Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns

“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.” Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is an impressive novel about the lives of two Afghan women who share the same tribulations and hardships of living in a country that is oppressed by war, as well as being unjustly denied their rights and freedoms. Hosseini does a commending job of looking into the insight of women living under these situations; this causes readers to feel sympathy and heartache for the characters’ unwarranted life circumstances. The themes of A Thousand Splendid Suns’ are portrayed through gender inequality, female bonds, and hope.
Gender inequality is a major factor that is portrayed through Hosseini’s novel. The nature
Women are controlled by the government and are seen as nothing more than property to their husbands. If a woman left their home without being accompanied by a man, they “would be beaten and sent home.”(248, Hosseini) Afghanistan women are expected to be obedient, causing them to be sorrowful and oppressed. At the same time, men have the chance for a future. The two characters, Laila and Mariam, are controlled by their husband Rasheed who does not allow them to be uncovered on the street. When Mariam had been on a stroll with her husband during the beginning of the novel, she admired the modern Afghan women who were uncovered and even walking alone. “They made her aware of her own lowliness, her plain looks, her lack of aspirations, her ignorance of so many things.” (75, Hosseini) This quote exemplifies how Mariam feels being treated as property is not the dreams she had as a little girl, she has no chance now for her ambitions of being happy in time. The reality of her life is saddening; she is abused in many ways, for example, “Rasheed spat at Mariam. He swung the belt, testing it against his own thigh. The buckle jingled loudly.”(309, Hosseini) This control that Rasheed feels he has over Mariam is threatening to her safety, it shows that husbands can do whatever they please and no one pays attention. Mariam is not the only one who is weak to the power Rasheed
In the beginning of the novel, Mariam and her mother, Nana, have a bond that affects us all. Nana literally cannot live without her daughter; the connection was so strong that Nana felt that Mariam gave her the will to live. On the other hand, Laila and her mother do not have a strong relationship at all. Laila has always wanted to be loved but her mother always seemed to love her brothers more. The strongest bond in the novel is between Laila and Mariam. At first, Mariam was hateful towards Laila because she felt that Rasheed had favored her because she was younger and more desirable. Later, they became close over the motherly relationship of Laila’s daughter, Aziza. Together they raise her while battling the abuse of their husband together. Their love for each other gives them strength to become protectors of each other against his anger. It comes to the point where Mariam even strikes Rasheed with a shovel and kills him to save her friend’s life; she even ultimately takes the complete blame and turns herself in for the murder, facing execution, so that Laila can finally live a happy life. As Mariam was walking on her way to be executed the thoughts that gathered in her mind were peaceful, “Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her… she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back.”(370, Hosseini) This quote shows how