A Thousand Splendid Suns

It made me forget about the real world and dragged my mind into the world of Miriam and Leila. Miriam is a girl who was â€Å"born a Hiram, a source of shame to her father and his family' (60). Her father Jail is of the upper-class men of Kabul, and her mother a lowly woman cast out of her home by her master Jail. Every Thursday, Jail would visit Miriam and tell her of the wondrous stories of her past, and Miriam, a naive little girl, would eat up all the Lies he feeds her. Her mother would warn her against It all, but Miriam chose to believe the happy version of events Jail told her.He was a rich man telling rich lies. Why would Marls own father be so cold-hearted to pretend to love her and aka up stories that arena even true? I think he does this because â€Å"[he is] ashamed of [her]† (50); but he doesn't want her to know his true personality or else she wouldn't respect him since he is her father after all. Social appearances told society whether you were worth their time or not, so Jail wanted to save his face and keep his good reputation. Nowadays, we are still Judged by our social status and appearance though it isn't as severe and open as back then in the late asses.Maria's mother once warned her that there was â€Å"only one skill† she had to perfect, â€Å"[a]ND it's this: tamale. Endure† (17). We can observe how obedient Miriam Is, because she did endure. She â€Å"quietly endure[d] all that [fell] upon [her]† (82) through the good times and the bad – especially through the bad. If I had to live Maria's life, I doubt that I would have endured through everything that came my way as well as she did. Miriam is like a coconut: she has a hard shell, and nothing can break her. But on the inside, her heart is so big and generous, yet she sometimes feels like she can't keep up the brave face any longer.The first few days of Maria's forced marriage were tough on her. She wasn't used to the new surroundings and she was oilin g â€Å"adrift and forlorn† (56). But little by little, chore by chore, with each smile and connection she made with her new husband, she thought to herself â€Å"that they would make good companions after all† (77). After losing her first child, Miriam returns to her state of misery and loses the connection she had with her husband Rehashed. His temper goes out of control, and everything she does has this sense of dreariness and to her â€Å"life †¦ [seems] so exhausting† (83).I can feel Maria's despair and grief as If It were almost my own even though I have no Idea what It feels like to have lost a child. This Is an example of Chalked Hussein's power In writing: he draws me In with his vivid words painting a clear picture in my mind. Chapter 16-25 (Part TWO) Journal #2 In Part Two of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the narrator takes us down the path of life of Leila. When she was only nine years old, the Soviet Union had already invaded Afghanistan. Some peop le, like Laic's teacher, said that â€Å"the Soviet Union was the best nation in the world†¦ Mind to its workers, and its people were all equal† (101). But others disagreed strongly with this statement. Laic's father believes firmly in education, especially for women. He thinks that education should come before marriage â€Å"because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated† (103), which is quite the opposite of what most other parents with daughters think. Leila has been â€Å"the top-ranked student† (103) for the past two years, but she feels that she cannot tell her friends Hessian and Gist as they do not have the same perspective on education as Leila and her father.Ever since Laic's two older brothers have went off to war, her mamma has been depressed and feels like there is no point in life. She is an â€Å"unmoving blanketed mound† lying in bed everyday. From this, I inferred that mamma prefers her sons to Leila. This is a great example of how in some cultures parents favor sons over daughters. Why is this so? I think this is because of the stereotype that boys are better than girls. I see no reason why a girl cannot be as strong or smart or talented as a boy in any way. Nowadays, we try to ban this way of thinking but some people still have this belief.One afternoon, â€Å"a stranger with news† (122) came knocking at her door. He came to tell her parents that Laic's brothers, Nor and Mad, have died triumphantly, fighting for their beloved country's sovereignty. Many people the next morning arrived at their funeral, but all Mamma did was â€Å"sway back and forth and stare at the rug with a remote, spiritless look† (125). Contrarily, it was hard for Leila â€Å"to summon sorrow, to grieve the deaths of people [she] had never really thought of as alive in the first place† (125, 126) because her brothers had left for war when she was a very young girl.Even though the last of the S oviet convoys left the city in 1989, Mamma swore she would not celebrate nor rejoice until the Unexamined win the