One Thousand Splendid Suns: An Analysis

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In 1,000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, a girl named Mariam lives in a small shack with her mother Nana in Afghanistan. Mariam’s father is a wealthy cinema owner who she adores even though Jalil, the father, has numerous wives and children. He only visits Mariam once a week and tells her stories and brings her gifts. “Nor was she old enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born” (Hosseini 4). From the beginning of the book, Mariam was not wanted by either her mother or father, giving her an unstable home life that further affected her outside life. In the novel, Mariam is forced to marry a man named Rasheed who becomes verbally and physically abusive towards her. Rasheed and Mariam take in a woman named Laila to help …show more content…

Laila and Rasheed marry, and tension arises between the women. Rasheed makes Laila his priority and makes fun of Mariam in order to impress Laila. Throughout Mariam’s and Rasheed’s whole relationship, Rasheed has jurisdiction over her and yet she keeps putting his needs above her own and does whatever to make him happy, i.e. letting him marry Laila and make fun of her. This cowardly flaw of Mariam’s is a huge weakness because it allows Rasheed to do whatever he wants to Mariam because he knows that she will not do anything to stop him or fight back in any way. This human condition gives Mariam a fearful attitude and doesn’t allow her to succeed in life, because she’s always scared. And in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Alec has a huge jurisdiction over Tess by raping her and Tess still having their child together and continuing to get back together with him. Tess allows Alec and Angel to push her around, making her more and more insecure and weak but by the end of the book events and tragedies finally lead Tess to a new inner

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