditional Taliban regulation clothing. It wasn’t much of a life for the Afghan women. When Marian killed Rasheed with the shovel it was her way of “sticking it to the man”. She entered the world as an illegitimate child, “an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident” and from that point on her life had made little difference. By killing Rasheed she was finally making a difference in her life, as well as the life of others around her. When she picked up that shovel she became “guardian” of Laila, her only friend and companion. Her life finally meant something to someone, she was “a person of consequence at last”. Throughout the novel Mariam and Laila were abused both mentally and physically by Rasheed, and he did it with no consequence; that was the society they lived in. This reoccurring theme of male dominance was shattered when Rasheed died. By standing up for themselves they were standing up for any women who has ever suffered from an abusive husband. Mariam’s final thoughts before she was executed exemplify everything the book was trying to say about a woman’s role in the Afghan
Set in the ever changing country of Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel that follows the unfortunate lives of two Afghan women whose fates mysteriously intertwine toward the middle of the detailed story. They live in a time that ranges from the Soviet Invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding stage when their stories end. The first section of the book follows the life of Mariam, which begins with her painful childhood. Being an illegitimate child of a well-to-do cinema owner and his maid, her mother, she lives her days in a dirty shack with her scornful mother. Weekly visits from her father keep Mariam happy until one day he doesn’t show up. After going to his house to look …show more content…
Women are seen more as objects rather than people. This is partly because of their religious beliefs, but even more so because of the Taliban. The Taliban completely destroyed the idea of women’s rights. Women were beaten behind closed doors, not allowed outside without an escort, and forced to cover themselves in traditional Taliban regulation clothing. It wasn’t much of a life for the Afghan women. When Marian killed Rasheed with the shovel it was her way of “sticking it to the man”. She entered the world as an illegitimate child, “an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident” and from that point on her life had made little difference. By killing Rasheed she was finally making a difference in her life, as well as the life of others around her. When she picked up that shovel she became “guardian” of Laila, her only friend and companion. Her life finally meant something to someone, she was “a person of consequence at last”. Throughout the novel Mariam and Laila were abused both mentally and physically by Rasheed, and he did it with no consequence; that was the society they lived in. This reoccurring theme of male dominance was shattered when Rasheed died. By standing up for themselves they were standing up for any women who has ever suffered from an abusive husband. Mariam’s final thoughts before she was executed exemplify everything the book was trying to say about a woman’s role in the Afghan