war against Incunabula and â€Å"hold a victory parade right here in Kabul† (138). Three years later, unexpected happened. Incunabula surrendered ! From that day on, â€Å"Mamma rose from bed a new woman† (145) and resumed her motherly chores. Unfortunately, around a week later everything unraveled and instead of having a common enemy, the Unexamined found the enemy in each other. They fired rockets at the mountains, and â€Å"the mountains fired on Kabul† (157).One day after school when Gist was walking home with her friends, a stray rocket struck them. It was only during the funeral the next day the information finally started to sink in and â€Å"[a]t last, Leila began to weep for her friend† (161). For Leila, the bad news Just kept coming like an ocean's waves. This time it was her best friend and lover, Atari, who was moving to Pakistan. She felt betrayed and heartbroken, but at the same time she knew he had to go. Almost everyone in her neighborhood had packed their belongings and left, but Mamma refused.She said it was an â€Å"affront, a Dearly, These two women were similar; they were both compassionate and kind-hearted. One night, when Rehashed their husband was in a foul mood, Leila talked back to him. He immediately assumed it was Miriam who taught her to do this, even though they weren't exactly friends at that time. He took out his leather belt, and that meant a beating for Miriam. Just as he brought the belt down, Leila lunged at him, pleading him to not beat Miriam. Even though Miriam was Jealous and reluctant to befriend Leila at first; she soon learned to accept and appreciate the other woman's companionship.The beginning of their friendship sparked when Leila first asked Miriam to have tea, after a long weary day doing chores around the house. â€Å"l know it's chilly outside, but what do you say we s inners have us a cup of chaw in the yard? † Leila asked. Miriam protested weakly at first, but gave in to the thought of a break from all the work. From then on, they had daily chaw and were no longer enemies, but n understanding came across the two of them and they started to do their chores together. I don't relate at all to the lives of Leila and Miriam, so why did I feel their pain and their happiness like I was experiencing it?It was because Chalked Hussein wrote this book with such emotion and depth; he wound my mind carefully into the life of these two women. CONNECTIONS Chalked Hussein wrote this book with hope in his heart and a mind-blowing story to tell. He used many literary devices to spice up his book and to add more pizzazz. When Nana told Miriam â€Å"To Jail and his wives, I was a poker. A muggers. You too. † This is a powerful metaphor describing how others looked down on them because they were from a lower caste. Another device would be â€Å"early e vening† and â€Å"badly out of breath†.They are examples of alliteration for emphasis on the time of day and the condition of the character. He also used similes. Some examples of that would be â€Å"She could make out the minarets in the distance, like the dusty fingers of giants†¦ † Which compares the distant towers to the fingers of a giant and â€Å"She had a mouth that ran like a sewing machine† which compares tells us that Hessian not only talked a lot but also very fast. Lastly, one example of personification is â€Å"They are not friendly countries. † A country cannot be friendly, it is the people living in the country that are friendly or not.This book was written in two perspectives: Maria's and Laic's. It was a bit confusing Jumping back and forth from these points of view, but it showed the opinion of these two women and laid out the two sides of this story. ANALYSIS One part of the book that was very touching was when Miriam accept ed her punishment for killing Rehashed to save Leila, so that Leila can live the rest of her life peacefully and without fault. It shows owe big Maria's heart is, how willing she was to give up her life for someone she loves. Leila wanted Miriam to run away with her, but Miriam refused.She said, â€Å"Eve killed our husband. Eve deprived your son of his father. It isn't right that I run. I can't. Even if they never catch us, I'll never escape your son's grief. † It broke my heart to see Leila leave Miriam behind, but it was decided. Miriam said Leila and her children have given her the happiness she was looking for – there was nothing else she wanted. RESPONSE The other part that moved me so much was the letter Jail wrote to Miriam to apologize Tort now en treated near, Ana now en wasn't a good Tanner to near.He wrote, â€Å"l dare, I dare allow myself the hope that, after you read this, you will be more charitable to me than I ever was to you. That you might find it in your heart to come and see your father. That you will knock on my door one more time and give me the chance to open it this time, to welcome you, to take you in my arms, my daughter, as I should have all those years ago. It is a hope as weak as my