Preview

A Thousand Splendid Suns: Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1461 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Thousand Splendid Suns: Analysis
“ Nana said, ‘Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. You remember that Mariam” (Hosseini 7).

In this passage from A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam’s mother explains to her what her father is really like. Through the begging of this novel, Mariam sees her father, Jalil, as the better parent and views her mother as the more strict one. Nana isn’t fond of Jalil because after he had got her pregnant, he denied that he tried sleeping with Nana, “That [she] forced [herself] on him” (Hosseini 6). Mariam doesn’t believe this story. She feels that the only reason her father hadn’t kept her and her mother in his house was because of his other wives. Nana tries to explain to Mariam the truth but Mariam ignores what her mother tells her. In later chapters Mariam is able to realize that her mother had been telling the truth. When she does realize this, its because her mother has died and she is able to see that her father wants nothing to do with her. The author, Khaled Hosseini, uses this to foreshadow Mariam’s husband, Rasheed, blames her for not having a son and for not being a good wife. Not only Rasheed, but other men in this novel as well blame the women for their problems. Jalil blamed Nana for the birth of Mariam even though it was his fault for having the affair. Rasheed doesn’t always blame Mariam for everything, at times he blames his other wife too, Laila, for giving birth to a daughter and not a son. This passage helps illustrate what Nana had to learn and what Mariam had to endure when growing up with a man around. Throughout, women are the victims of their husbands problems and in this book it clearly shows how women are accused, even when doing no harm to anyone.

“At night, Laila lay in bed and watched the sudden white flashes reflected in her window. She listened to the rattling of atomic gunfire and counted the rockets whining overhead as the house shook and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Hiroshima and Night are two novels about one of the world’s most powerful and destructive wars. In Hiroshima, Hersey writes of the events that began on August 6, 1945. Hiroshima is told through the memories of six survivors: Miss Toshiko Sasaki, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, and Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, and Hersey makes sure to never let his readers forget their stories. Every one of those six people experiences their share of death, destruction, and dehumanization. Elie Wiesel contributes similar concepts in Night. But instead of other people putting forth their stories, Elie Wiesel shares his own war story by narrating his…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    1. “In any war story, especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told the way. “ (71)…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fascism is defined as “A political ideology that asserts the superiority and inferiority of different groups of people and stresses a low degree of both freedom and equality in order to achieve a powerful state (O’Neil A-17).” The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns takes place in Afghanistan at a time in its history where fascism had an iron grip on the Afghan people and every aspect of their lives. The author, Khaled Hosseini, showcases the adverse effects of Afghanistan’s fascist governments. In the book, two women named Mariam and Laila fall prey to the fascist regimes in Afghanistan. Hosseini showcases his negative feelings towards fascism all throughout the book. He portrays the fascist theocracies of the Taliban and the Muhajideen as incompetent…

    • 2130 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Trap Island: A Short Story

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages

    I had never slept in a beter bed, thought Sanger Rainsford. Bang! Thunder like a gun fired in the sky and woke Rainsford up from a deep comfortable sleep. Rainsford , unable to go back to sleep, went to the window. The sky was night black with clouds. Lightning for a moment, lite up the beach And rainsford saw six dead black dog lying on the Scarlet sand, their necks snapped or split wide open.A pair of bloody footprints lead to the building gate .…

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The text is a short story by Zora Neale Hurston describing a little girl filled with joy and is constantly doing things that she wants without letting the color of her skin hold her back from living her childhood days to the fullest. The short story was first published December of 1924 in an issue of Opportunity. The reader would most likely be someone who reads issues published from Opportunity or someone who was looking for articles, poems, and short stories related to African-American studies and literary pieces related to the Harlem Renaissance. The author is a prizewinner for her short story Drenched in Light. Hurston made her debut in the Harlem Renaissance with that same prize winning short story. Hurston was raised in Eatonville, which…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most striking examples, however, occur near the end of the novel. Rasheed, who had tormented Mariam and Laila for years, finally met his end with the same brutality as he treated them. And lastly, the relationship between Mariam and her father, Jalil. Mariam always admired her father, so much so that she intended to leave her mother, who had raised Mariam alone all her life. Mariam waited for days outside Jalil's house, knowing of his presence inside. But he, for fear of losing face, ignored his harami, never to treat her like a daughter of his own. Later, awaiting the arrival of his death, Jalil visited Mariam's house to make amends. Mariam, fittingly, did not welcome him and shredded his letter, never to know until many years later why her father visited. After Mariam's execution, Laila read a letter from Jalil's will, one Mariam had never read. He was both understanding and disappointed that Mariam never opened the door, describing it as penance for his actions:…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. The author shows Walter’s crave for money with the ambition of him wanting to start up a liquor store, but his sole focus is cash. As the story advances Walter grasps the importance of his relatives by not accepting the offer from Mr. Linder, but by remaining in the house because it's fitting for the Younger’s. Throughout the story Walter starts from a man who ties the American dream to achieving wealth who then realizes the value of family.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cognitive Design

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The author portrays the experiences of the two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila, who live in a society where women are mistreated. Mariam’s character is described as a quiet and thoughtful girl who questions the society and dreams of a luxurious life. She experiences physical and mental abuse from almost every person in her life and is brought up in an isolated environment by a bitter mother who puts her down. For instance, in the beginning of the novel Nana, Mariam’s mother, says: “You are a clumsy little harami” (Hosseini, 4). This very word “harami” helps the reader to analyze the struggles of an illegitimate child. Nana also prepares Mariam to expect nothing from men: “Like a compass needle that always point north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always .... Mariam” (Hosseini, 7). This is also used to foreshadow Mariam’s husband, Rasheed, a cruel, abusive and hot tempered man, who physically and verbally abuses Mariam after marriage.…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    happening in the story. Also, this quote shows the strictness of her father. In life, fathers always…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Restorative justice has been gaining ground since 197 when it was used in a case in Canada. This practice allows the victim to meet face to face with the offender and possibly release some anger and move on from the incident. After gaining more ground, today we see Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs across the country trying to help victims after a crime has been committed against them. In this essay we are going to discuss the origins of the modern restorative justice movement, explain how the principles and practices of restorative justice relate to its historical, theological, and social-work roots, describe how restorative practices, including re-integrative shaming, differ from retributive practices, including both the philosophical and practical differences.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The plot of the movie the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is about two people Clementine and Joel who were once in a relationship but ended up breaking up because as time past the differences that brought them together, eventually led to them growing apart. They are two completely different people Joel is shy, quiet, and kind of an introvert. While Clementine is loud, anxious, and does outrages behavior completely different from Joel. When Joel finds out that she had a process so that she could forget all her memories of him, he also goes through the same process. Eventually after grappling with the issue of why she would get the procedure done.The company that erases their memories is called Lacuna and has specialized technology that…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd”. -- Alexander Pope, "Eloisa to Abelard"…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hollow of the Three Hills

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    She tried to run away from her daughter's sickness and encroaching death, but by doing so only brought guilt and remorse upon herself. She must have known that her husband would have strong feelings of antipathy towards her and still willingly looked in on his life to see how he was.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nawal El Saadawi’s novel Woman at Point Zero is a story set in Egypt in the 1970s, full of many different and yet similar characters. However, with all of the characters in this novel, the women are portrayed in a very specific way; they tend to be characterized as dependent, and less capable. They are also the main recipients of much of the violence included within this text. This will be shown through the main character, Firdaus, and another woman, Sharifa. The environment and context of Woman at Point Zero had a profound effect on the women in this story, affecting their behavior; however, El Saadawi had her reasons for writing this way.…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays