...Book:- Our book is A Thousan Splendid Suns, a 2007 novel written by an Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, after his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini has mentioned that the novel was a “mother-daughter story rather than to The Kite Runner, which was a “father-son story”. It uses some of the theme used in The Kite Runner but has its focus primarily on all the female characters and how they live in the Afghan soceity. On 22nd May 2007, the book was released and received favorable prepublication reviews which led it to become the number one on New York Times bestseller for around fifteen weeks. It sold over one million copies just during its first week. Characters:- Mariam, born in Heart, 1959. She was boren an ethnic...
Words: 994 - Pages: 4
...A thousand splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Music: Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah fade out in the background. Song ends play river flows in you by Yiruma in the background Host: Welcome back listeners, to literacy 98.3. That was hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. It’s time for our weekly review, as you all know this week we are exploring the theme oppression. This week’s book is A thousand splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, author of the bestseller the Kite runner. I have with me, Ms. Kathryn Stockett, Reclaimed author of one for the most insightful books, The Help. Welcome Kathryn, we happy to have you with us. Kathryn Stockett: Thank you for having me Host: Kathryn could you tell those who are listening, what oppression means to you, and if you don’t mind give us a summary of the book A thousand Splendid Suns Kathryn Stockett: Oppression to me means dominating somebody (or a group of people), through cruelty, or harshness. One is oppressive if he/she is the source of worry stress or trouble to others. A thousand splendid suns is at one an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith and the salvation to be found in love....
Words: 1092 - Pages: 5
...Links between Tess of the d’Urbervilles and A Thousand Splendid Suns Catherine Ralph * The abuse of an older man Rasheed and Alec they both force themselves upon Mariam and Tess when they’re only 15/16 years old. * Consequences of the above both Tess and Mariam are pregnant and both of their babies die (Tess’s from illness just after he’s born and Mariam has a miscarriage) * Both novels have a contrast of the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ characters Tess: Alec and Angel – ATSS: Rasheed and Alec. Laila marries Rasheed (evil) and also marries Tariq (good). Tess is Alec’s mistress (evil) and marries Angel (good). * The death of the ‘main’ character Tess kills Alec and then gets hanged Mariam kills Rasheed then gets executed. * The ‘good’ love interest fleeing to another country Tariq flees to Afghanistan and Angel flees to Brazil. * A major death in the family Tess’s father and Mariam’s mother. * Conflict Tess: between classes in the same county – ATSS: same ethnic group of people * Class society Tess: Angel (upper class) and Tess (lower class) – ATSS: Jalil (upper class) and Mariam/Nana (lower class). * ‘Men’s society’ Tess: Angel with the prostitute in London – ATSS: Rasheed had several wives Similarities/comparisons with A Thousand Splendid Suns and Tess of the d’Urbervilles * Women in society * strong male characters * the loss of a baby * the loss of a parent * rape * young female characters...
Words: 1971 - Pages: 8
...Julian Mendez P.6 English 12 Mrs. Wagner Life of Endurance Endurance is something we all go through. Every day we as humans come face to face with a challenge that must be endured. It could be as simple as going through a boring class or doing the last sprint after a long football practice. Enduring could also be going through a life changing situation. As a kid, moving into the United States from a foreign country with my mother wasn’t easy. I was constantly facing challenges. Being in a different society and not knowing what anyone was talking about forced me to endure, to push myself to the limits, and to step out of my comfort zone. But eventually all my efforts paid off. Just like Laila and Tariq two of the main character...
Words: 857 - Pages: 4
...Mrs. Gore 2 I’ve never been to Afghanistan or even thought much about Afghan people. After I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, I personally took this book to heart. This book took me through the unthinkable as if I were there. This adrenaline rushed science fiction made me think and feel for the women and children in the middle east. The reader will read the historical fiction of 9/11 when the horrific tragedy of the Twin Towers falling and how Afghans felt. This story is about two women who were told that they will have to endure to survive and now are actually having to do so. The reader will see two totally different life stories come together in the end. The war battles, mistreatment, cruelty, and unfairness of life are...
Words: 876 - Pages: 4
...A Thousand Splendid Suns Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns Author: Khaled Hosseini Page Number: 367 Quote Page Number: 113 Author: Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat in Afghan government at that time and his mother taught History in Kabul. However, after the Soviet Invasion, Khaled and his family moved to the United States in the 1980s. In the US, he completed high school and went on to get his Medical Degree. He started writing while working published his fist book in 2004, which was The Kite Runner. Summary: A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story about two women and their lives in Afghanistan during the invasion of the Soviet of Afghanistan and the Taliban regime. It shows the suffering of Afghan citizens and their sacrifice in time of war. In this story, the two women named Mariam and Laila play an important role of a typical wife in Afghanistan who have to face torture and brutality from their husband and society. The story starts out by introducing Mariam, who is an unwanted teenager. In the story, she is forced to marry Rasheed, an abusive husband at age 15. Rasheed is a cruel man who breaks Mariam’s dreams and tortures her everyday. On the other hand, Laila is an attractive girl who lives just up the street from Mariam’s house. She is born to educated parents and enjoys the freedoms that Mariam is restricted from by Rasheed. She has a boyfriend named Tariq, but their plans to marry get destroyed...