heart. † This paragraph in his letter stood out to me the most, and it shows how sorry Jail was for not being there for his daughter all those years. For giving her away to marriage, for treating her like she wasn't good enough for him.RESPONSE After reading the letter, I think that Jail has changed, that death's open arms have given him a change of heart. It brought tears to my eyes, because Miriam didn't have the chance to forgive her father and make everything right again. Why didn't Miriam visit Jail after receiving his first letter? I think it was because she was scared of seeing him after so long, of what he would think of her, and mostly importantly she was scared of him not opening the door for her again like the day of he r birthday years before. RESPONSE The message the author tried to convey was as clear as a summer sky to me.It is that friendship is something we should all treasure. It shows us that sometimes teamwork is essential to win even though sometimes we have to sacrifice. Leila and Miriam won the war against Rehashed, but in this case Miriam had to give up her life for it. It was a beautiful but heart-breaking deed: Miriam sacrificing herself for her sister and only friend Leila; she was so humble to put others before herself. In conclusion, Chalked Hussein gave the readers a very powerful image of his home country Afghanistan and showed us how strong a true friendship can be. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini is one of the most admired Afghani authors of the 21st century. He is best know for works such as The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns that explore the hardships of living in Afghanistan during the Soviet Invasion and Taliban regime. This paper will discuss the life and work of Khaled Hosseini with special emphasis on the effect on women in Afghan society in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini was born on March 4, 1965. He is the eldest of five children, and was born in Kabul, Afghanistan where his father worked for the foreign ministry and his mother taught Persian literature.Hosseini’s father was relocated to work in Tehran, where Hosseini’s passion for Persian literature grew and inspired him to write short stories of his own. In 1973 the Afghan King, Zahir Shah was overthrown by his own cousin, Daoud Khan, in a bloodless coup. In 1976, Hosseini’s father was again relocated to Paris where Khaled and his family moved. Onl y two years after Daoud Khan’s reign, he was overthrown by a communist faction, and killed. Hosseini’s family, now wary of the Soviet impact in Afghanistan, were granted political asylum in the United States.Although Hosseini struggled with English in his first year of high school, he was greatly inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, to continue his passion for writing. Determined to make ends meet for him and his family, after graduating high school in 1984 he enrolled in Santa Clara University to study biology, and later earn a his bachelor’s degree in 1988. Hosseini became a practicing internist after he gained his Medical degree at the University of California.Hosseini joined the Kaiser Permanente Health Maintenance Organization and settled in Mountain View, California with his wife, Roya, to start a family. Throughout Hosseini’s medical studies he felt it was his responsibility to tell the world about the country he knew, before it was consumed with war, so he published his first novel The Kite Runner. He told the story of two Afghan boys who’s lives undertake different paths with the events of the war. â€Å"The Kite Runner spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, and returned to the list five years after its initial ppearance† (Khaled Hosseini Biography). In 2003, following the success of his first novel, Hosseini returned to Afghanistan after twenty seven years. Where he felt devastated and shocked the remains of his country. In 2006 he joined the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees, from war zones around the world. Since 2003 Hosseini had been working on his second novel which focuses on the effect of women during the Soviet Invasion and under the Taliban dictatorship. A Thousand Splendid Suns, like the first novel became an international bestseller, while The Kite Runner became a highly acclaimed motion picture.Khaled Hosseini gave up his medical practice t o write and continue his work for the United Nations. (Khaled Hosseini Biography; â€Å"Khaled Hosseini | Biography) A Thousand Splendid Suns is divided into four parts. In part one we meet Mariam. Mariam lives with her Nana in a kolba and is the illegitimate child of a wealthy cinema owner from Herat. Mariam praised the ground her father, Jalil walked on. But when her mother kills herself and she’s sent to live with her father, she realizes that she’s the personification of shame to her him.Jalil marries Mariam off to Rasheed, a shoe make from Kabul who turns out to be an abusive husband. In