A Thousand Splendid Suns

                My overall reaction to this book is that it was a powerful message about friendship and family. Throughout the book the relationship between Mariam and Laila becomes better and better.  At the hospital, when Laila is delivering her second child, shows one instance of how they have become a family.

 “Laila let out a cry and rolled on her side. Her fingers closed against Mariam’s.

                “Any problems with the first delivery?”

                “No”

                “You’re the mother?”

“Yes,” Mariam said.”

In this instance in the book Mariam is telling the nurse that she is the mother so she would be allowed into the delivery room. But it made me think more about the nature of Laila and Mariam’s relationship. Mariam has really acted as a mother towards Laila, helping her with the children, teaching her how to cook and clean. And being a loving support system to Laila when times get tough. The second time in this book that I though displayed this aspect of family is after Mariam killed Rasheed. She had to leave and turn herself into the police for killing her husband and she had to say goodbye to Laila.

“Later that morning, Mariam packed Zalmai a small lunch of bread and dried figs. For Aziza too she packed some figs, and a few cookies shaped like animals. She put it all in a paper bag and gave it to Laila.”

“Kiss Aziza for me,” she said. “Tell her that she is the noor of my eyes and the sultan of my heart. Will you do that for me?”

In making this comment Mariam shows that she is not only close to Laila but sees Laila’s children as her own. I believe the way she treats Laila’s children is more the way a grandmother treats her grandchildren. The last part in this book that I believe shows how close this family is the name game scene. After Mariam was stoned to death and Tariq, Laila marry and move the children back to a rebuilding Kabul, Laila becomes pregnant with another child.

“As she walks to her desk at the front of the class, Laila thinks of the naming game they’d played again over dinner the night before. It has become a nightly ritual ever since Laila gave Tariq and the children the news. Back and forth they go, making a case for their own choice…But the game involves only male names. Because, if it’s a girl, Laila has already named her.”

This quote shows that Laila plans on naming her child Mariam if it is a girl because she hopes that Mariam’s legacy can live on, even though Mariam has died.

The intended audience of this book are people who have experienced tragedy, war, friendship, or the love of family. These are all things that the book has and readers can relate to when reading. The ending is a bitter-sweet one. Being a fan of happy endings I enjoyed the ending of this book. It is sad that Mariam died because of the crime of self-defense, but it is also a happy ending because of the life that Laila lived. Laila married her childhood love, Tariq, then moved out of Kabul. As Kabul began to rebuild and become safer, the family returned. Laila then began teaching children at the orphanage that had once housed Aziza. And at the end the author shows that Laila is pregnant and hopes to continue Mariam’s legacy in her inborn child.

  Personally I really enjoyed the book A Thousand Splendid Suns. I thought that the book was well written and drew me in as a reader. It was dramatic and made reading each chapter not mandatory, but necessary. When reading I became attached to the lives of these two women and really hoped that they could get out of an abusive marriage in a war tor country. But I also rooted for their friendship, and the family that they made. When Mariam gave up her life so that Laila, Tariq, and the children wouldn’t have to live a life on the run, I saw the strength of the friendship that Hosseini was trying to portray. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading dramatic books. This books seems like it is about war and Afghanistan, but is really about family, and the power of friendship. 

1 Splendid Punctuation

"Aishee," Aziza mewled. "Aishee." 

"Soon." Laila kissed her daughter, aiming for the forehead, finding the crown of her instead. "We'll have milk soon. You just be patient. Be a good, patient little girl for Mammy, and I'll get you some aishee. 

In this passage of the book Rasheed had just locked the women in rooms and not feed them or given them drink because they tryed to escape. At this point Laila was desperate because her child was weak and very dehydrated. Hosseini uses short sentences to make the point that Laila is tired and needs something to drink. She is also trying to calm down her infant daughter who is not doing well. He uses periods and commas to show that she is taking short breaths and trying to conserve energy. I think that this use of punctuation is very affecting in making a point in the reading. The way Hosseini uses short sentences and multiple commas's to make the reader pause and think is a very effective way to use punctuation. This portrays the scene of a young mother and her child in desperate need of food and drink. 

