Sweat And A Thousand Splendid Suns

Women have always struggled in society to find a relationship where the husband and wife are equal in status and power. In many communities it is commonplace for the man to be the head of household and make all of the decisions. This power over the household often times gives the husband the authority to use whatever means necessary to make the wife submissive. The theme of spousal abuse is is present in both A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, the way it is viewed by society differs, as well as how it is dealt with.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns spousal abuse is an accepted part of their culture and it is written into their laws. Shortly after Mariam and Rasheed are married, they go shopping for the

However, Delia eventually confronts Sykes, an act that shows her ability to violate patriarchal social codes (para. 15) The idea that “what happens behind closed doors, stays behind closed doors…” was very common in the time period that Hurston lived in. Societies were willing to turn a blind eye to what was happening to women because it was someone else’s problem, even though they knew that what was happening was wrong. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, when a woman in the community finally gained the courage to stand up to her abuser, she was punished severly and in most cases her punishment was death. In Mariam’s case her sentence was death for killing Rasheed when he was killing Laila. Hosseini writes,

Something tells me you are not a wicked woman, hamshira. But you have done a wicked thing. And you must pay for this thing you have done. Shari’a is not vague on this matter. It says I must send you where I will soon join you myself (2007, p.

Hurston writes,

She lay there. ‘Delia. Delia!’ She could hear Sykes calling in a most despairing tone as one who expected no answer. The sun crept on up, and he called. Delia could not move--her legs were gone flabby. She never moved, he called, and the sun kept rising (1997, p. 9)

Upon Sykes being struck by the snake and resulting in his death, Delia goes weak with relief. She is so relieved that he is finally out of her life permanently that she collapses. She can not believe that she is finally free to live her life as she pleases and keep all of her hard earned money. Sykes used abuse and her lack of ability to go anywhere to keep her trapped in their marriage for fifteen years and finally his own mistake freed her. In her community, she is finally able to earn her money and keep it, she no longer has to give it to Sykes simply because he is the head of the household. Even though it is hard for a single female to earn a living during that time period, she has already been doing it for so many years, but now she gets to reap the benefits and keep all of her money. So, for Delia Sykes’ death meant complete