part two of the novel we meet Laila. She was born on the same day the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Due to the fact that her older brothers are off at war with the Soviets, Laila’s mother is in deep depression. Laila tells about her best friend Tariq, who she later falls in love with, and about her days during and after the Soviet Invasion. The day Tariq tells Laila that he ’s leaving Kabul due to the bombs reigning down on the city, they spontaneously end up having sex.Then two weeks after Tariq’s departure, Laila’s family also decides to leave, but a bomb hits her house and kills her parents. In part three Mariam and Rasheed take Laila in and nurse her back to health. When Laila finds out she is pregnant with Tariq’s child she decides to marry Rasheed so that he believes the child is his. Mariam and Laila are enemies at first, but Rasheed’s abusive behavior manages to bring them together. In an extreme act of self-sacrifice Mariam kills Rasheed in order to save Laila’s life, and turns herself in to the authorities.In part four Laila runs away with Tariq, who comes back after so many years where they manage to make a living in a hotel where they also work at. In order to pay tribute to Mariam, Laila decides to visit Herat where she sees the kolba that Mariam and her mother lived in, she reads the letter Mariam ’s father had left her, and when she finds out that she’s pregnant with her third child, she decides that if it’s a girl she’ll name her Mariam. A Thousand Splendid Suns tells of the relationship of two unlikely women who are brought together by the events taking place in their country. It’s our lot in life, Mariam. Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have† (19). Mariam didn’t heed the words of her mother back then in the kolba, but she did learn throughout her life that women in general had to endure the many hardships that life presented. The Soviet Invasion and Taliban regime has had a lasting effect on the women of Afghanistan. They have struggled with the Taliban’s political reign in government as well the the â€Å"cultural contraints†¦of tradition and religion†(Women in Afghanistan: Pawns in men’s power struggles).Through the lives of Mariam and Laila one sees the disastrous events that have ta ken place in Afghanistan as well as the sturggle that women have endured to gain independence. One can see where the â€Å"notions of honour and shame†¦emphasise female modesty and purity†(Women in Afghanistan: Pawns in men’s power struggles) through Mariam’s birth. Mariam’s mother was cast out of the house she lived in as a servant for having a passing affair with the owner of the house who was wealthy and of high class. Mariam thus considered herself â€Å"an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (4).Furthermore, in a poor excuse to rid himself of the shame and dishonor he brought upon his family, Mariam’s father marries her off. [He] â€Å"didn’t have the [heart] either†¦to stand up to his family, to his wives and in-laws, and accept responsibility for what he had done†(7). When Laila was rescued from the remains of her house and Rasheed claimed that her liv ing in his house would â€Å"look dishonorable†(214) shows that a women’s honor and purity means everything in Afghan society, and to ruin those things means bringing shame upon oneself and one’s family.That is why Laila agreed to marry him, because she knew that if anyone were to find out she was pregnant and unmarried, she would be thrown out into the streets, and plenty of unimaginable things were to happen it to her then. Sura 4:34 â€Å"Men stand superior to women in that God hath preferred the one over the other †¦ Those whose perverseness you fear, admonish them and remove them into bed chambers and beat them, but if they submit to you then do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great. † (qtd. in Legacy of the Prophet)This quote suggest that male relatives have the authority to beat their wives if they disobey them. They are many incidents in A Thousand Splendid Suns where Mariam and Laila are beaten into submission. Mariam is f orced to chew on pebbles as a demonstration of how her food tastes to her husband, and is left spitting â€Å"out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars†(104). The Quran also states that women are to be beaten if they deny their husbands bed; Mariam is threatened to be beaten because Rasheed (her husband) claims that she is influencing Laila to not sleep with him.Mariam and Laila were tortured after they tried to escape Rasheed’s home by being locked in separate rooms, where they went without water and food for days. Laila is severely beaten, almost to the point of death, when Rasheed finds out that she allowed Tariq into his home and allowed him to see her without a burqa. Male relatives in Afghanistan also have a right to honor killings, if a women is not a virgin on her wedding night her male relatives have the right to kill her in order to