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A Thousand Splendid Suns: A Literary Criticism

A literary criticism on A Thousand Splendid Suns of Khaled Hosseini

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THESPIAN MAGAZINE An International Refereed Journal of Inter-disciplinary Studies

ANWESA CHATTOPADHYAY

Diasporic writings revolve around the issues of dislocation, nostalgia, discrimination, survival, cultural changes, and identity. In his 1991 essay, "Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return", William Safran talks about the historical origin of the term 'diaspora', locating it back to the exile of the Jews from their original homeland and dispersion in various countries, which involves physical suffering and moral degradation. However, the term has expanded its periphery across the ages, and in the present context, Safran argues, it is used as a metaphor to designate several categories of people-"expatriate, expellees, political refugees, alien residents, immigrants, and ethnic and racial minorities…"

Mariam Elgohary

Waheed Ahmad Khan

The paper is an attempt to analyze the dominant role of the male community in Afghan society. Western Feminists such as Judith Butler claim that all women face the same problems. However, their claim is challenged by Chandra Talpade Mohanty (1991) who is of the view that the claim of universal sisterhood is based on ethnocentricity. This paper analyses the inferior status of women in the patriarchal system of Afghanistan where people live under their cultural code called Pashtunwali. Pashtunwali assigns an active role to the male community under their privileged status while women are restricted to homes. In this society, a man has to be rigid, authoritative and must keep women under his iron hands. A man of weak nerves has no respect in Afghan society; he has to be strong enough to protect the honor of his family. The study is based on textual analysis of Khaled Hosseini's novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, in the light of Mohanty's views (1991). Hosseini (2008) criticiz...

IJELS Editor , P. Kolappadhas

—This article intends to depict the fellowship reality in The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini. The truth of the nearby emotions as sibling covers the subject o f the story in three viewpoints, I. E. (an) a connection design between a sibling and his progression sibling, and (b) the tight bound between an uncle and his progression nephew. Furthermore, there is finding that the social character of various ethnic amongst upper and lower class impact Afghan " s society in numerous parts of life. The information were gathered through escalated perusing and information explore were broke down utilizing subjective enlightening strategy. The discoveries demonstrate that the fraternity the truth is clear in the connection of Amir – Hassan, and Amir-Sohrab is an impression of fellowship in Afghan " s society in the period of contention. Amir " s life is highly impacted by Hassan when he was as yet youthful, adolescents in Afghanistan till ended up grown-up and lives as migrant in America. The development of character of various ethnic reinforce the discriminative treatment among the general population. Sexual orientation correspondence has been the longest war ladies have been battling since time. All through history, ladies over the world who has battled for sexual orientation correspondence and ladies' rights are considered as women's activists. Ladies, denied of their rights don't comprehend that they are to be sure a women's activist, when they need sexual orientation balance. Ladies in Afghanistan have been experiencing sexual orientation value in its serious frame since ages. Khaled Hossini's A Thousand Splendid Suns delineates the situation of ladies behind the dividers of Afghanistan amid a few intrusions in the nation. The issue of woman's rights and sex value has been raised through the character of Mariam and Laila. The novel worries over the rights ladies were most certainly not given alongside the confinements to training, decisions and freedom that limit their extraordinary possibilities in the male commanded world. Male strength over the ladies in Afghanistan is a noteworthy worry that relates this novel to women's activist angle. Compelling relational unions, absence of flexibility, absence of character, constrained space in terms of mental, social, social and mental level and torment that was executed towards the Afghan ladies are the issues that are worried by the women's activists over the globe. The paper intends to investigate social and political treachery that has been done to the Afghan ladies versus sexual orientation value and socio political activism by the ladies of Afghanistan amid their extreme circumstances.

