PTSD In A Thousand Splendid Suns

“In World War One, they called it shell shock. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. After ‘Nam, it was post-traumatic stress disorder.” - words spoken by Jan Karon in the novel Home to Holly Springs. Known as PTSD, this is a psychological issue that is triggered by a traumatic event. Khaled Hosseini explores this psychological disorder in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Through the characters, Nana, Laila, and Fariba, the novel shows how PTSD can be triggered in multiple ways. One character who suffers from symptoms of PTSD is Nana. One symptom of PTSD is the feeling of detachment. Nana chooses to be detached from society, “Nana said she had refused to live in Herat…. in the village of Gul Daman, which sat on a steep hill two kilometers

This detachment from society makes her feel very lonely at times and that her daughter, Mariam, is all that she has. However, Nana is scared to trust people in her life because two very important people have disappointed her, her father and Jalil. She hated her father when he was alive, she wishes he had killed her, “‘ I wish my father had had the stomach to sharpen one of his knives and do the honorable thing. It might have been better for me.’” (6-7) For her, death seems more promising than the life she is living. She also feels that Jalil has completely abandoned Mariam and she, “‘Rich man telling rich lies. He never took you to any tree. And don’t let him charm you. He betrayed us, your beloved father. He cast us out. He cast us out of his big fancy house like we were nothing to him. He did it happily.’” (5) Jalil has cast Nana and Mariam out of his life because he is embarrassed of them, he has made Nana feel completely worthless. However, Mariam does not

Crashed to the ground. On her face and arms, a shower of dirt and pebbles and glass. The last thing she was aware of was seeing something thud to the ground nearby. A bloody chunk of something. On it, the tip of a red bridge poking through thick fog.” (194). Laila loses her father, Babi, the person she loves most in life. This is the first time Laila has truly seen death that will traumatize her for the rest of her life, “She murmured in her sleep. Sometimes she spoke gibberish, cried out, called out names Mariam did not recognize.” (199) She must quickly cope through Babi’s death and pretend she is grateful for her new husband, Rasheed, or he will be angry with her. Later in the novel, Mariam must sacrifice herself for Laila and she never forgets her old friend. Her psychological disorder is seen through her dreams of Mariam and their house with Rasheed in Kabul, “Laila has her own dreams. In them, she’s always back at the house in Kabul, walking the hall, climbing the stairs. She is alone, but behind the doors she hears the rhythmic hiss of an iron, bed sheets snapped, then folded. Sometimes she hears a woman’s low-pitched humming of an old Herati song. But when she walks in, the room is empty. There is no one there…. The dreams leave Laila shaken. She wakes from them coated in sweat, her eyes prickling with tears. It is devastating. Every time. It is devastating.” (381) Laila cannot escape her