Reflections on A Thousand Splendid Suns

For my lit circle book, I chose to read A Thousand Splendid Suns. This book has exposed me to numerous atrocities in the Afghanistan culture. First of all, I was unaware that there was a progressive movement occurring in the Middle Eastern country. Through Hakim’s family, the author shows how some so-called “modern” families are allowing their women more freedom of dress and education. This was very shocking to me because I had formerly believed that all women were expected to cover all parts of their body. In addition, I never realized that many husbands physically and mentally tortured their wives. In one scene in the book, Mariam’s husband Rasheed forces her to chew on rocks to teach her a lesson. Later, Rasheed further hurts Mariam by taking a much younger second wife. The amount that these women endure is shocking. However, because I know that the work is a piece of fiction, I wonder how accurate the author truly is. It would be very interesting to compare the experiences of real women during the rise of the Taliban to the experiences of the women in this novel.
Another interesting aspect of this book is the prominence of the color green. It is a common color in furniture as well as a common wedding color. Upon doing a little research, I realized that green was part of the Afghanistan flag. The green stripe stood for independence and future prosperity when the Majuhideen came to power. Thus, it is ironic that this color of “independence” appears often in Mariam’s oppressed life.
This week, as I was working on my literature circle duties, I struggled with finding motifs in the novel. For one, I have never fully understood the definition of a motif; however a little research showed that it is a reoccurring element in the novel. One motif I saw the Buddha statue visit. One day, Laila’s dad took her and Tariq to see two large statues of Buddha. The day was very peaceful and remained forever imprinted in Laila’s mind. When she encounters difficulties, she forces her mind to recall that scene and the tranquility that came with it. That trip represents innocence to Laila. During that trip, Tariq and her father were still alive. She saw her father’s true love for her mother. She was able to spend a day free from the troubles of war. Thus, she associates that time with the innocence of childhood and uses the recollections to purify her from the difficulties of adulthood.
Rasheed is another interesting character in this novel. He appears to be very static, consistently using the same tricks to achieve the same means. With Marian, he bought her gifts and treated her very gently as to try to get her to bear him a son. When he realized that she was infertile, he quickly became abusive and emotionless. Similarly, when Laila comes along, he is very sweet and caring towards her, eventually revealing that he would like to marry her. Thus, he is only using this sweet façade to get what he really wants –a son. Because Rasheed has such a desire to have a son, I question whether his wife actually died or if he murdered her. If there was an accident and the wife survived but the son did not, Rasheed would most likely become incredibly abusive like he did with Mariam after she miscarried his other children. I am not sure if this is the case, but it will be interesting to see what the rest of the book reveals.