Rashid Jahan

Writers and scholars have used a variety of approaches to understand novels written in English about Afghanistan. One approach that most of the writers have used is the sociocultural approach. My approach is quite similar to other researchers but my framework is different. My work focuses on an unwritten code of life, Pashtunwali, which the Pashtuns of Afghanistan have been practicing for centuries. This code strictly guides the lives of Pashtun people living in Afghanistan and North-West Pakistan. By using the framework of Pashtunwali, this thesis provides a new perspective and understanding of Hosseini, Hashimi, and Ackerman’s novels. It not only provides a different perspective, but also helps readers to understand these texts in the Afghani cultural context. Some of the key topics that this thesis discusses using the framework of Pashtunwali are honor, revenge, blood feuds, hospitality, role of religion and culture, marginalization of Afghan women, and the system of justice. Thu...

Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL)

Afreen Zubair

Afghanistan is a land of multi-cultural diversity, rich tradition with a dominant historical and political background. Hosseini describes the captivating beauty and the traditional values of Afghanistan, also the foreign influences that reform the rich diverse long-established values on the political, religious, or cultural grounds. We are given to understand that Taliban forces people to follow tenants of Islam but they fail to do so and on the contrary, they involve in sexual exploitation of women, brutal murders, human trafficking, and much more. The cultural beliefs of Afghanistan were intermixed with the fundamentalist ideology of the Taliban and modernity of the West which resulted in multi-culturalism and loss of traditional ethos. War and invasions dragged Afghanistan down to sub-normality instead of development. Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns portrays historical, cultural, and social aspects of Afghanistan through the story of Mariam, Laila, Rashid, and Tariq while tracing the cultural change there by civil war and invasions. Also, Hosseini’s narrative style in A Thousand Splendid Suns voices his western influence in which he upholds the West in the novel and portrays the East as downtrodden.

TJPRC Publication

Instead of employing traditional Post Colonial mode of representation, the present research aims at the textual analysis of an Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini’s two novels — And The Mountains Echoed and A Thousand Splendid Suns under the Cultural mode of representation. Delimited to Raymond Williams’ concepts of cultural criticism i.e. ‘documentary’ and ‘social’, the analysis is comparative in nature that highlights the quality of representation of Afghan culture in the works under study. Social institution of Marriage documented by Hosseini is compared with the real Afghan culture derived from the historical background of Afghanistan. This will, hopefully, lead the critics towards a new mode of analysis.

Berlyn Estimada

Abstract - What happens in society is reflected in literary works as literature mirror society. Words in a a literary piece can speak a volume of messages. It can be women’s voices sending a message that they can stand against male oppressions and suppressions. Khaled Hosseini's novel ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ highlights the marginalization of Afghanistan women and the subjugation of men in a patriarchal society. The heart of the novel is how the generation apart poor villager woman and a smart educated one become intimate, form friendship, and develop a sisterhood relationship while resisting patriarchal oppression and political upheavals. This study explores how men act in a patriarchal society, and how they oppress, discriminate, and marginalize women. Thus, this study uses the radical feminism perspective to analyze the experiences of women from three generations with regard to gender inequality and their role in society. Findings reveal that women are victims in a male-dominated household. They are oppressed, suppressed, harassed, and marginalized. Amidst these, special bonds and sisterhood are developed to resist patriarchy, courage is realized, and freedom is redeemed.

BL College journal

DR. S A B R E E N A H M E D

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Themes and Analysis

A thousand splendid suns, by khaled hosseini.

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' digs deeply into issues of motherhood, sacrifice, and the strength of the human spirit in the face of unfathomable sorrow.

Article written by Charles Asoluka

Degree in Computer Engineering. Passed TOEFL Exam. Seasoned literary critic.

‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ explores a variety of themes, such as the difficulties Afghan women experience in a patriarchal society and the harsh gender roles that are enforced on them. It shows how women are denied fundamental freedoms and rights and how the expectations of males influence their life. It also talks about the unwavering love and selflessness of its female protagonists, who are ready to endanger their lives for those they care about. It illustrates how love may promote optimism and resiliency despite extreme adversity.

Khaled Hosseini also explores the catastrophic effects of conflict on common people during a time of political unrest and war in Afghanistan. It shows how homes and towns are destroyed, lives are lost, and millions of people are displaced. ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ characters are a testament to the resilience and tenacity of the human spirit. The protagonists can withstand extreme tribulation and still maintain optimism in the face of difficulty. It shows how the human spirit can triumph in the face of the most trying situations.