avenge the family honor.If a wife is accused of adultery she is stoned to death, and if a woman is caught with a man who is not a relative, she is given a hundred lashes and a year in prison (Islam and Women’s Rights). Men are not greatly punished for the same â€Å"crime† that women commit since many of them can have multiple wives and concubines. This shows the injustice between men and women in Afghanistan and how tradition and religion is used to control their everyday lives. The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1978 gave woman a better sense of independence.This new governmental reform encouraged woman to a better education, teach in schools, work in hospitals, and permitted them to not wear a burqa. This reform also included the prohibition of forced marriages and also raised the marriage age to sixteen. â€Å"Women have always had it hard in this country†¦but they’re probably more free now, under the communist, and have more rights than they’ve ever had before†(135). According to the Commision on the Status of Women one must fight against the u se of tradition in order to eliminate the discrimination of women (Women in Afghanistan).But such reforms were not taken lightly and were deemed un-Islamic, and thrust Afghanistan into a civil war between Soviet troops and the Mujahideen. â€Å"Of course, women’s freedom is also one of the reasons people out there took up arms in the first place† (135) The next ten years resulted in millions of Afghans leaving the country due to the fighting in many rural areas where men, women, and children became targets of the war at their doorstep. After the Soviet retreat in 1989, the Mujahideen were in a political power struggle that resulted in mass hysteria and the rise of the Taliban.Before the Soviet Invasion and Taliban regime, men and women were declared equal through God. They were given the right to vote, choose their own partners, and a right to an inheritance. But under the Taliban all of these rights were taken away, and many of their laws favored men over women (The P light of the Afghan Woman). â€Å"Attention Women: You will stay in your homes at all times. It is not proper for women to wander aimlessly about the streets. If you go outside, you must be accompanied by a male relative.If you are caught alone on the street, you will be beaten and sent home†¦Girls are forbidden from attending school. All schools for girls will be closed immediately. Women are forbidden from working. If you are found guilty of adultery, you will be stoned to death†(278) Although female health professionals were still given the liberty to work under strict rules, they had harsh woking conditions. Many hospitals weren’t provided with the necessary tools in order to work on patients. â€Å"They had no clean water,†¦no oxygen, no medication, no electricity†(286).Women were segregated from men in every aspects of life, but wouldn’t it be fair to provide them with the necessities they needed in order for survival? Not only did these h ospitals not have the equipment needed, they were probably too far to travel to if someone was at risk of dieing. It is because of these reason’s that Afghanistan has the â€Å"second highest infant mortality rate as well maternal mortality rate in the world†(Afghanistan: Mortality Rates Remain High For Mothers, Newborns). The Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law has reduced women to poverty, worsened their health, and deprived them to an education.Even though they have taken away basic individual rights, the Taliban’s laws against women were particularly inhumane. [Mariam] 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. â€Å"As a reminder of how women like us suffer†¦How quietly we endure all that falls upon us† (91). The women of Afghanistan have e ndured a lot in these past 33 years. They have struggled between life and death, poverty, and hopelessness.Through the connection of two unlikely friends one learns of the hopes and despairs people face in times of war and dictatorship. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini has managed to portray the events that have taken place in Afghanistan and the injustice, suffering, and endurance that women face in everyday life. Works Cited Esfandiari, Golnaz. â€Å"Afghanistan: Mortality Rates Remain High For Mothers, Newborns – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. † Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty – Free Media in Unfree Societies. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. rferl. rg/content/article/1068295. html/content/article/1068295. html. Freeman, John. â€Å"A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini | Book Reviews | Chron. com – Houston Chronicle. † Houston News, Entertainment, Search and Shopping | Chron. com – Houston Chronicle. Web. 14 Mar. 201 0. http://www. chron. com/disp/story. mpl/life/books/reviews/4834205. html. Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Bandung: Qanita, 2007. Print. â€Å"Khaled Hosseini | Biography. † Khaled Hosseini | A Thousand Splendid Suns. