In the mesmerizing novel "A Thousand Splandid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, the author uses intensity to portray the difficulties of gender relations.
In the excerpt ""A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated..." Hosseini shows how society cannot fully function if women are not given the same education and rights that men are granted.
"...And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had love and been loved back. she was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. a mother. a person of consequence at last." gives the audience an insight of how being a woman can mean so much more and how it is a blessing to be able to call themselves a woman.
Gender relation difficulties are also seen in domestic abuse where in this case Rasheed, Mariam's husband, states that "a woman's face is her husband's business only" and that not abiding by these beliefs is a "spoiling of their honor and pride"
The author shows how women can build a bond that men feel threatened by and therefore, not granting them the education needed to success in a country stricken by war. Even to this day, men are accustomed to old fashion ways in where women are inferior to men. They impose strict rules on them, chaining them from further advancement.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
TEAR #2
The compelling novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, uses oppresion to emphasize the issue of domestic abuse.
The excerpt "Mariam lay on the couch...She remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world. That all the sighs drifted up the sky, gathered into clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below. As a reminder of how people like us suffer, she'd said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us." is used as a metaphor to give the audience an feel of how a woman in an abusive relationship can endure pain without so much as a cry for help.
"That love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion..." shows how some abused women, like Mariam herself, slowly start to realize that they are placed in an unsafe partnership but because they have grown accustomed to the abuse, they believe it has become their destiny yet they, unfortunately, still have hope for a better day to mask their sorrow.
The first sign of domestic abuse seen in Mariam's relationship with Rasheed was when he made her chew on a handul of pebbles until she cracked her teeth to show her how her "rice tastes like" and how she has given him "Bad food and nothing else". This shows what can be considered as a low level of domestic physical abuse. Although it is graphic enough, other women are placed in worse situations.
Domestic abuse, yet common, is not portrayed in most literary works. However Hosseini uses this book to exhibit the hardships these women have to go through. It gives an insight to their daily lives and how every day is like waiting for rain in a drought...pointless and a waste of time.
The excerpt "Mariam lay on the couch...She remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world. That all the sighs drifted up the sky, gathered into clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below. As a reminder of how people like us suffer, she'd said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us." is used as a metaphor to give the audience an feel of how a woman in an abusive relationship can endure pain without so much as a cry for help.
"That love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion..." shows how some abused women, like Mariam herself, slowly start to realize that they are placed in an unsafe partnership but because they have grown accustomed to the abuse, they believe it has become their destiny yet they, unfortunately, still have hope for a better day to mask their sorrow.
The first sign of domestic abuse seen in Mariam's relationship with Rasheed was when he made her chew on a handul of pebbles until she cracked her teeth to show her how her "rice tastes like" and how she has given him "Bad food and nothing else". This shows what can be considered as a low level of domestic physical abuse. Although it is graphic enough, other women are placed in worse situations.
Domestic abuse, yet common, is not portrayed in most literary works. However Hosseini uses this book to exhibit the hardships these women have to go through. It gives an insight to their daily lives and how every day is like waiting for rain in a drought...pointless and a waste of time.
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