Afghan History

The setting of ‘ A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is Afghanistan, a nation whose tribal tribes have fought for hundreds of years between foreign invasions. The characters’ struggle for survival amid conflict clearly reflects the conflicting political forces and factions that vie for control of the nation and its citizens. The novel’s historical elements cover a sizable amount of time—30 years—to depict how the effects and pain of war are passed down through generations. Laila’s family experiences the impact of the Soviet occupation while Mariam navigates the first years of her marriage to Rasheed. The Soviets fire Laila’s father from his position as a teacher, and Ahmad and Noor, two of Laila’s brothers, are killed while battling the Soviets. Although Laila’s family is in trouble, Laila’s teacher supports the Soviets and maintains that the populace has overthrown the former government. Due to the loss of the boys—first to the army and then when they are killed—her mother experiences despair. Laila struggles to feel like she belongs in the family because her parents always quarrel. The ongoing conflict and political change cycle has shaped Laila’s entire young life.

For Laila’s family, the Soviets leaving seemed like a happy turn of events, but a tribal faction’s attempt to seize control leads to conflict between them. Tariq’s family departs Kabul for Pakistan due to the instability. Giti, Laila’s best friend, is destroyed by a rocket, and her parents are killed by shelling her home. Rasheed and Mariam are necessary for Laila’s life, but this circumstance quickly becomes unsustainable as well. Laila, Mariam, and Aziza have no chance at all of evading capture when the Mujahideen take over Kabul, and they are sentenced to home confinement, where they almost dehydrate to death. Then, the ongoing conflict between tribal tribes and the Taliban’s extensive territory turns into a full-scale campaign on women. Rasheed is pleased that a more conservative government is in place, but because of the Taliban’s severe regulations, Laila must deliver Zalmai via cesarean section without anesthetic. The cruelty of the Taliban is matched by the cruelty Rasheed exhibits at home. No aspect of life for any of the characters has not been touched by war.

Shame, Social Status, and Reputation in A Thousand Splendid Suns

Several of the characters make decisions based on how their actions will impact their reputation rather than their desires. This dissonance results in varied degrees of humiliation for numerous characters. Rasheed’s interactions demonstrate how reputation may be used as a weapon, while Nana’s treatment of Mariam demonstrates how reputation can be used as a tool to instill shame. The plot of the novel is set in motion by Jalil’s shame at having Mariam recognized as his daughter. Mariam would not have wed Rasheed if he had not worried about what other people would think of him. Throughout the book, Mariam is identified by her reputation as a harami. Laila, who consistently prioritizes her own goals over those of others, is one of the few characters who can struggle with throwing away her reputation. Mariam eventually succeeds in doing this as well, and it turns out to be the turning point in her story. A person’s reputation in Afghanistan matters not only personally but also politically. The Taliban’s Shari’a laws have serious consequences for women who do not experience sentiments of shame, like Laila.

Genuine Love in A Thousand Splendid Suns

The concept of pure love contrasts and coexists with the terrible outcomes of arranged weddings. Mammy (Fariba) and Babi (Hakim), Laila’s parents, had a real love-type marriage. Despite their frequent arguments in Laila’s early years, they still spoke with affection about how they met and fell in love. They still like relating their courtship tales to Laila. Their relationship is stressed out by life’s occurrences rather than a lack of affection. The author implies through these two characters that true love does not involve violence but rather involves sticking together and making decisions as a couple. Mammy and Babi delay leaving Kabul until they are both on board, a choice that ultimately costs them their lives. Laila remembers them as having a loving relationship, even though she is subjected to horrific brutality in her arranged marriage. Laila finds the courage to confront Rasheed and the understanding that she does not deserve his violence from the memories of her parent’s love for one another.

True love is demonstrated through Laila’s narrative with Tariq, which demonstrates that it endures. Tariq, her high school sweetheart, ends up being her lover. Afterward, Laila is committed to protecting his child, even if it means wed to the hateful Rasheed. When she thinks Tariq is dead, Laila keeps his memory alive and rushes to him when he knocks on her door. Laila is aware that Tariq’s presence in the home will lead to issues, but she is unsure of how harsh Rasheed’s response will be. She is prepared to deal with the repercussions, though, to speak with Tariq. When Laila must flee, Tariq waits close by, and she follows him. In the novel’s conclusion, they are married, and despite the sadness that comes along with their happiness, their love is still strong.

