Afghanistan is a country full of war and depression, a place where no child should grow up in. Oppression and restriction are displayed when Mahtab explains what she is experiencing during her long trip on the painful truck. ‘She rubbed her freezing hands together and pressed them into her mouth, sucking the life back into them…all she could taste was diesel and dust.’ Also the personification is presented with Mahtab desires (‘Mahtab wanted to…yell as if her heart and lungs would burst. But her throat was a closed and choking trapdoor.’) Mahtabs pain and needs demonstrates how her childhood is presented in the novel and the challenges she will have to face. In one passage in the novel, Mahtab’s father was to leave his family and to give a major role to Mahtab, which is responsibility; to help her mother while father is…
The novel tells us, of the endurance that women must possess in order to survive, but also the love and sacrificial relationship that Laila and Mariam develop together. The novel depicts the destruction of Afghanistan in terms of culture and…
Khaled Hosseini was born March 4, 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan. During this time Afghanistan was very peaceful and calm. He was the oldest of five. He had three brothers and one sister. Khaled’s father was a diplomat. He worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Khaled’s mother taught history and Farsi at a very large high school for girls. As a child…
Kiveat and Heidler pair portraits of Afghani women with a short interview about their live in Afghanistan before, during and after the overthrow of the Taliban in their book “Women of Courage: Intimate Stories from Afghanistan.” An interview is conducted with a housewife who burned herself, flight attended, photojournalist, actress, saleswomen, filmmaker, abused wife, presidential candidate and many more Afghani women. The book contains forty interviews with women from different walks of life. The author mentions in the introduction that three of the women have fallen victim since their portrait appeared. Extremists shot two of the women, and another one of them died giving birth to her first child. Kiviat argues that these women were “victim…
Set throughout the time of Afghanistan’s feud with Russia and also the control of the Taliban cluster, Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner takes US through the excruciating journey that emeer (The main character) should endure to achieve redemption for his sins still as his father’s love. Hosseini shows US the death of a child's innocence once emeer horrifically witnesses his supporter, Hassan, obtaining raped and will nothing to prevent it, each attributable to the very fact of their social variations and also the ‘reward’ that emeer would gain if he let it pass. This death of emeer's innocence propels the story forward by pushing Amir to come back to extreme measures so as to disembarrass himself of the…
Afghanistan’s troubled times resulted in the Taliban’s takeover and the suffering of the Afghan people which would challenge the people to face great adversity in the time to come. The characters would have to seek redemption despite the circumstances in Afghanistan and its society’s standards. In the books A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini betrayal allows the theme of redemption and self-sacrifice as well as the perseverance in the face of adversity to develop, these themes are shown through the characters Amir and Miriam.…
Author Jenny Nordberg interviewed several Afghan families and asked about their lifestyle. In different Afghan cities, males are the dominant gender; as they are in most countries. But in Afghan cultures men are free to work and have all the freedom that they desire, the women do not. Woman will dress up their daughters as boys, called ‘bacha posh” (meaning dressed like a boy), so they could have a male to represent the family or work if the family needed money. In the story of Mehran, Shubnum, and Niima, this means changing their appearance, lifestyle, and their self-identities.…
Khaled Hosseini is the most famous Afghan in the world according to Time Magazine. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan where his mother taught history and Farsi at a local high school, and his father worked as a diplomat. His family moved to The U.S. seeking better living conditions in 1980. After deciding he wanted to write in addition to medicine, he wrote The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And The Mountains Echoed. All of these works reflect his experiences and express his admiration for Afghanistan. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini develops the themes of suffering and perseverance, female friendship, and love.…
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.…
The relentless Pashtuns constructed a tough life on the Hazaras as can be seen in the Kite Runner, but some seemed to still gather happiness with the little freedom they had. Once the Taliban came to power the most gruesome days of the Hazaras had just become, as everyone feared for their life. The present life of a Hazara and potential they are granted is only something dreamed of during their darkest years. The relationship between Pashtuns and Hazaras has now been remolded into a life lived with each other, in further equality then ever experienced…
Women in Afghanistan overcome adversity and oppression from the opposite sex everyday of their lives. They are abused in and outside the confines of their own homes. "In A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, the struggles of women are depicted vividly. Mariam and Laila are born generations apart, yet end up getting married to Rasheed. They are both married at the age of fifteen. A marriage in Islam is usually a sacred union of two people who choose to respect and honour one another in all situations. It is usually a joyous occasion for females. In the novel, marriage is a nightmare in which both women are abused physically and mentally. The legal marrying age for women in Afghanistan is sixteen, however, people in rural areas "either ignore the law or claim they are not aware of it". (Afghanistan Online) Child marriages are common all over the country. It is believed that between sixty and eighty percent of all the marriages in Afghanistan are forced and out of these fifty-seven percent are child marriages (About.com). These marriages come with grave consequences. Any type of sexual intercourse can lead to severe health risks and as a result, their babies suffer.…
Jamal’s parents wanted to settle in a place where safety and equality would be presented to the family, especially Bibi and her mother. In Afghanistan, life was not very equal when comparing boys and girls. Girls could not go outside without the company of a man, which meant that Bibi could not play soccer, but that did not stop her, no matter how risky it was. As a result, the family wanted to go to a place where it was safe and equal for women. The author shows the importance of equality for women when he writes: ‘…female soccer players. Bibi seems a bit overwhelmed.’ This shows that their ache for freedom, equality and independence inspired them to find a safe and equal environment for Bibi and her mother.…
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini is seen through the eyes of two young female protagonists, who have a strong and well-developed character. In the novel, the author shows their hardship, their lives in a hopeless society, Afghanistan, and how throughout their life they face cruelty and vulnerability.…
Often times a person’s wishes do not match up with what fate has in store for them. In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, one witnesses the trials and tribulations of two women morphed by circumstance and war. Khaled Hosseini expertly illustrates what it means to search for justice that both Mariam and, specifically, Laila try to do as women in Afghanistan during a time of war. Through the deaths of loved ones and an abusive marriage, Laila comes to realize that she does not always have to rely on herself in order to live by the moral standards and justices she swears by.…
The attempts of promoting progressive changes in this society are contrasted with ruthless laws of traditional Taliban. Despite the fact Afghanistan as a whole saw many progressive changes before and during the communist rule, a desire to return Afghani culture to traditional Islamic values saw the degradation of the rights for many members of society. It is through the setting of the novel and the interactions between its characters, that the reader notices these contrasting viewpoints. Though some people in Afghanistan, such as Laila’s teacher and father, believed that the progressive changes brought about by communist influences were a good thing, there was a majority of society who yearned to return to traditional Afghani values. It was this acceptance of traditional Islamic culture that allowed the Taliban to seize control and pass restrictive laws. Overall through the history of this country, it is evident that strict cultural values and progressive changes cannot…