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. khaledhosseini. com/hosseini-bio. html. Khaled Hosseini Biography — Academy of Achievement. † Academy of Achievement Main Menu. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. achievement. org/autodoc/page/hos0bio-1. â€Å"The Legacy of the Prophet. † Dhushara. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. dhushara. com/book/zulu/leg. htm. Papas, Voula. â€Å"Islam and Women's Rights | Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc. † Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc | Founded 1970. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. atheistfoundation. org. au/articles/islam-and-womens-rights. Qazi, Abdullah. â€Å"The Plight of the Afghan Woman. † Afghanistan Online. Web. 14 Mar. 010. http://afghan-web. com/woman/. â€Å"Women in Afghanistan: Pawns in Men's Power Struggles. † PeaceWomen Project. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. peacewomen. org/resources/Afghanistan/AIAfghanWomen. html. â€Å"Women's Human Rights Resources – Women in Afghanistan. † Bora Laskin Law Library, University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. . Bibliography Esfandiari, Golnaz. â€Å"Afghanistan: Mortality Rates Remain High For Mothers, Newborns – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. † Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty – Free Media in Unfree Societies. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. ferl. org/content/article/1068295. html/content/article/1068295. html. Freeman, John. â€Å"A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini | Book Reviews | Chron. com – Houston Chronicle. † Houston News, Entertainment, Search and Shopping | Chron. com – Houston Chronicle. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. chron. com/disp/story. mpl/life/books/reviews/4834205. html. Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns . Bandung: Qanita, 2007. Print. â€Å"Khaled Hosseini | Biography. † Khaled Hosseini | A Thousand Splendid Suns. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. khaledhosseini. com/hosseini-bio. html. Khaled Hosseini Biography — Academy of Achievement. † Academy of Achievement Main Menu. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. achievement. org/autodoc/page/hos0bio-1. â€Å"The Legacy of the Prophet. † Dhushara. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. dhushara. com/book/zulu/leg. htm. Papas, Voula. â€Å"Islam and Women's Rights | Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc. † Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc | Founded 1970. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. atheistfoundation. org. au/articles/islam-and-womens-rights. Qazi, Abdullah. â€Å"The Plight of the Afghan Woman. † Afghanistan Online. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. ttp://afghan-web. com/woman/. â€Å"Women in Afghanistan: Pawns in Men's Power Struggles. † PeaceWomen Project. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. peacewomen. org/resources/A fghanistan/AIAfghanWomen. html. â€Å"Women's Human Rights Resources – Women in Afghanistan. † Bora Laskin Law Library, University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. http://www. law-lib. utoronto. ca/diana/afghanwomen. htm. Yardley, Jonathan. â€Å"Jonathan Yardley – Jonathan Yardley – Washingtonpost. com. † Washingtonpost. com – Nation, World, Technology and Washington Area News and Headlines. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. A Thousand Splendid Suns It made me forget about the real world and dragged my mind into the world of Miriam and Leila. Miriam is a girl who was â€Å"born a Hiram, a source of shame to her father and his family' (60). Her father Jail is of the upper-class men of Kabul, and her mother a lowly woman cast out of her home by her master Jail. Every Thursday, Jail would visit Miriam and tell her of the wondrous stories of her past, and Miriam, a naive little girl, would eat up all the Lies he feeds her. Her mother would warn her against It all, but Miriam chose to believe the happy version of events Jail told her.He was a rich man telling rich lies. Why would Marls own father be so cold-hearted to pretend to love her and aka up stories that arena even true? I think he does this because â€Å"[he is] ashamed of [her]† (50); but he doesn't want her to know his true personality or else she wouldn't respect him since he is her father after all. Social appearances told society whether you were worth their time or not, so Jail wanted to save his face and keep his good reputation. Nowadays, we are still Judged by our social status and appearance though it isn't as severe and open as back then in the late asses.Maria's mother once warned her that there was â€Å"only one skill† she had to perfect, â€Å"[a]ND it's this: tamale. Endure† (17). We can observe how obedient Miriam Is, because she did endure. She