A Thousand Splendid Suns Report

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a riveting connecting story between two main female protagonists trying to survive in pre-2000s Afghanistan. In the end of the book, Hosseini portrays a beautiful relationship between Mariam and Laila that you can see build throughout the book. The two characters are revealed separately but the connection between them is soon made clear.

The ending of the text is quite complex, and Hosseini wrote it in a sorrowful way.

It just so happens that in the book, Mariam and Laila need each other, for comfort and to be loved and to love.

Laila having the need of a mother, (to be loved) and Mariam in the shadow of Rasheed’s physical and emotional abuse and her miscarriages desperately needed someone to love. In meeting each other they found what they were both looking for. In the end, Mariam and Laila become like mother and daughter.

Some connections between the ending and other earlier moments in the text, were how you could foreshadow Laila doing something intentful in the name of Mariam, because in the book, you could tell that Laila loved Mariam a lot, and when she died, it broke her. In the end, Laila uses Mariam’s inheritance to fund an orphanage for the children of Kabul, in Mariam’s name. Also, when Tariq disappears from Laila and then shows up again at the end of the book. It is shown in the book that Tariq is formidable and would not let anything happen to him, and when Abdul Sharif brings news about Tariq’s death, Laila at first could not believe it. So, one could foreshadow that Tariq was going to turn up again later in the book.

There are many important and meaningful quotes in A Thousand Splendid Suns, which make one really pay attention to the meaning behind them. For example, ‘Tell your secret to the wind, but don’t blame it for telling the trees.’ which was when Laila was talking to Tariq about someone telling his mother about his smoking. This quote was originally from Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese writer. This quote means that if you aren’t careful about who you tell your secrets, they may say it to someone else in their own confidence.

Another quote is ‘You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you have to see and feel.’ means that some things cannot be taught but must be experienced. This quote is said by Babi to Laila, showing the love and the wisdom Babi imparted on Laila.

Another quote is ‘Tariq tucked the gun into the waist of his denims. Then he said a thing both lovely and terrible. “”For you,”” he said. “”I’d kill with it for you, Laila.’ This shows the affection that Tariq shows for Laila, highlighting the crime and danger in Kabul. ‘It always falls on the sober to pay for the sins of the drunk.’ which means that the people who are clear minded and intelligent have to fix the problems of the drunk, or the people with clouded judgment. This quote was from Wajma to Laila.

One literary device shown in the A Thousand Splendid Suns was the use of foreshadowing. As mentioned before, when Laila loved Mariam so much, and when she treated her as a mother, because she had just recently lost her own mother. This foreshadowed some act of repayment or kindness to Mariam. In the end of the book, Laila uses Mariam’s inheritance and opens an orphanage in the name of Mariam. Also, Laila vows to name her child after Mariam, if she has a girl. Another literary device shown is social stratification, which is the difference between places in the social hierarchy. The book shows social stratification because for example when Jalil had Mariam marry Rasheed, she didn’t have a choice, which shows the difference between males and females at that time in Afghanistan.

My personal experience with the book was in total went pretty well. All throughout the book I enjoyed it, it felt as if there was never a dull moment. There were so many plot twists and such that I kept reading and reading and reading.

One aspect of the author’s style that you might use as a influence in my writing this year is how Hosseini connected two different protagonists into one story. The way he introduced two different protagonists and then he intertwined their stories in the middle of the book. I plan to achieve this by reading more of his books.

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