Words: 590 - Pages: 3
...“A Thousand Splendid Suns” written by Afghan author Khaled Hosseini is an example of the portrayal of the lives of women in Afghanistan. The challenges and oppression in the lives of two Afghan women; Laila and Mariam are shown Throughout the novel, which provided or facilities on the relationship between both these women. This novel is a good representation of the cruelty experienced by the Afghan women in their everyday life. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is a significant piece of text that bring the predicament of the women who have lived under the debilitating shadow of patriarchal oppression on women. Using the vales, the authors comprehension kills and the contributing factors to emphasize key aspects of of this essay. In countries...
Words: 1235 - Pages: 5
...message the author wants you to realize from the story. There are multiple themes in A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner, both written by Khaled Hosseini. Putting together these stories, I thought finding hope, and fighting for what you believe in as the themes. Hope is the feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope in A Thousand Splendid Suns is happening to very few people, considering the Taliban, the war, and the bombing of family and friends. You never know what is going to happen next or if there will ever be a tomorrow. For Laila, she has had a very rough life and even worse, having her parents blown up right in front of her. Not being loved your entire life by your own mother is something everyone wants to avoid, but Laila was one of the unfortunate. She only had attention from her dad and then she became alone from the bombing. She married at a youth life to a man who was three times her age who was very abusive to Laila and his other wife, Mariam. This life she had never wanted, but it happened, and she didn’t know what to do. When she was a teenager before marrying Rasheed, she met a boy named Tariq. She fell in love with him from day one even after he moved away with his family. She thought she would never see him again until years later, after many journeys with Rasheed, Tariq shows up, unannounced. Rasheed found out that Tariq had visited and tried to choke Laila until she would die, but Mariam found a shovel and hit him against the...
Words: 969 - Pages: 4
...List all the possible THEMES of your book. Write them in COMPLETE SENTENCES. Then give supporting evidence from the book that proves that these are messages the author intends. loyalty devotion discrimination of women inner strength of women pregnancy and children shame A Thousand Splendid Suns consist of many different themes. These themes consist of loyalty, discrimination of women, inner strength of women, pregnancy and children and shame. In this book, loyalty and devotion is expressed through the relationship between Laila and her father as well as the relationship between Mariam and Laila. Laila loves her father to death. She loves him to death and understands why he believes its so important that she becomes educated so she commits to that and finds a way to get an education. Laila and Miriam’s loyalty is shown to each other in the book by going forth with their confronting of the abusive husband they once shared as well as helping each other raise their kids even though they have to practically do it on their own. Discrimination of women is a major theme in this book. This is a result of the Afghanistan society that is surrounded by this book. This book takes place solely in Afghan during a harsh period of women discrimination. Men have complete power over their wives and in this book, the Taliban makes it law that men have complete power over their wives. These women experience heartbreaking attributes such as abuse, murder and humiliation which is completely...
Words: 631 - Pages: 3
...strength. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam and the city of Kabul symbolically follow a similar path. Mariam is belittled by her mother, abandoned by her father and, beaten by her husband but opens her heart long enough to find love and acceptance from Laila and her children. All the while, Kabul, the beautiful and prosperous city positioned at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains is bombed and destroyed and then given new life. The book uses symbolism and metaphors to tell a story of the power of loyalty and devotion, the human capacity for evil, and the remarkable inner strength of women. Mariam starts life at a disadvantage. She is the bastard daughter, a harami, of a wealthy man and his maid. She spends her first fifteen years in a mud hut with her bitter mother and weekly visits from her father. Nana, her mother, lives in a constant state of depression and negativity and often places her pain on her daughter. Ironically, Nana’s belittling only encourages Mariam to idolize her father, Jalil. He was always positive and gave Mariam hope that life could be better than her mother tried to make her believe. Ultimately, Nana’s negative rants about Jalil turn out to be true. Mariam risked everything she knew, including the love of her mother, to be accepted by her father and his family. Her reward was being left to sleep in the street while her mother hangs herself. As Jalil and his wives inform Mariam that she will be married to a widower from Kabul, she stares...
Words: 1230 - Pages: 5
...A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini has done it again; A Thousand Splendid Suns is a triumph. This book is as unforgettable as his first book The Kite Runner that became a big success. It is a story about two women and their fight through a hard life. I will come back to the story later, first some facts about the author. Khaled Hosseini Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul in Afghanistan; he lived there with his mother and father. In 1980 they moved to The United States and started a new life there. In 1993 Hosseini finished an education as a doctor of medicine; today he is both an author and doctor. Khaled gets his inspiration form books he read when he was younger and all the memories he has from Afghanistan when he lived there. So far, he has written two novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Summary “Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami. It happened on a Thursday. It must have, because Mariam remembered that she had been restless and preoccupied that day, the way she was only on Thursdays, the day when Jalil visited her at the kolba. To pass the time until the moment that she would she him at last, crossing the knee-high grass in the clearing and waving, Mariam had climbed a chair and taken down her mothers Chinese tea set. The tea set was the sole relic that Mariam’s mother, Nana, had left of her own mother, who had died when Nana was two. Nana cherished each blue-and-white porcelain piece, the graceful curve of...