Another illustration of genuine love in the book is Mariam’s devotion to Aziza, Laila, and later Zalmai. Mariam’s narrative emphasizes the virtue of being prepared to make sacrifices for loved ones. Because of her love for Zalmai, Mariam is unwilling to run to safety with Laila, even if she is willing to risk her life to save the latter. She doesn’t want Zalmai to have to deal with living with his father’s murderer. She loves Laila and Aziza too much to insist on their staying, though. She values their security more than her own life. Because she was able to love Laila and the kids, the family she always desired, Mariam claims she has had a fulfilling life. Despite her fear of dying, she is able to meet her death peacefully because of this understanding.

Pain and Resilience in A Thousand Splendid Suns

All of the characters in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ have experienced both physical and emotional agony. But this sorrow manifests itself in various ways. Losing a loved one causes its unique brand of acute pain, frequently in a way that doesn’t appear to offer any sort of solace. But, there are other forms of hardship that the characters voluntarily put up with to save others. ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ appears to be struggling with how to establish a hierarchy of suffering and loss. Is the death of Laila’s brothers—which occurred after Babi, or so Mammy alleges—allowed them to fight the Mujahideen somehow worse than the accidental rocket that took Giti’s life? Several techniques are used by the characters to deal with such hardship. After the passing of her sons, Mammy seeks solace in her gloomy bedroom but never fully appears to be able to get over her grief. Laila is more practical; she marries Rasheed as a result of her parents’ passing rather than despite it because she believes it to be her only alternative. This kind of tenacity seems to be encouraged in the book rather than the immobility that can result from suffering. Even though the characters’ pain may be irreversible, there is strength and value to be derived from their ability to survive.

This is particularly true when the characters voluntarily choose to endure. For instance, Laila voluntarily consents to be beaten by the Taliban for going alone as a woman to visit and spend time with her daughter Aziza who is being raised in an orphanage. Mariam naturally decides to kill Rasheed to give Laila a better chance at life, despite knowing full well that she will be found guilty and put to death by the Taliban as a result. It is suggested that women, in particular, excel at this capacity to willingly suffer for the benefit of others. From Mariam’s sacrifice to Laila’s very difficult childbirth, women suffer on their own.

Intergender Dynamics and Afghan Women

Hosseini can highlight particular facets of Afghan life and history that diverge from the mainstream historical narrative by recounting the tale of ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ from the perspectives of two Afghan women. In reality, the book makes use of the restrictions placed on Afghan women to examine how women have dealt with, overcome, and defied these restraints. Throughout the book, gender relations vary according to the occupying troops and the regulations that go along with them. For instance, under communist control, girls are allowed to go to school and work outside the family. Babi pushes Laila to capitalize on this status and praises it. Yet, before being married, girls are advised not to spend too much time with people of the other sex. Gender relations can also be influenced by particular cultural or traditional customs; Mariam, for example, has been forced to wear a burqa by her husband for a long time before it was made legal. The ones who go off to fight are the males, like Laila’s brothers, while the women stay at home and frequently have to deal with the effects of war.

The Mujahideen and, later, the Taliban arrive, significantly altering the comparatively progressive gender norms of communism. The limitations on Laila’s freedom of expression and travel have the effect of removing Kabul, the city she always believed to be hers. Nonetheless, the protagonists manage to buck these expectations. Laila slips to the orphanage across town, and Mariam plots an escape from Rasheed with her. Although Rasheed’s brutal beatings may have been lawful under the Taliban, Hosseini is unmistakably on the side of more rights for women, and the reader is intended to support Laila and Mariam as they fight against these injustices.

What is the main theme in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ?’

The persecution of women in a patriarchal society is one of the main themes in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns. ‘ The book is set in Afghanistan, a nation where women are required to act by gender norms and are denied fundamental freedoms like the right to an education and the freedom to travel around as they like.

