A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns By: Khaled Hosseini Fabulously Presented By: Mari Sweeney

Khaled Hosseini • Goodwill Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees • Founder of the Khaled Hosseini Agency • Lives in Northern California • Born in 1965 in Kabul • Afghan-born American-oldest of five children • Novelist and Ex-Physician • Has been to the White House • His first novel, The Kite Runner, was published in over 70 countries. Afghanistan wasn’t one of them.

Key Quotes • “This is what it means to be a woman in this world.” • “Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.” • “It’s our lot in life, Mariam. Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have.” • “Laila marveled at Aziza’s grace, Aziza’s vast capacity for forgiveness…”

Key Quotes (cont.) • “He asked about Aziza’s father, and Laila had the strange experience of telling a lie that was really the truth.” • “She thought of Aziza’s stutter, and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor.” • “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

Main Characters • Mariam- One of the two women protagonists who marries at a young age to Rasheem, helps Laila raise her children, and eventually kills Rasheem to save Laila and her children • Rasheem- The abusive, older husband of Laila and Mariam and the Father of Zalmai • Laila- The youngest wife of Rasheem who gives birth to Aziza and Zalmai and sacrifices much for the same of her children • Tariq-Laila’s childhood love, the father of Aziza, and the second husband of Laila

Minor Characters • Jalil- Mariam’s Father • Nana-Mariam’s Mother • Hakim-Laila’s Father • Fariba-Laila’s Mother • Aziza-Laila and Tariq’s daughter • Zalmai-Laila and Rasheed’s daughter • Mullah Faizullah- Mariam’s childhood tutor and friend

Setting This story mainly takes place in Afghanistan, Kabul and Herat around the year 1960 until the 2000s.

Point of View • 3rd Person Omniscient (as told by the narrator)

Symbols • Fire: a symbol of the inner destruction in the lives of the main characters • Burkas- a symbol for the oppression in society as well as the self-conciosness of the main protagonists • Children-a symbol for approval and sacrifice

History • This novel takes place during the before and After rule of the Taliban. During this time, which was also the time of 9/11 in America, women were not allowed to work, leave the house without a male relative, leave without a burqa, speak unless spoken to, attending school, ect.

BRIEF Plot Summary • Please read the detailed plot summary in the paper. • A young girl named Mariam lives with her bitter mother outside of the city. She is the illigitimate child of Jalil. • At 15, her father refused to take her to the city or see her in his home in the city. Mariam returned home to find her mother had committed suicide. • She was sent away to marry Rasheed. • Became pregnant, then miscarried. Rasheed began to abuse her. • Laila, a young, educated girl, lost her family in a fire. Her best friend, Tariq, moved away. He became her childhood love. They were intimate before he left. • Laila, injured, was taken care of by Rasheed and eventually had to marry him, thinking Tariq was dead.

Plot Summary (cont.) • She became pregnant with Tariq’s baby and hid it as Rasheed’s. When the baby turned out to be a girl, Laila was put on the same level as Mariam. • The war and drought caused Aziza, Laila’s daughter, to have to stay at an orphanage. • Laila and Mariam became friends in common circumstances. • Laila gave birth to a son with no medicine due to the strict rules of the Taliban. • Tariq came back and found Laila. • Rasheed was hurting Laila and Mariam killed him. • Mariam took the blame and was never seen from again. (The reader finds out she is hung.) • Tariq and Laila raise the two children together and Laila goes back to Mariam’s home town to find closure. They move away to help rebuild Afghanistan after the war is over. • Laila becomes pregnant with her third child, and it is implied that she will name it Mariam.

Themes • Fate- “only sin is being born” • Social Class • Endurance • Sacrifice • Independence • Forgiveness

And now.. a word from Hosseini Himself. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4kyalTT_wY

A Thousand Splendid Suns