Words: 1007 - Pages: 5
...Hardy proposes. This is on a parallel to A Thousand Splendid Suns where both Mariam and Laila are married to Rasheed in a physical, lawful sense but are not emotionally and internally married and are in fact very distant from him. Marriage causes the protagonists to be entrapped. In A Thousand Splendid suns, Mariam and Laila are trapped inside the house with Rasheed, due to the Taliban imposing the rule on women to “stay inside your homes at all times” unless “accompanied by a mahram, a male relative”. But not only are they physically trapped, they are also mentally trapped in a cycle of submissiveness to Rasheed and fear of his actions. Rasheed is just as guilty as the Taliban as even before the Taliban came into power and exercised these rules, living with Rasheed was like living in a prison for Mariam and Laila through the power he exerted over them “Rasheed didn't say anything. And, really, what could be said, what needed saying when you'd shoved the barrel of your gun into your wife's mouth?” Rasheed holds a frightening amount of power over the two protagonists which is often achieved through violence. They have no other option other than to obey to his demands. If they do not obey, they know the consequences and they are unable to escape because there simply is no other place for either of them to go. Violence is always used to oppress the defenceless. Arguably the burqa is also a symbol of entrapment in A Thousand Splendid Suns. In comparison, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles...
Words: 439 - Pages: 2
...A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Staged in pre-Taliban Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns is the story of two women and the tales of their intertwined lives. It shows how few rights they had before the Taliban came in to power and how they were stripped from them under Taliban control. Hosseini shows many examples of how these women were abused and seen as 2nd class citizens. I decided to read this book for the required assignment due to many different reasons. One of reasons I selected this book are the current conflicts going on right now in that area of the world. Another reason was that I wanted to learn a little more about that culture. I also got a positive review about the book from my cousin who read the book in his free time and loaned me the book to read. The main reason I read the book was to see how women in Afghanistan are treated before and during the Taliban control. I knew from what I had previously learned in your class on how greatly discriminated Muslim women are treated. I also knew how strict the Muslim religion is, but I wanted to read about it, even if it was fictional. My cousin had told me about the two women in the novel before but never told me specifics on how the girls were treated. I just had to read for myself to find out. A Thousand Splendid Suns was written by Khaled Hosseini, an American writer and physician who originally came from Afghanistan. This is his second book, he first wrote The Kite Runner which was a U.S...
Words: 1779 - Pages: 8
...The novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is about a young girl called Mariam who has many unique experiences throughout her life. In this novel the writer’s purpose is to express the message about life. The writer also wants us to think about what the main characters within the novel learn. Mostly, Mariam learned the benefits and consequences of love, and how that love can destruct or compliment a person. Along Mariam’s journey she has three unique experiences which include losing her mother, being forced into an arranged marriage and having to kill Rasheed. At the beginning of the novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” Mariam is a young girl who doesn’t know much about the world. The story began with Mariam who at the time is a young girl living in a small shack with her mom to which she calls Nana. Mariam’s father, Jalil is a wealthy businessman who she loves very dearly and sees nothing wrong with him because he comes and visits her every Thursday but Nana knows that he is not a good man. On Mariam’s birthday, she asks her father if he would take her to the movie theater and Jalil tells her that he’ll see what he can do. When Jalil doesn’t show, Mariam decides to go run away and go to his place. Nana tries to get Mariam to stay by threatening her, “You are nothing…..Don’t leave me…..Please stay. I’ll die if you go.” Mariam doesn’t listen to her and goes anyway, but when she gets there her father tells her to go back home and that he doesn’t want to see her. When Mariam finally arrives...
Words: 1289 - Pages: 6
...contribute to a greater cause. Every day, men and women sacrifice their jobs and career aspirations for their families. Giving up their own individual passions and eradicating their future plans illustrates the true nature of sacrifice and a powerful force commonly known as love. Philosophy expert, Aaron Ben-Zeév states in his article from “Psychology Today,” “relationships require few sacrifices and more compromises” (Ben-Zeév). However, through examining Khaled Hosseini’s famous novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, I determined that love always requires sacrifice. Amongst the growing conflicts of the Middle East, the fates of two Afghani women are interwoven as they are both forced into a marriage (with the same man) that does not represent genuine love. Instead, they are enslaved to a relationship dominated by physical violence and backlash from their cruel and abusive husband, Rasheed. They are in a constant struggle with suffering and hardships with the only thing left to live for being hope alone. In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, the tragic theme of love and sacrifice is unveiled as the lives of Laila and Mariam are set to stage from childhood to death. Through the many hurdles that these women are forced to elude, the hopes that they cling to are continually decimated. Acceptance, true love, and having a better life are some of the various virtues that these women of Afghanistan hope for while living in and enduring an environment filled with war and constant danger...
Words: 1429 - Pages: 6
