...When life brings two people together They were brought together for a reason. Mariam and Laila were two totally different characters with two different ways to think. But they were brought together by a man that all he did was abuse of them and make them peasants rather than wifes. Mariam and Laila have lots differences and similarities when it comes to their lives. They had to do many things to be able survive in a country when surviving is the main point. They had to come across each other to be able to survive. Although one of them at the end really didn’t. Laila and Mariam were just young girls when their live changes that makes them have so many similarities, but the choices they made made them different. But they ended up in the same house, with the same man and different places....
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...away from stage 4 breast cancer.. She was one of my favorite people on this small earth...the way i endured so well was that i had mental and physical strength, friendship, and patience to deal with my painful event. it may not seem much compared to Mariam and Laila but it was terrible for me. This is how they endured and lived. For Mariam and Laila to endure, they need mental...
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...Mariam from “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is the main protagonist in this novel. This particular novel can be considered a bildungsroman type of novel; a LITERARY PIECE dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education. Throughout the novel, we mainly see Mariam’s perspectives and we go into her world and experience everything she does as a gender perspective. Not only is her daily life seen, her culture is shown clearly as well. Some examples of elements of culture you might have seen are how women would live knowing two different cultures and heritages, allusions, Mariam feeling ashamed for being different, and symbolization of diversity of their different cultures, ethnicities, and races. These aspects would not be clear without...
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...perpetrators and victims of violence. Furthermore, sociological theory of genocide will be adapted to the Ethiopian case in order to gain an understanding of how it occurred. This case illustrates one motivated by political means that spiraled toward mass violence, and therefore exploration into political violence is necessary both as separate entities and how politics and violence interrelate to reproduce each other. The case of the Ethiopian Red Terror provides important framework in the theory of political violence and the civilising process of society in order to understand how this society did not stop before genocide occurred. The Ethiopian Red Terror occurred throughout the 1970’s under the military regime of Colonel Megnistu Haile Mariam in an attempt to eradicate any political opposition to his reign (Tegegn 2012, p.250). The aristocracy has previously been overthrown with very little violence, however the rise of a social order...
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...woman, Mariam, who faces and overcomes many tragedies in a country where women are not treated equally. At the age of fifteen, Mariam was forced to marriage with much older man Rasheed. Mariam has no authority over herself. Mariam is “nobody” in this male dominated society. Her childless marriage to Rasheed eventually forces her into a life of submission and misery until close to the end of her life. Mariam meaning of life changes after the death of Rasheed. She makes the ultimate sacrifice for Laila and the children as she is willing to take the blame for Rasheed murder. Mariam’s sacrifice is one the ultimate victory in her life. Mariam can be remember now from being nobody to somebody. It gave her a sense of authority and control over herself which she had lost many years ago. When growing up, Mariam was a strong girl who questions authority and dreams of bigger things in life. She grew up in a small shack outside the city of Herat. She was raised by Nana, her mother, who always called her “…a clumsy harami” (Hosseini 4). “Mariam was an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance” (Hosseini 4). The term “harami” frames her upbringing as one that is illegitimate. According to societal views, Jalil appears as the standard for legitimacy but in reality his relationships to Nana and Mariam displays his shame of this “second family”. After the death of Nana, Mariam is sent...
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...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 back home the next day...
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...the beginning of the book. One of the main characters, Mariam makes a decision to go to her father, Jalil, against the pleading of her mother, Nana. Mariam remembers her mother’s words, “I’ll die if you go, I’ll just die.” (p. 27 ). As it turns out, Mariam is rejected by her father, Jalil and when she returns home, she discovers that her mother, Nana has committed suicide by hanging herself. Mariam tortures herself throughout her life with the despair of believing she caused her mother’s death, even though her close friend, Mullah reassured her that her mother was very ill and it was not Mariam’s fault. Another example of a counterfactual is that Laila continues to hope that her mother would acknowledge that she is still alive, despite the fact that both her brothers have died as soldiers in the war. “Laila wishes Mammy would notice that she, Laila, hadn’t become shaheed, that she is alive, here, in bed with her, that she has hopes and a future. But Laila knows that her future is no match for her brothers’ past. They have overshadowed her in life. They will obliterate her in death.” ( p.142 ) Laila continues to try to bring some hope and comfort to her mother despite her mother’s constant rejection. Both mother and daughter wish that there were different circumstances. One of the most powerful parts of the story is the relationship between Jalil and his daughter, Mariam. Even though Jalil does not claim Mariam as a legitimate daughter, one that lives in his house...
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...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...