1 Splendid Friendship

So far in A Thousand Splendid Suns we have met two women Mariam and Laila. Mariam is a timid and weak women in her thirty’s. She married her husband, Rasheed, after the death of her mother and has been unable to have any children in the past 20 years. When Rasheed’s second wife Laila is a strong minded, smart women who was the daughter of a professor and also married young after tragedy struck. Both women have lived lives of tragedy and triumph. After Rasheed married Laila the women hated each other and refused to work together or be friends. Laila then became pregnant with her teenage love, who has died, Tariq’s baby, and Rasheed thought it was his. After weeks of avoiding each other Mariam made Laila baby clothes for Laila’s child. Then the two women had tea together and began what will become an incredible friendship. Laila gives birth to a little girl she names Aziza, and Rasheed is disappointed of the child who is a girl. As the days go on the women become closer and begin to hate their lives with Rasheed more and more. Laila slowly begins stealing money from Rasheed and saving it to run away. As she saves enough money to travel out of Afghanistan, she tells Mariam of her plan. In 1994 the two women make the plan to go Pakistan and start a new life. This is very dangerous because traveling alone as women looked suspicious. After failing to leave and getting caught by the police, the two women are returned home. Rasheed beats the two women and locks them in rooms not feeding Mariam, Laila, or the young child Aziza. The women are released, and then two years pass by.  During this period the government in the country is shifting also, in 1994 Dostum, an Afghan general, switched sides in the war and joined Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, together they took over the country. This caused mass violence around the country. Two years later the Taliban entered the country and took over, making new rules primary based around the lives of women.

            This book is fiction and really pretty different from my life. I don’t experience gun fire in the streets, bombings of my house, or the tragic death of my family members. But this book is more than just the struggles that these women go through in their environment, it’s about their friendship. Brought together by tragedy this friendship is creates a bond that is stronger than death. This somehow relates to my life because it reminds me so much of the friendship between by grandmother Lena and her best friend Emma. Emma married Lena’s brother and the two were kind of forced to be friends, just like Laila and Mariam. But as the years went on the two became inseparable. They raised children together, then became empty nesters, played with grandchildren and great grandchildren. The two women lived long lives, but Emma died leaving Lena alone. Lena a widow, who had lost her husband long ago, now had lost her best friend. Lena told everyone of Emma her best friend, and even death could not break this friendship. Which is very similar to Mariam and Laila’s friendship which can survive the beatings of Rasheed, the bombings, and the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. 

1 Splendid Argument

After a bombing in Kabul left Laila injured and her parents dead, Mariam and her husband Rasheed took her in. As she became better Rasheed had this conversation with his wife. 

"We need to legitimize this situation. People will talk. It looks dishonorable, an unmarried young women living here. It's bad for my reputation. And hers. And yours, I might add."

Mariam replied “Eighteen Years, and I never asked you for a thing. Not one thing. I’m asking now”

Later after Mariam argued back with him Rasheed replied, "It's not your decision. It's hers and mine."

In this passage Rasheed is telling Mariam what is going to happen, and not really persuading her. The culture in Afghanistan at this time is male dominated with women not even be allowed to leave the house often. So this makes any discussions between spouses to be very one sided. Rasheed here does try to use ethos to convince his wife of his decision. Ethos is used because he is telling Mariam that if Laila is to stay with them the whole family's reputation is threatened. Later in the passage he uses pathos to make Mariam feel that this is the right thing to do for Laila. Rasheed says that Laila can go, but will have to travel the streets alone, and that a young girl like her won’t make it very far. By Rasheed saying these thing Mariam unwilling agrees to the new marriage of the 14 year old Laila to the 60 year old Rasheed. 

More than 1 Splendid Rhetoric Device

In A Thousand Splendid Suns many different types of rhetoric devices are used. In one particular passage he uses pathos, polysyndenton and apostrophe.

       "You make the night to pass into the day and You make the day to pass into night, and You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living, and You give sustenance to whom You please without measure."

In this passage Mariam had just miscarried her first child a felt particularly sad and lonely. The use of pathos is present throughout this book and is used when speaking through Mariam's point of view. The author uses pathos to make the reader see how long Mariam is that this unborn child was the one thing that allowed her to get through the day. Polysyndenton, which is the repetition of conjunctions in close succession, in also used in this passage. The use of this is to draw attention to the passage and the message behind the passage. Attention is draw to all the functions that the baby provided to Mariam, how it made the days pass. Apostrophe is when an imaginary person or object is directly addressed. This rhetoric device is used when Mariam is speaking and addressing the "You" which is the unborn baby. This is used to show how the child is a kind of figure that Mariam clings to, that gives her happiness, even thought the child is gone.  

