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Ashna Deshpande

Ms. Bates

English 112

06 January 2021

Literary Analysis essay

Women have been taught to endure the struggles of their everyday lives. They are to

listen to the men in their life and to not have their own life. The women in Afghanistan have to

battle the societal standards to break through the glass ceiling. ​ In a Thousand Splendid Suns​,

Khaled Hosseini portrays the role of women in Afghanistan and shows the control society has

over them. Mariam is a prime example as she is an illegitimate daughter of a wealthy

businessman who battles her role in society. ​In the culture and ways of Afghanistan, Mariam

changed into a bold person. In a thousand splendid suns, Hossienie, depicts the obstacles Mariam

must go through that helps her gain the confidence to overthrow them.

Throughout her childhood, Mariam was treated as worthless, which is what she begins to

believe. Nana plays a major role in shaping Mariam’s personality as she would call

Mariamnames: “​Mariam did surmise, by the way, Nana said the word, that it was an ugly,

loathsome thing to be a harami, like an insect, like the scurrying cockroaches Nana was always

cursing and sweeping out of the kola." (Hosseini 2). Mariam is put down by being called a

harami as it brings her shame. Throughout the novel, the word “harami” is used as a weapon

toward Mariam to symbolize that she is at the lowest social standards. Nana also refused to send

Mariam to school because she believed Mariam needed to learn one skill: “It’s our lot in life,
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Mariam. Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have. Do you understand? Besides, they’ll laugh

at you in school. They will. They’ll call you harami. They’ll say the most terrible things about

you. I won’t have it.” (Hosseini 35). Nana does not believe Mariam should go to school because

she was not born in a social situation, where she could be an independent woman. Endurance is

what Mariam carries throughout her life as she has to endure so many hardships.

Mariam becomes more submissive through the hardships in her marriage. Throughout

Mariam’s marriage to Rasheed, she becomes more submissive and listens to his demands.

Rasheed told Mariam to chew Peebles and she obediently did: “Then he was gone, leaving

Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars.” (Hosseini 140).

Mariam would abide by whatever Rasheed would say because she was afraid of him. The

beatings by Rasheed became so often that she would get used to them. One time Laila protected

Mariam from Rasheed: “Then an astonishing thing happened: The girl lunged at him. She

grabbed his arm with both hands and tried to drag him down, but she could do no more than

dangle from it. She did succeed in slowing Rasheed’s progress toward Mariam.” (Hosseini 307).

Laila protecting Mariam was a major turning point for Mariam’s character because she saw that

someone was willing to risk their lives to save her. It signaled a real connection between Mariam

and Laila that develops Mariam into someone stronger.

Mariam develops into a stronger character through her love for Laila. Laila gave Mariam

a lot of strength during the darkest of situations. When Rasheed was choking Laila, it gave

Mariam strength to kill him: “And Mariam could not, would not, allow that to happen. He’d

taken so much from her in twenty-seven years of marriage. She would not watch him take Laila

too.”(Hosseini 442). Her friendship with Laila gave her the strength to kill Rasheed, which is
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unlike her character. Mariam was taught at a young age to endure, however, Mariam did not

endure instead she took actions into her own hands. Mariam also made sure that she would take

the fall and not Laila: “For me, it ends here. There’s nothing more I want.”(Hosseini 454).

Mariam gained the confidence to make sure that Laila and her kids left safely so they would not

be involved in the crime. Mariam did not have any regret over her killing Rasheed: “Mariam

wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it did not regret any

longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her….And yet she was leaving the

world as a woman who had loved and been loved back.”(Hosseini 469). Mariam was at peace

with what she did because she knows that she gave Laila and her kids a better life.

In a Thousand Splendid Suns, women were taught to be obedient, endure, and to listen to

the men in their life. In Afghanistan, women did not have many rights and were always treated

differently from men. Through the character Mariam, Hosseini depicts the role that women were

supposed to play in society. embodied all of those qualities till she realized they were not

helping anyone. Mariam her whole life had done whatever people had told her, however, she

realized through Rasheed that she had to take action. Women were taught to endure the obstacles

that faced them, however, Maraim proved through her strength that women can overcome

obstacles.
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Works Cited

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