What lessons can be gleaned from ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ?’

One of the lessons in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is the value of human fortitude and the capacity to bear unfathomable agony. Throughout the upheaval of war, Mariam and Laila, two women who struggle in a patriarchal culture, forge an unshakable relationship. Their experience is told in the novel. The tale also teaches readers the value of female unity. Mariam and Laila develop a strong friendship despite coming from different origins.

What genre is “A Thousand Splendid Suns” ?

Khaled Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is a work of fiction that falls within the literary and historical fiction categories. A subgenre of literature, known as historical fiction, uses historical persons or events as the backdrop for fictional stories that are set in the past. The novel ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is set in Afghanistan in the 1980s, during the Soviet occupation, and in the 1990s, during the Taliban administration.

Why did Mariam stay with Rasheed in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns?’

Mariam’s decision to endure the violence and stay with Rasheed can be attributed to several factors. Firstly, societal and cultural pressures played a significant role. Growing up in a society where women were expected to be obedient and submissive, Mariam internalized these expectations and felt trapped in her marriage. Additionally, Mariam felt a sense of duty and responsibility towards her role as a wife and mother, despite the mistreatment she endured.

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About Charles Asoluka

Charles Asoluka is a seasoned content creator with a decade-long experience in professional writing. His works have earned him numerous accolades and top prizes in esteemed writing competitions.

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Mariam and Laila

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By Lisa See

• June 3, 2007

Khaled Hosseini’s first book, “The Kite Runner” (2003), spent more than two years on best-seller lists in the United States. More than four million copies are in print, and a movie adaptation is also in the works. After such success and fame, some writers might have postponed the challenge of a second novel, preferring to collect their royalty checks and not tempt fate or a backlash. Some might have rushed into print with something, anything, to cash in on their newfound visibility. And some might not have had anything more to say. Hosseini doesn’t fit any of these categories.

His second novel, “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” is an ambitious work. Once again the setting is Afghanistan, but this time he has taken the last 33 years of that country’s tumultuous history of war and oppression and told it on an intimate scale, through the lives of two women.

Mariam is an illegitimate child whose resentful mother eats away at her daughter’s essential good nature by offering only bitter advice. (“Like a compass needle that points north,” mother tells daughter, “a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.”) For Mariam’s mother, a woman need only endure.

At 15, Mariam is married off to a 45-year-old shoemaker with a hooked nose, bloodshot eyes, bad teeth and nails yellow-brown “like the inside of a rotting apple.” He starts out merely brutish, but after Mariam fails to bear him children, he becomes gruff and psychologically abusive, insisting she wear a burqa and chew pebbles until her teeth break.

Like Mariam’s, Laila’s life is also a lesson in endurance. The daughter of an intellectual father and a mentally unbalanced mother, Laila loves a neighbor boy who has lost a leg to a land mine. When he and his parents flee to Pakistan to escape the fighting between mujahedeen factions and nearly everyone she knows is killed by a stray rocket, Laila is 14 and pregnant with her boyfriend’s child. She reluctantly agrees to become the second wife of the shoemaker, who is now in his 60s and hardly mellowed with age.

Hosseini alternates between Mariam’s and Laila’s voices to tell of the friendship between these two desperate women. Inevitably, Mariam’s mother’s warnings are borne out: the women must find reservoirs of strength just to survive. In a particularly harrowing scene, Laila undergoes a Caesarean section without anesthetic. And soon one man after another — whether husband, Taliban mullah or border guard — points an accusing finger at the two women, with terrifying results.

Hosseini doesn’t seem entirely comfortable writing about the inner lives of women and often resorts to stock phrases. When Laila’s boyfriend kisses her, she feels her “heart pounding in her throat ... a fire burning in the pit of her belly.” At the same time, with the exception of Laila’s absent lover, the male characters seem either unrelentingly evil or pathetically weak. If a woman wrote these things about her male characters, she would probably be labeled a man-hater. Though fascinating, the historical background — the Soviet invasion, the mujahedeen, internecine tribal warfare — isn’t always well integrated into the plot. And the transitions between Mariam’s and Laila’s perspectives can be bumpy.