This books function as an argument is that a person can overcome anything with the love of a family and the determination to improve their own life. This is shown by how Mariam survived the death of her mother with the live from Baba jo, Mullah Faizullah, and Jahil.  

1 Splendid Summary

In the beginning we meet a young Afghan girl named Mariam. She tells of a story about the first time she was called harami, which means bastard. Born in 1959 Mariam was the child of a housekeeper, Nana and her very wealthy boss, Jalil. Jalil was a well- connected businessman who had three wives, nine legitimate children, and then Mariam. Nana has these instances when the “jinn” enters her body and Nana collapses, her body tightens, then her eyes roll back. Nana will foam at the mouth and being to mumble words that no one can make out. The “jinn” has prevented much in Nana’s life, including a possible marriage, and a somewhat normal life. Because of the way Jahil and his wives treated Nana after she became pregnant, Nana shows resentment towards them and despises Jahil. She teaches Mariam that she is worth nothing to anyone, and that no matter what a man will blame fault on women. Nana and Mariam live in a small hut outside Herat, which Jahil lives in. Two of Jahils eldest sons bring food and other necessary supplies to Mariam and Nana every month. Nana said that he sent his sons instead of servants as his idea of penances for his sins. One of Nana’s only friends was Bibi jo, an old women whose husband had worked with Nana’s father. Bibi jo would bring a box of candy for Mariam, and sit gossiping with Nana. Another visitor who Nana and Mariam were fond of was Mullah Faizullah, who was the village Koran tutor. Mullah Faizullah would listen to Mariam, offer his advice, and give her an education. On Thursdays Jahil would come and visit Mariam. He would bring her gifts, and tell her stories of the city. All Mariam had wanted was to live in Jahil’s house, just like his other children. In 1974 for Mariam’s fifteenth birthday she asked Jahil to take her to his cinema to see a movie. Both Nana and Jahil agreed that it wasn’t a good idea. But Jahil eventually agrees to Mariam, telling her to meet him by the stream the next day. When Jahil left Nana became very angry and yelled at Mariam. Nana told Mariam that she would die if Mariam left. The next day Mariam when to meet her father by the stream, he was not there. So Mariam when into the city of Herat in search of her father. After finding her father's house she waited outside the house overnight, and a driver took her home in the morning because her father would not see her. The driver took her home and walked her to her house, there she saw Nana hanging from tree. After Nana’s death Mariam went to live with Jahil and his wives. She stayed in the room he gave her, until one day his wife Afsoon called her downstairs. There they told her she would marry a 45 year old man named Rasheed. She didn't want to marry him and pleaded with her father but she was still married off. Moving to Kabul with Rasheed, Mariam became more reserved and barely spoke. One day she cleaned the house and made dinner, when traveling to the store she met a teacher's wife named Fariba. Rasheed asked Mariam to wear a burqa when she left the house. Telling her that she needed to begin acting like a real wife.

The reading was separated in two parts, before Mariam was married and then after when she moved to Kabul. In both parts there was a person in Mariam’s life that was very controlling of what Mariam, would do. In the beginning it was her mother who told her what to and what to think. Nana tried to project her thoughts and hatred onto Mariam and make Mariam think the same way. In the second part of the book Rasheed is controlling making Mariam wear a burqa, and telling her that she cannot be friends with some of the other women in the neighbourhood. I think this control that others have over Mariam make her weak and timid.                             

1 Splendid Author

The process of my independent book selection was influenced by the books genre, subject matter, and by the author.  A Thousand Splendid Suns genre is historical fiction. This interested me because it takes a look at the past, but is fiction so the author can create the story making it more interesting and dramatic. Subject matter can attract or repel someone from a book. The subject matter of this book is two women who grew up in different generations in Afghanistan. Spanning 30 years the topics in this book change from fighting between parents and a child to the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets. Finally, I was interested in reading a book from the author, Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini also wrote The Kite Runner, a book that I enjoyed very much. His type of writing is very dramatic and makes the reader feel involved in the story.    

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul in 1965, then moved to Paris. After returning to Kabul in 1980, his parents decided that Afghanistan was too dangerous, and moved the family to the U.S. In the United States, Hosseini went to school and eventually earned his medical degree in 1993. In 2001 when practicing medicine Hosseini began to write his first book The Kite Runner. He published A Thousand Splendid Suns six years later in 2007.