2. In the beginning of the book when Mariam’s mother tells her that, “Women like us. We Endure. It’s all we have.” you don't really want to believe her. You want to believe that Mariam has more to offer to this word than endurance and that she will go places in life. You think that the book might be here to prove her mother wrong about women only being there to endure, but it really seems to do the opposite. Mariam starts her journey of endurance when Jalil tells her that he will take her to his new cartoon movie at his theatre, but Mariam finds out that he abandoned her and left her to sit on the streets all night because he was ashamed of having a “harami.” She then goes home devastated only to find that her mother hung herself out of grief for her child. Mariam continues to endure at …show more content…
In Laila’s childhood, her mom was never really a mother figure to her. She seemed to care more about the two sons that weren’t there, rather than the daughter who tried to care for her and was still involved in her life. She would try to talk and connect with her mother who sat in bed worrying about her sons and this would just end with her mom telling stories about her them. She wouldn’t even sound like she was talking to Laila, it seemed like she was just remembering out loud. When the news came about Laila’s brothers’ deaths, her mom was destroyed. It was one thing for her to miss them but now she knew for a fact that she would never see them again. All of these distractions really made Laila’s mom all but forget her as the shadow of her sons grew even larger over her. This really made Laila wonder why you would have more children if you didn’t have enough love for them. I think that because she learned this when she was young, Laila had a good understanding of how much you should love your child and not to let things get in the way of it. When Laila became pregnant, she had all of these thoughts in mind because she witnessed firsthand how much love is needed as a
In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author Khaled Hosseini presents the tragedy that Mariam went through. Mariam the unwanted child for her father because he was not married to Mariam’s mother when she get pregnant from him. She lived in a village with her only family member, her mother. One day she left her mother and went to the city that her father lived in. Her mother felt abandoned and committed suicide because Mariam is all she had. After the death of her mother, Mariam moved with her father to Kabul. She was a burden to her father so after some weeks she was forced to marry a forty-five year old man when she was only fifteen year old. She moved to another city with her husband where she had to live with a man that she never
Mariam can be seen as the victim of many men’s actions. A victim can be someone who is physically or emotionally hurt from another person’s actions. Because of the choices a person, or a group of people make, people are affected and made victims of the situation. In Mariam’s life, she faced many attacks from men, both physically and emotionally. She was the victim of Jahlil’s actions to send her away in order to keep his reputation. He made her the victim of his lies and actions to make sure society viewed him
The true heroism of Mariam is evident in the novel, A thousand Splendid Suns,compared to Laila, by the hardships she experiences with her family in her early childhood. As a child Mariam experiences abandonment from her father when she needs him the most causing her a loss of innocence. Mariam goes to visit her father Jalil, to prove to her mother and herself that he loves her; however, when she arrives her father forces her to sleep on the road causing, “Tears of grief, of anger, of disillusionment. But mainly tears of deep, deep shame of how she had foolishly given herself over to Jalil” (page, ). Mariams constant denial of her mother's opinion about Jalil proves her loyalty towards him and she willingly leaves her mother to go visit him.
interesting to me that the more her mother got sick, the more Lola lashed out. It as if she was no longer feared her mother; she instead wanted to hurt her. Perhaps Lola took this callous approach after all the years of abuse. The author demonstrates through the change of Lola’s appearance; she dyes and shaves her hair, takes on a more “punk rock” look and these changes send her mother into a rage, She tries to force Lola to wear her wig; however, Lola sets it on fire. Although these changes were physical, I believe the author used them to show us that Lola wanted to be the opposite of what her mother wanted her to be.
It is in the final image of Laila’s family that Hosseini’s use of characters as smaller personal representations of a larger picture is most clearly, and most essentially to the significance of the novel, seen. The thoughts of Mariam that Laila has after her death are where the heart of the novel is revealed. “Laila resigned herself to moving on… Because in the end she knows thats all she can do. That and hope” (Hosseini 363). Hosseini at this point reveals the idea that the novel has been written to exemplify. Laila chooses to move on, as Mariam would have said to, learning from the adopted mother of her life. Hosseini paints a picture of hopefulness in this ability to move on that Laila posses. The entire novel has been centered around relationship of two women and the effect that that relationship had on the two characters as both individuals and windows into Afghan society. It is at this point that Hosseini shows not how he painted this picture, but why. Hoss...
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and war continuously went on, many women faced hardships too hard to cope with. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, two incredibly strong women Mariam and Laila face many struggles such as harsh ruling, abusive husband and a war that seems never to end. No matter the hardships the women are obliged to endure and survive. Endurance takes strength, willpower and courage to endure a life with little freedom and stability in one’s world.
...tiple times that they succeeded in getting Rasheed to stop. They were willing to fight back despite the consequences and the fact that they knew Rasheed could bring out so much more anger. Even after attempting to run away and being beaten so badly, they both still showed their bravery. They were on the edge of death, but they still fought every day to stay alive. Mariam shows amazing inner strength when a loved one is involved. Sadness and evil are two things that are very evident in their lives, enough to cause anyone to lose hope in humanity. But, Mariam and Laila are both able to stand up to violence in order to find their courage, inner strength, and even happiness in the end. Life in Afghanistan has always been hard for women, but just like Mariam, women are able to take on these obstacles and overcome them, helping to make the world a safer place for others.