Yet Hosseini succeeds in carrying readers along because he understands the power of emotion as few other popular writers do. As he did in “The Kite Runner,” he uses a melodramatic plot to convey vividly the many aspects of love and the ways people sacrifice themselves for those they hold dear. With “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” Hosseini has shown that he doesn’t intend to be a one-hit wonder. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

Lisa See’s new novel, “Peony in Love,” will be published in June.

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Behind the veil

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini 384pp, Bloomsbury, £16.99

Anyone whose heart strings were pulled by Khaled Hosseini's first, hugely successful novel, The Kite Runner, should be more than satisfied with this follow-up. Hosseini is skilled at telling a certain kind of story, in which events that may seem unbearable - violence, misery and abuse - are made readable. He doesn't gloss over the horrors his characters live through, but something about his direct, explanatory style and the sense that you are moving towards a redemptive ending makes the whole narrative, for all its tragedies, slip down rather easily.

The Kite Runner was the tale of two Afghan boys struggling to live decent lives amid the warfare and ethnic rivalries of contemporary Afghanistan, and this is the female counterpart. It is both the tale of two women, and a tale of two cities - Herat and Kabul. At the beginning, we are dropped into the world of Mariam, a young girl living alone with her unmarried mother on the outskirts of Herat. And what a sad world it is. Poor Mariam is bullied by her epileptic mother, and she lives for her weekly visits from her insincere, charming father who runs Herat's cinema, and whose real family she longs to join.

We don't stagnate with Mariam in Herat, however - Hosseini likes to move his narratives along - and before many pages have been turned Mariam's mother has died, and her unfeeling father has married her off to an acquaintance from Kabul. Despite the trauma of going to live with a complete stranger who insists that she must wear the burka and hide upstairs when visitors arrive, a tentative hopefulness begins to grow in Mariam that she may be able to win some affection from her husband, especially when she becomes pregnant.

But Hosseini vividly brings home what life is like for women in a society in which they are valued only for reproduction. Once she has suffered a series of miscarriages, Mariam's marriage becomes a prison: "Mariam was afraid. She lived in fear of his shifting moods, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not."

Just as the impatient reader might start to wonder what Hosseini is going to do next with his narrative energy, we switch from Mariam's life to that of a neighbour, the young Laila, who is growing up in a liberal family with a father who believes in her education. This means that we suddenly see Mariam from the outside: Laila never speaks to her, but one day she "passed Rasheed, the shoemaker, with his burka-clad wife, Mariam, in tow". In a flash we see, as Hosseini clearly intends us to, how behind every silent burka in Afghanistan is an individual with a hidden history.

As well as an education, ambitions and opinions, Laila even has a respectful and intelligent boyfriend, who goes with her to the cinema and on a trip to see the Buddhas of Bamiyan. By putting Mariam and Laila in contrast like this, Hosseini is, you feel, not just trying to burrow into individual lives, but also trying to explain the complexities of Afghan society to the reader.

That sense that you are listening to a history lesson as much as experiencing a fiction becomes stronger as the narrative moves on. Hosseini is almost too careful to describe for ignorant westerners the political background to these women's lives, from the Soviet occupation that ruled Laila's childhood to the growing strength of the mujahideen that her brothers join, amid "rising rumours that, after eight years of fighting, the Soviets were losing this war". Once the Soviets are ousted, he takes an even more didactic turn, spelling out how the mujahideen turned from idealised freedom fighters to oppressors. "It was dizzying how quickly everything unravelled. The leadership council was formed prematurely. It elected Rabbani president. The other factions cried nepotism ... Hekmatyar, who had been excluded, was incensed ... The Mujahideen, armed to the teeth but lacking a common enemy, had found the enemy in each other."

But Hosseini doesn't get bogged down in the ins and outs of Afghan politics. His energetic narrative speeds on through the political and domestic worlds, as we move through the tragedies that fall on Laila's family. Eventually we see her, orphaned and alone, allowing herself to become Rasheed's second wife. You might think this novel is becoming too melodramatic, as one horror succeeds another, with rockets blowing families apart and attempted escapes and even murder, alongside the beatings and whippings and threats that make up the women's daily experiences. But when I started to think this I remembered women I met in Kabul, and how many of them had stories to tell almost as melodramatic as this.

