A Thousand Splendid Suns

By; Khaled Hosseini

Who is "Kled Hosseini"
Khaled Hosseini is born on March 4, 1965 and also
an Afghan-American novelist and physician. After
graduating from college, he worked as a doctor in
California, a predicament that he likened to "an
arranged marriage." He has published three novels,
most notably his 2003 debut The Kite Runner, all of
which are at least partially set in Afghanistan and
feature an Afghan as the protagonist. Following the
success of The Kite Runner he retired from medicine to
write full-time.
Characters
Mariam is an ethnic Tajik born in Herat, 1959. She is the child of
Jalil and Nana born out of wedlock. She suffers shame throughout
her childhood because of the circumstances of her birth.
Laila is an ethnic Tajik. Born in 1978, to Hakim and Fariba, she is
a beautiful and intelligent girl coming from a family in which the
father is university-educated and a teacher, and her boyfriend
and her childhood friend, Tariq.
Rasheed is an ethnic Pashtun, a shoemaker, and the antagonist
of the novel. He marries Mariam through an arrangement with
Jalil, and later marries Laila as well. After suffering years
of domestic abuse at his hands, Mariam bludgeons Rasheed to
death with a shovel during a violent struggle.
Tariq, an ethnic Pashtun born in 1976, is a boy who grew up in Kabul with
Laila. He lost a leg to a land mine at the age of five. They eventually evolve
from best friends to lovers; after a decade of separation they are married and
expecting a child by the end of the novel.
Nana is Mariam's mother and a former servant of Jalil. Mariam's birth is the
result of an affair between Nana and Jalil. Jalil's favoritism towards his wives
and legitimate children leaves Nana bitter towards Jalil. She hangs herself
when Mariam is fifteen after Mariam journeys to Jalil's house on her
birthday. Nana perceives this to be betrayal and regards as an act
of desertion.
Mullah Faizullah, a Sufi, is Mariam's elderly Koran teacher and friend. He
dies of natural causes in 1989.
Jalil is Mariam's father, a wealthy man who had three wives before he
fathered Mariam. He marries Mariam to Rasheed after Nana's death, but
later regrets sending her away. He dies in 1987.
Hakim is Laila's father. He is a well-educated and a progressive
schoolteacher. He is killed in a rocket explosion along with Fariba.
Fariba is Laila's mother. In Part One, during her brief meeting with Mariam,
she is depicted as cheerful, but her happy nature is disrupted when her two
sons, Ahmad and Noor, leave home to go to war and are later killed.
Aziza, born in the spring of 1993, is the daughter of Laila and Tariq, conceived
when Laila was fourteen. When the news of Tariq's alleged death arrives, in
order to hide the child's illegitimacy and provide for herself, Laila decides to
marry Rasheed. Aziza's birth marks the beginning of Laila's fall from favor
with Rasheed and the friendship between Mariam and Laila.
Zalmai, born in September 1997, to Laila and Rasheed. He serves as a
redeeming facet of Rasheed, idolizing him despite the abuse to his mother
and Mariam. Zalmai remains unaware of the fact that Mariam killed Rasheed
and continuously asks Laila about him, who lies by saying that he simply left
for some time.
Short Summary

The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny
seen from the perspectives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate
daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age fifteen into marrying Rasheed,
who grows increasingly brutal when she fails to produce a child. Eighteen years
later, Rasheed takes another wife, fourteen year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl
whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution
or starvation. Mariam and Laila become allies in a battle with Rasheed, whose
violent abuse is endorsed by custom and law. The author gives a forceful portrait of
despotism where women are dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons,
the bearing of male children being their only path to an accepted social status.
Each woman in the end is forced to accept a path that will never be completely
happy for them: Mariam will have to sacrifice her life to save Laila after she
murders their husband while Laila, even though marrying her childhood love,
must find a way to keep the sacrifice Mariam has made from not becoming an act
done in vain.
Protagonist
Mariam and Laila are the protagonists who teach the reader the reality of life as a
woman in a backward Muslim country. They overcome several wars throughout their
lives and turn into strong and faithful women, in spite of the abuse at the hand of
Rasheed and the abusive treatment of women by the Taliban. One, Mariam, sacrifices
herself to save Laila, Tariq, and the children, while the other, Laila, learns that to be a
good mother and a better woman, she must accept her role in the rebuilding of her
country.

Antagonist
The antagonists are Rasheed, the Mujahideen, and the Taliban who abuse women and
destroy their country. They live in a world of old time values and refuse to accept the
need for women to have an identity beyond what can be seen under a burqa. They are
ultimately all destroyed or driven from the country, because being a tyrant eventually
leads to an uprising by those tyrannized. Rasheed is murdered by Mariam, the Taliban
drives out the Mujahideen, and the United States drives the Taliban out of power.
Climax
The climax occurs when Mariam murders Rasheed. After that the
lives of the two women take very different paths.

Outcome
Mariam is arrested for murdering Rasheed and is excuted in the
stadium in front of thousands of people. Laila escapes Kabul and
goes to Pakistan with Tariq and her children. She eventually
returns, first stopping in Herat to see the place where Mariam grew
up, and then returning to Kabul to create a better home and a new
school for her children and the children of orphanage.