Discussion Topic C

To be brought up as a child in a humble environment, one must be accustomed to the shortening of wealth and the oppression shown from the upper class. But for the character Mariam, in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the obstacles in life seemed nearly unsurpassable. She was raised by her mother, Nana, in a shed on the outskirts of a town, away from others. Her father Jalil, a well-known and extremely wealthy man, only visited her from time to time but never really much involved her into his life. She had to live with this split home burden, being known in society as a ‘harami’ or bastard-child. After loosing her mother in a cruel turn of events, her father marries her off to Rasheed, one of his friends. Her corrupted childhood from then on builds onto the structural backbone of the novel. Being socially looked down upon as a child, she was taught to endure. When she goes and lives with Rasheed, she endures years of physical and social mistreatment, things that she had already experienced as a child. The more time Mariam spends with Rasheed, the more suffering and beatings she has to encounter. And when Rasheed marries another women, she is set aside once again. Her life has been built around total despair and suffrage, with only one word of advice, endure. But when Laila, Rasheed’s second wife, and Mariam confront Rasheed during one of his out lashes, Mariam has a surge of her bottled emotions. Of all the years she has encountered oppression and beatings, she has a feeling of freedom and she blows away Rasheed’s life with the strike of a shovel. Even though Mariam never would have gained the strength to fight Rasheed if she had not gained confidence and love from Laila, all of the prior experiences Mariam had led her to act in the most confident and superior way towards Rasheed in the climax of the novel. She went along with all the beatings Rasheed served her until her ultimate trial of life, where she finally stands up for her life, ending not only the life of the oppressor Rasheed, but also ending the novel in a bittersweet way, as she is executed for her slaying of her husband. Nonetheless, the novel is built on the way Mariam struggles until she finds the freedom she pleaded and deserved.