Analysis Of A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini

I The political instability in Afghanistan originating from the 1970s has caused changes in its zeitgeist, as seen through the change in the culture and lifestyle available to the Afghan people. Over the next three decades, there is a significant transition of civil liberties, and a change from a path to liberalism to a traditional conservative nature in the eyes of outsiders. The novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini demonstrates the change by telling a realistic story based on the true events which took place in Afghanistan.

II. i. The politics relating to Afghanistan is the greatest factor in the change of zeitgeist, which Afghanistan experienced since the King’s, Muhammad Zahir Shah, cousin General Mohammad Daoud Khan, usurped the throne in 1973. Following the coup d’etat, years of short-term rulers exchanged power. Communistic ideas filled the country, as Afghanistan’s rulers became more leftist, believing in Marxist ideas and concepts. The Soviet Union invaded the country and using education to manipulate the children of a foreign country to influence the spread of communism and the formation of a strong communist party in the middle east. The zeitgeist experienced major changes as European ideas flushed into Afghanistan. As seen in “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini, the education of women increased and Afghanistan started to develop a Western-influenced culture, changing from its once conservative culture to a country where in Kabul women

In Afghanistan in the 1970s, cinemas would play American movies, and music would fill the streets. Music and art in Afghanistan was an expression of culture and the lifestyle which manifested itself into the country for centuries. When such Art and many forms of expression and enjoyment were banned, it represented a change in that traditional lifestyle. When expression and creativity ends, the personality of Afghanistan and therefore its Zeitgeist changed as