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...to life through the experiences of the two women. Through the use of characterization, structure, and setting, Hosseini is able to express the despondent tone, while at the same time convey the idea that hope and endless courage are the only ways to survive in a world tarnished by violence and consumed by hatred. Hosseini’s choice to illustrate women from two generations emphasises the injustice felt throughout the ages. Mariam and Laila both come from noticeably different backgrounds, but end up walking the same path in life for many years. While Mariam is considered a bastard child and lives in isolation with her mother, Laila grows up well-educated with two caring parents. The women are first mentioned together when Lalia, still a young girl, “and Tariq were...
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...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 when he has to leave the country and move to Pakistan as a refugee. After her boyfriend left, a rocket destroys Laila’s home and family. Finding herself alone and pregnant with her boyfriend’s child, she decides to accept Rasheed’s offer of marriage and becomes his second wife. The story then deals with how Mariam and Laila form friendship and cope through tough times. In the...
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...Afghanistan, Laila, and Mariam face throughout their times. When it first appears in the book, Laila’s Babi, mammy, and herself were packing up their things so that they could leave Afghanistan because living there became too dangerous with the war. Babi quotes the poem “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her wall” (Hosseini 192). Here, the phrase is used to express the hidden beauties that Afghanistan had before the war such as the buddhist statues that Laila, Tariq, and Babi once visited. The other time it is used is when Laila expresses Mariam as being in her own heart, “where she shines with the bursting...
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...volatile events of Afghanistan’s three previous decades starting from the soviet invasion to the reign of Taliban that puts violence, fear, hope, and faith of Afghanistan in intimate human terms. This story, however gives us new insight into the country’s beautiful culture and the historic events that occurred in the past three decades. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” begins with the life of Mariam who is a young girl growing up with a single, harsh and bitter mother known as “Nana” in the small village outside Herat. Hosseini is showing us how Mariam is starting to lose her innocence as she grows up. Mariam remembers her mother calling her a “clumsy little harami” [4] when she was at the age of five. Mariam can easily realize that this word meant to be ugly, loathsome and de meaningful through the way of her mother saying and pronouncing it, but it was not Mariam’s fault. On the other hand, her father Jalil never calls her a harami. In fact, Jalil treats her in a totally opposite way by giving her weekly gifts and telling her stories to hide his true nature revealed later in the story when he rejects Mariam wins. Nana tells different stories according to her point of view by telling negative things about Jalil. “What rich lies!” “Rich man telling rich lies” [5] demonstrating her hatred towards Jalil committing sins, yet Nana never dares to say to Jalil how much she dislikes him. All of these comments from Nana including the instant when she said: “I wish my father had had the stomach...
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...MiKaila Ford Eastern Lit 5/3/13 A Thousand Splendid Suns Mariam and Laila are quite different in some respects. Mariam is rather homely, while Laila is a stunning beauty. Mariam was an illegitimate child, forced into marriage by her father; Laila’s father adored her and encouraged his daughter to reach her full potential. Mariam was denied an education, while Laila was a top student raised with the expectation that she would go on to university. Mariam has only known the abuse of her older husband, while Laila had the chance to experience true love with Tariq. Aside their differences and the circumstances that bring them together as a family, the two women are destined to become close friends. Enemies after Laila marries Rasheed, they become joined in suffering his abuse. As Rasheed turns on his younger wife, Mariam sympathizes. Mariam will be strengthened, and not diminished, by Laila’s entry into her home. Laila, too, will gain from her relationship with the older woman. Broken down by years of abuse in her marriage, Mariam has learned not to stand up for herself. Laila, on the other hand, speaks up and defends her co-wife when Rasheed strikes her. This awakens Mariam, teaching her that she can fight back.” She wished she could see Laila again , wished to hear the clangor of her laugh , to sit with her once more for a pot of chai and leftover halwa under a starlit sky. She mourned that she would never see Aziza grow up…and yet she was leaving the world as a woman...
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...unbelievable 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...
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...demonstrates through the perseverance of Mariam and Laila, how the inner strength of Afghan women allows them to endure difficult situations including forced marriages, lack of educational opportunities and and Taliban restrictions. A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini is a story of two young afghan women, Laila and Mariam, who face and overcome many tragedies and live in a country ruined by political oppression and war. Both Mariam and Laila have endured so much heartache partially because they are women, but yet have managed to have pulled together the strength to persevere. To persevere is to maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement and continue consistently. Even though Mariam and Laila are years apart by age, and come from two different life styles, they are both forced to marry Rasheed, an older man who they don’t... A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini is a story of two young afghan women, Laila and Mariam, who face and overcome many tragedies and live in a country ruined by political oppression and war. Both Mariam and Laila have endured so much heartache partially because they are women, but yet have managed to have pulled together the strength to persevere. Even though Mariam and Laila are years apart by age, and come from two different life styles, they are both forced to marry Rasheed , an older man who they do not know, in order to make a living for themselves. Mariam and Laila eventually learn to cooperate...
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