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A Thousand Splendid Sun literary Analysis [3]
Plese review my paper before I hand it in tomorrow. I didn't want to trust my judgment after three cups of coffee and less than average hours of sleep
Intructions: To formulate a well-written thesis on a novel and support the idea with three supporting topic sentences.
Amidst the escalating conflicts of the Middle East, the fates of two Afghani women intertwine as they are forced into a loveless marriage and must endure the hardships with only hope to live for in a hopeless society. In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, the tragic theme of oppressed hope is explored as the lives of Miriam and Laila pan out from childhood to death. Through the many obstacles that are thrown at these women, the hopes that they hold onto are constantly shattered. Hope for acceptance, love, and a better life are among many things that the women of Afghanistan hope in the backdrop of war and danger.
The main character, Miriam, has been through much more than children her age and one of those experiences is the anticipation for acceptance. At a young age, Miriam is recognized as an illegitimate child of Nana and Jalil. Her mother referrers to her as a harami, and Jalil's wives look upon her with cold stares of disdain. Jalil, with his idealistic world, was the only person that Miriam feels loved her and could accept her. Therefore, when she asks Jalil to bring her to the cinema and watch Pinoccichio, and to develop relationship outside the kolboa, Jalil reluctantly accepts. Alas, he doesn't take her to the cinema in fear of his wives and the social structures that frown upon it. Ultimately, Miriam's hopes to be accepted by her father are dashed, forcing her to realize the truth of the situation. Not only did her father not accept her, but Miriam felt that her husband, Rasheed, had not truly accepted her as his wife later on in the novel. After the 'honeymoon stage' of Miriam and Rasheed's marriage, Miriam has a miscarriage during pregnancy. Thus, Miriam feels that the earlier hope for acceptance is being crushed once again.
Despite the marriage arrangements of Afghani culture, many women aniticpate for a nuptial filled with love. Nana is like many women, and hope that Jalil convinces his wives to marry her and support Miriam. Nonetheless, Nana did not receive the marriage she wanted with Jalil. Nana was not the only one to suffer through the hardship of a shattered hope of love, but Laila also experiences it. Before leaving Kabul for Pakistan, Tariq, yells to Laila that he will come back for her, filling her with hope of a marriage of love. However, she is forced to sacrifice that hope when she marries Rasheed, the husband of Mariam, in order to sustain a proper upbringing for her child that she had with Tariq. However, her hope is completely shattered when an unknown man comes to the house and to tell Laila that Tariq has been killed by a bomb, leaving Laila distraught and hopeless.
The hope for a better life is always regarded throughout the novel. Earlier in the novel, Hakim, Laila's father, urges the family to leave the terrible and dangerous streets of Afghanistan. The hope to leave and start a new life is crushed by the bomb that kills Laila's mother and father, leaving her alone. In another instance, after the two women form a kinship, Laila tells Miriam of her plan to escape into Pakistan. In which, they go to the bus station and pay a man to play the role of the women's cousin. However, the man betrays the women and tells the guards of the women's escape. In turn, the women and children are cart to the police station where they are to be questioned. Ironically, the women try to escape a life of hardship only to return to that very same life with more abuse and contempt.
The book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is riddled with oppressed hope of the women and children to the people of Afghanistan and the unstable politics that is occurring at that time. This tragic novel is a great depiction of expectations and rejections.