â€Å"quietly endure[d] all that [fell] upon [her]† (82) through the good times and the bad – especially through the bad. If I had to live Maria's life, I doubt that I would have endured through everything that came my way as well as she did. Miriam is like a coconut: she has a hard shell, and nothing can break her. But on the inside, her heart is so big and generous, yet she sometimes feels like she can't keep up the brave face any longer.The first few days of Maria's forced marriage were tough on her. She wasn't used to the new surroundings and she was oilin g â€Å"adrift and forlorn† (56). But little by little, chore by chore, with each smile and connection she made with her new husband, she thought to herself â€Å"that they would make good companions after all† (77). After losing her first child, Miriam returns to her state of misery and loses the connection she had with her husband Rehashed. His temper goes out of control, and everything she does has this sense of dreariness and to her â€Å"life †¦ [seems] so exhausting† (83).I can feel Maria's despair and grief as If It were almost my own even though I have no Idea what It feels like to have lost a child. This Is an example of Chalked Hussein's power In writing: he draws me In with his vivid words painting a clear picture in my mind. Chapter 16-25 (Part TWO) Journal #2 In Part Two of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the narrator takes us down the path of life of Leila. When she was only nine years old, the Soviet Union had already invaded Afghanistan. Some peop le, like Laic's teacher, said that â€Å"the Soviet Union was the best nation in the world†¦ Mind to its workers, and its people were all equal† (101). But others disagreed strongly with this statement. Laic's father believes firmly in education, especially for women. He thinks that education should come before marriage â€Å"because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated† (103), which is quite the opposite of what most other parents with daughters think. Leila has been â€Å"the top-ranked student† (103) for the past two years, but she feels that she cannot tell her friends Hessian and Gist as they do not have the same perspective on education as Leila and her father.Ever since Laic's two older brothers have went off to war, her mamma has been depressed and feels like there is no point in life. She is an â€Å"unmoving blanketed mound† lying in bed everyday. From this, I inferred that mamma prefers her sons to Leila. This is a great example of how in some cultures parents favor sons over daughters. Why is this so? I think this is because of the stereotype that boys are better than girls. I see no reason why a girl cannot be as strong or smart or talented as a boy in any way. Nowadays, we try to ban this way of thinking but some people still have this belief.One afternoon, â€Å"a stranger with news† (122) came knocking at her door. He came to tell her parents that Laic's brothers, Nor and Mad, have died triumphantly, fighting for their beloved country's sovereignty. Many people the next morning arrived at their funeral, but all Mamma did was â€Å"sway back and forth and stare at the rug with a remote, spiritless look† (125). Contrarily, it was hard for Leila â€Å"to summon sorrow, to grieve the deaths of people [she] had never really thought of as alive in the first place† (125, 126) because her brothers had left for war when she was a very young girl.Even though the last of the S oviet convoys left the city in 1989, Mamma swore she would not celebrate nor rejoice until the Unexamined win the war against Incunabula and â€Å"hold a victory parade right here in Kabul† (138). Three years later, unexpected happened. Incunabula surrendered ! From that day on, â€Å"Mamma rose from bed a new woman† (145) and resumed her motherly chores. Unfortunately, around a week later everything unraveled and instead of having a common enemy, the Unexamined found the enemy in each other. They fired rockets at the mountains, and â€Å"the mountains fired on Kabul† (157).One day after school when Gist was walking home with her friends, a stray rocket struck them. It was only during the funeral the next day the information finally started to sink in and â€Å"[a]t last, Leila began to weep for her friend† (161). For Leila, the bad news Just kept coming like an ocean's waves. This time it was her best friend and lover, Atari, who was moving to Pakistan. She felt betrayed and heartbroken, but at the same time she knew he had to go. Almost everyone in her neighborhood had packed their belongings and left, but Mamma refused.She said it was an â€Å"affront, a Dearly, These two women were similar; they were both compassionate and kind-hearted. One night, when Rehashed their husband was in a foul mood, Leila talked back to him. He immediately assumed it was Miriam who taught her to do this, even though they weren't exactly friends at that time. He took out his leather belt, and that meant a beating for Miriam. Just as