Analysis Of Thousand Splendid Suns

3287 Words7 Pages

Harriet Coates
Profesor Wilfong
World Mythology
4/19/15
World Mythology Paper
Introduction
Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel by Khaled Houseeni. The novel explores the lives of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila, as they journey through hardships in the late twentieth century. The first half of the novel focuses on Mariam, the bastard child of a successful businessman. When she runs away from home to her father, he rejects her and her mother commits suicide. She goes on to marry Rasheed, a widowed storeowner in Kabul. The second half of the novel focuses on Laila. She is an intelligent, well-educated young woman and has a flirtatious relationship with her neighbor Tariq. War breaks out and Tariq’s family flees while Laila’s family is killed and she taken in by Rasheed. She marries him and Mariam and Laila slowly become friends. Through a series of events, Mariam ends up killing Rasheed to protect Laila and is subsequently executed. Tariq and Laila end up together and Laila goes on to be a teacher in her hometown. Though the novel focuses on their experiences, it also shows and sets up the history, culture and mythological system of both Islam and Afghanistan during an extremely horrific and turbulent time.
Overview of Mythic Elements In the Islamic system, there is a male God, Allah. He is seen, in the novel, when various characters pray. …show more content…

Islam is a monotheistic religion that is revealed through the prophet Muhammed using the Quran. It consists of five pillars, shahada, which is a confession of faith, salat, which is prayer, zakat, which is charity or giving, sawm, which is fasting and hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. These are the foundations of the religion. Zakat, sawm and hajj are not seen in the novel but shadaha and salat are. Shahada means Allah is their only God and there are no other gods before him. This is seen in the novel when they destroy the buddha statues because they think it is

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