Mental Health Issues In A Thousand Splendid Suns

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There are many things beyond the human eye that remain unseen. If people cannot physically see something, they tend to believe it doesn’t exist. Among these things, mental health issues are portrayed as just being silly or insane rather than an actual illness that needs to be treated. Some people even claim these illnesses do not exist because they cannot be seen. However, they are just like any other illness, it is important to correctly diagnose and treat people with mental health problems. In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Nana is one of the characters who was judged and misinterpreted due to the lack of knowledge and mistreatment of her mental illness. Nana is the character who plays the role of Mariam's mother. Based on the novel, one can say Nana spent most of her life being occupied with domestic duties like cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. She lived the typical lifestyle of a woman from Afghanistan. Women in …show more content…

She was rejected at a young age over the illness she had no fault or control over. The pain of not marrying the father of her daughter and possibly the love of her life not only hurt Nana emotionally, but mentally as well. Along with the responsibility of having to raise a child by herself and being shamed for doing so. These were all factors that had a major negative effect on her epilepsy. Nana seemed to have resentment towards everything and everyone around her. Nana never had the chance to heal. Even though she loved her daughter Mariam, she never failed to shatter Mariam's hopes and dreams about life and sometimes mistreat her. "You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I've endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harami." (Hosseini 4). This quote is an example of the hurtful words Nana would say to Mariam due to her illness and lack of patience. She took out most of the anger she had with life on her

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