he brought the belt down, Leila lunged at him, pleading him to not beat Miriam. Even though Miriam was Jealous and reluctant to befriend Leila at first; she soon learned to accept and appreciate the other woman's companionship.The beginning of their friendship sparked when Leila first asked Miriam to have tea, after a long weary day doing chores around the house. â€Å"l know it's chilly outside, but what do you say we s inners have us a cup of chaw in the yard? † Leila asked. Miriam protested weakly at first, but gave in to the thought of a break from all the work. From then on, they had daily chaw and were no longer enemies, but n understanding came across the two of them and they started to do their chores together. I don't relate at all to the lives of Leila and Miriam, so why did I feel their pain and their happiness like I was experiencing it?It was because Chalked Hussein wrote this book with such emotion and depth; he wound my mind carefully into the life of these two women. CONNECTIONS Chalked Hussein wrote this book with hope in his heart and a mind-blowing story to tell. He used many literary devices to spice up his book and to add more pizzazz. When Nana told Miriam â€Å"To Jail and his wives, I was a poker. A muggers. You too. † This is a powerful metaphor describing how others looked down on them because they were from a lower caste. Another device would be â€Å"early e vening† and â€Å"badly out of breath†.They are examples of alliteration for emphasis on the time of day and the condition of the character. He also used similes. Some examples of that would be â€Å"She could make out the minarets in the distance, like the dusty fingers of giants†¦ † Which compares the distant towers to the fingers of a giant and â€Å"She had a mouth that ran like a sewing machine† which compares tells us that Hessian not only talked a lot but also very fast. Lastly, one example of personification is â€Å"They are not friendly countries. † A country cannot be friendly, it is the people living in the country that are friendly or not.This book was written in two perspectives: Maria's and Laic's. It was a bit confusing Jumping back and forth from these points of view, but it showed the opinion of these two women and laid out the two sides of this story. ANALYSIS One part of the book that was very touching was when Miriam accept ed her punishment for killing Rehashed to save Leila, so that Leila can live the rest of her life peacefully and without fault. It shows owe big Maria's heart is, how willing she was to give up her life for someone she loves. Leila wanted Miriam to run away with her, but Miriam refused.She said, â€Å"Eve killed our husband. Eve deprived your son of his father. It isn't right that I run. I can't. Even if they never catch us, I'll never escape your son's grief. † It broke my heart to see Leila leave Miriam behind, but it was decided. Miriam said Leila and her children have given her the happiness she was looking for – there was nothing else she wanted. RESPONSE The other part that moved me so much was the letter Jail wrote to Miriam to apologize Tort now en treated near, Ana now en wasn't a good Tanner to near.He wrote, â€Å"l dare, I dare allow myself the hope that, after you read this, you will be more charitable to me than I ever was to you. That you might find it in your heart to come and see your father. That you will knock on my door one more time and give me the chance to open it this time, to welcome you, to take you in my arms, my daughter, as I should have all those years ago. It is a hope as weak as my heart. † This paragraph in his letter stood out to me the most, and it shows how sorry Jail was for not being there for his daughter all those years. For giving her away to marriage, for treating her like she wasn't good enough for him.RESPONSE After reading the letter, I think that Jail has changed, that death's open arms have given him a change of heart. It brought tears to my eyes, because Miriam didn't have the chance to forgive her father and make everything right again. Why didn't Miriam visit Jail after receiving his first letter? I think it was because she was scared of seeing him after so long, of what he would think of her, and mostly importantly she was scared of him not opening the door for her again like the day of he r birthday years before. RESPONSE The message the author tried to convey was as clear as a summer sky to me.It is that friendship is something we should all treasure. It shows us that sometimes teamwork is essential to win even though sometimes we have to sacrifice. Leila and Miriam won the war against Rehashed, but in this case Miriam had to give up her life for it. It was a beautiful but heart-breaking deed: Miriam sacrificing herself for her sister and only friend Leila; she was so humble to put others before herself. In conclusion, Chalked Hussein gave the readers a very powerful image of his home country Afghanistan and showed us how strong a true friendship can be.