Where Hosseini's novel begins to sing is in depicting the slowly growing friendship of the two wives in the face of the horrific abuse from their shared husband. Laila looks at Mariam, and "For the first time, it was not an adversary's face Laila saw but a face of grievances unspoken, burdens gone unprotested, a destiny submitted to and endured. If she stayed, would this be her own face, Laila wondered?" The women's only hope of affection or solidarity is with one another, and they survive not just physically but also emotionally by putting their faith in each other and in their love for Laila's children.

Hosseini does not challenge the usual western view of Afghanistan, but he does enrich it - he adds greater knowledge and understanding to it, and makes the Afghans come alive as loving, feeling individuals. There is something marvellously hopeful in this process, and if there is a problem with the novel, it is not with the plot or the intentions behind it, but with the neatness of its narrative style. Hosseini's prose is stolidly direct, and he tends to explain away not only the political but also the personal, presenting each experience in a wrapper on which the emotion is carefully labelled. Whether it is love - "She had fallen for Tariq. Hopelessly and desperately" - or hate - "What harmful thing had she wilfully done to this man to warrant his malice?" - each distinct emotion is spelled out a touch too clearly.

His desire to believe in the eventual redemption of Afghanistan means that the ending verges on the schmaltzy. Undoubtedly the removal of the Taliban was positive for Afghan women, and we shouldn't be surprised if his characters draw strength from it. But in the last chapter, as the rains return, the cinemas open, the children play and the orphanages are rebuilt, the reader cannot help but feel that Hosseini's understandable longing for a beautiful return to life for the oppressed people of Afghanistan has made for an ending that is just a little flimsy.

· Natasha Walter's The New Feminism is published by Virago

• Khaled Hosseini

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Essays on A Thousand Splendid Suns

Prompt examples for "a thousand splendid suns" essays, the role of women in afghan society.

Explore the portrayal of women in Afghan society as depicted in "A Thousand Splendid Suns." How do characters like Mariam and Laila challenge or conform to traditional gender roles?

Motherhood and Sacrifice

Discuss the theme of motherhood and sacrifice in the novel. How do Mariam and Laila's experiences as mothers shape their characters and the trajectory of the story?

The Impact of War and Conflict

Analyze the effects of war and conflict on the lives of the characters. How do the political upheavals in Afghanistan impact their personal journeys and relationships?

Friendship and Solidarity

Examine the evolving friendship between Mariam and Laila. How does their relationship evolve, and what does it symbolize in the context of the broader narrative?

Social Injustice and Oppression

Discuss the themes of social injustice and oppression in the novel. How are characters like Rasheed representative of the oppressive systems in Afghan society?

Redemption and Healing

Explore the concepts of redemption and healing in the story. How do Mariam and Laila find ways to heal and rebuild their lives in the face of adversity?

The Importance of Education

Analyze the significance of education in the lives of the characters. How does access to education empower Mariam and Laila, and what does it represent for Afghan women?

Family and Identity

Discuss the theme of family and identity in the novel. How do Mariam and Laila's backgrounds and family histories shape their sense of self and belonging?

Symbolism in "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

Examine the use of symbolism in the novel. What do elements like the burqa, the Kabul River, and the title itself symbolize in the story?

The Afghan Cultural Landscape

Explore the rich cultural tapestry of Afghanistan as depicted in the book. How does the author convey the traditions, customs, and folklore of Afghan society?

The Power and Struggle of Women in a Thousand Splendid Suns

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The Confusion Towards The Rights of Women in "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

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Gender Roles and Male Dominance in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'

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A Thousand Splendid Suns: Oppression of Women and The Veil Controversy

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May 22, 2007

Khaled Hosseini

Novel, Domestic Fiction

Mullah Faizullah, Zalmai, Mariam, Jalil, Aziza, Nana, Fariba, Tariq, Laila, Rasheed, Hakim

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