Birdsong Conflict

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Explore the ways Faulks and Hosseini present the impact of conflict on female characters in the novels Birdsong and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Conflict is defined as fighting between two or more groups of people or countries. The theme of conflict is prominent throughout the two novels; Afghanistan from 1964 to 2003 was a country struggling and attempting to deal with a political crisis, within these thirty nine years there was the era of King Zahir Shah, Mohammed Daoud Khan's Republic, communist rule, mujahedeen conflict after Soviet troops left, the arrival of the Taliban, and the interim presidency of Hamid Karzai. (History and Context, n.d.) This corruption lead to an outbreak in violence and the oppression of people, especially women, …show more content…

Rasheed's cruel behavior could be viewed as an extended metaphor for the destruction war has on innocent people, these people, like Mariam had no choice in entering the conflict, they were dragged in. 'he shoved two fingers into her mouth and pried it open, Hosseini's use of violent imagery displayed by the use of the verbs 'shoved' and 'pried' creates the sense that there was a real struggle and the action was forced upon, this also gives the impression that Mariam is weak and helpless. This action of Rasheed forcing himself upon Mariam occurs a lot throughout, therefore highlighting the conflicting outlooks on the relationships the two have. Although Mariam is a strong character, Rasheed slowly breaks her down, following Mariams several miscarriages it leaves her feeling broken with no sort of hope for the future, she is trapped in an endless abusive relationship with a man whom she does not love......... talk about the effects the miscarriages have on …show more content…

Lalia, like Mariam had no other choice other than marrying Rasheed, but with the same destructive man, however their relationship is marginally different from Mariam's. Due to Leila's educated upbringing she has a completely different view on herself and believes in equality between men and women, therefore she is portrayed as being a lot less passive, and seems to be less afraid of Rasheed, despite being younger than Mariam. This alternate outlook between the two girls is further displayed through the division of sections separating the novel in to Mariam and Lalia point of view. However the use of the third person eliminates certain personal insights and emotional outlooks. The purpose of separating the sections creates a barrier between the two characters despite them being in the exact same

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