From start to finish, one could see how much Mariam values Laila, Aziza, and their friendship. The first example is when Mariam vows to help Laila while they are in the hospital for Laila’s unborn child: “I’ll get you seen, Laila jo. I promise” (287). This simple promise is a deep portrayal of Mariam’s desire to help Laila find a doctor and deliver her baby. Additionally, one can see Mariam’s love for Laila when she protects her from Rasheed’s grip of death, “‘Rasheed.’ He looked up. Mariam swung. She hit him across the temple. The blow knocked him off Laila” (348). Rasheed was going to kill Laila, but Mariam steps in and knocks him off of her with a shovel to save her life. Mariam forms a tight-knit bond with Laila, and when Hosseini includes their relationship, one can see how Mariam values Laila enough to kill another man. The author also describes their relationship after Mariam and Laila discuss plans for leaving: “When they do, they’ll find you as guilty as me. Tariq too. I won’t have the two of you living on the run like fugitives.” … “Laila crawled to her and again put her head on Mariam’s lap. She remembered all the afternoons they’d spent together, braiding each other’s hair, Mariam listening patiently to her random thoughts and ordinary stories with an air of gratitude, with the expression of a person to whom a unique and coveted privilege had been extended” (358). The love Mariam has for
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
The two mothers despite their differences are both help their family be as successful as possible. Nonetheless, the mothers were successful in showing that an ideal mother sacrifices for her children, does her best to ensure their children’s survival, and uses tough love. Yet, the two moms were not only successful because they showed the ideals of a good mother, but because they passed on the values of a good mother. Nana passed it on to Mariam and Mariam passed it on to Laila, who will pass it on to her next girl names Mariam.
The horrors in the mind of the mother just couldn’t be explained to the child through words. When her daughter, whom she had killed, comes back to her as a spirit, Sethe thinks “I 'll tell Beloved about that; she 'll understand. She my daughter” (Morrison 114). But communication is not so easy. Beloved does not understand her mother; she hardly even hears her. What Beloved feels is rage for being taken away, rage for her mother acting rashly against her own will. Ex-slave mothers have experienced many things, but the experiences of slavery don’t necessarily apply to children who will never be in that position. Beloved doesn’t understand because Sethe was acting for herself, not for her child. Hughes portrays a similar interaction through poetry. A mother tells her son, “Don’t you fall now--/ For I’se still goin’, honey,/ I’se still climbin’,/ And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (Hughes, “Mother to Son” 17-20). The mother tells her son that she has struggled, and that because she has gone through so many things her son is obligated to carry on. This message to children that they have an obligation to their parents because of their struggles before having children often fell as flat as they did with Beloved. Hughes gives the mother clunky diction and makes her argument of “life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” feel somewhat disconnected from the rest of the poem by its length and its vagueness. He does this to show that even if the mother is right, she doesn’t have a compelling argument to give her children; she is merely playing to her own authority earned through suffering. This difficulty in passing on information that will apply to their children’s new realities was one of the hardest problems (besides material difficulty) that ex-slave parents
It is possible even to say that the whole article is constructed on an emotional appeal. Mariam uses contrast epithets such as "dignity", "respect", "an equal of any man", "strong, independently minded women" to characterize the value of hijab. Also, through frequent use of the pronoun 'we', the author emphasizes the importance of audience's attention to this issue. However, while reading that hijab "enables a woman to maintain her dignity", that "it helps her demand respect as an equal of any man", the question arises: could women achieve it only if they will wear the hijab? According to this logic, not only Western women, but also all the others who are not wearing a headscarf are not smart enough and worthy, and all the others (who wear the veil) surely correspond to these good
Gabriele (the mother) expressed love compassionately, but only when she had the time to do so. She was a hard-worker, an overachiever that had no time for others, but in a way she had to because of financial difficulties. Economic vulnerability affected the bonding and attachment with her children therefore love was expressed minimally. Emotional neglect can certainly affect the relationship between the child and parent. Her parents were in the same situation since they had to work a lot therefore other caregivers were around to express their love to her. Gabriele was aware of the negative effects of getting neglected. That is the main reason as to why she overly expresses her love compassionately with the little time she has with her children.
...riam and Salome transgress the patriarchal boundaries that demand purity and silence, but only Mariam is punished. Salome goes unpunished, although her triumph depends on the actions of men. The only character that adheres fully to the patriarchal demands of being chaste, silent and obedient is problematic because of her economic status, which leaves her entirely submissive to a male authority figure. However, Cary uses Mariam's death to question the patriarchal idea that having a public voice indicates sexual transgression. Mariam's death dissociates the female public voice from the conventional connotations of sexual impurity. In death, Mariam is finally accepted, and her pure and innocent image dominates the final scenes of the play. By removing Herod's rhetorical power, Cary offers a searing critique of the tragic effects of an oppressive patriarchal society.
Through Mariam's checkered background and the diverse people which formed her character, the reader is able to see how much the actions of others around us can contribute to the makings of one's own self-worth. Mariam experienced many conflicting ideas coming from others about what she is accredited to do and her worth in the world. However, Mariam only truly discovered her purpose when she meets Laila and her children, where she is finally able to see her own worth through the salvation of their love and