Comparison: Burqas and Short Skirts

Rasheed is the reason why we clutch to the stereotype of Pashtun husbands abusing their wives. He forced Mariam into an intimate relationship she didn’t want, he makes Mariam wear a full-out burqa when they are in public, and (above all else) he beats her. Mariam, who is the victim of all of this, has never seen a women that doesn’t wear a hijab or burqas. When Rasheed and Mariam leave the house to explore the city, Rasheed asks her to wait outside of a shop while he chats with the shopkeeper. As Mariam waits, she scans the crowd.

“But it was the women that drew Mariam’s eyes the most. The women in this part of Kabul were a different breed from the women in the poorer neighbourhoods – like the one she and Rasheed lived, where so many women covered fully. These women were – what was the word Rasheed had used? – ‘modern.’ Yes, modern Afghan women married to modern Afghan men who did not mind that their wives walked among strangers with makeup on their faces and nothing on their heads.” (Hosseini, 75)

                Mariam thinks of them as a different breed of women the same way that Rasheed thinks of himself as a different breed of man. They are like the rich 1% of Americans: unlike the middle class, they have the ability to afford more although this is in the sense that the women marry men who are more “Westernized” in their ways. This allows them to put on makeup and knee-length skirts without being forced to change their ways or scolded by their husbands. They can also get college/university degrees, smoke, and drive cars. All in all, this different breed of women is the type of women which men like Rasheed despise. To compensate for that, he forces Mariam to wear a burqa and takes control of her life. Mariam will unfortunately never get to experience the freedom of being an educated and loved women in her lifetime.

Allusion: Zaman

The second Easter egg that Hosseini had in A Thousand Suns was the orphanage caretaker, Zaman. The caretaker for the orphanage in The Kite Runner was also named Zaman. The description of the orphanage in both books are similar, a little run-down place filled with hungry orphans. This leads me to believe that Hosseini put Zaman in the second book purposefully for his die-hard fans.

                “The man who let us in introduced himself as Zaman, the director of the orphanage…We followed him through dim, grimy hallways where barefoot children dressed in frayed sweaters ambled around. We walked past rooms with no floor covering but matted carpets and windows shuttered with sheets of plastic. Skeleton frames of steel beds, most with no mattress.” (Hosseini, 266)

                In the Kite Runner, Amir comes to an orphanage to look for his friend’s child. Hassan, the child’s father had been executed simply for being Hasara and his child was instantly orphaned. Amir had betrayed his friend’s trust in their childhood and had come back to restore it. He noticed he was too late when he heard of his friend’s death. Determined to repair his wrong-doings, he went to the orphanage to adopt, Sohrab, the child.

                “The orphanage director was a stooping, narrow-chested man with a pleasantly lined face. He was balding, had a shaggy beard, eyes like peas. His name was Zaman…They passed through poorly lit hallways where barefoot children stepped aside and watched. They had disheveled hair or shaved scalps. They wore sweaters with frayed sleeves, ragged jeans whose knees had worn down to the strings, coats patched with duct tape.” (Hosseini, 316)

                In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed and his family are going through a drought. At this point, they are struggling to get by. Rasheed then gets the idea that they should give Aziza, the daughter, away to the orphanage to help them get by. Of course, Rasheed and Laila also have a son, Zalmai, but he is treasured too much by Rasheed to be given away. Giving Aziza away is tough for Laila but she must listen to Rasheed because he is in control.

                I feel like Hosseini had to have a reason to put an orphanage caretaker named Zaman in both of his novels. I then felt obligated to search up the meaning of the name Zaman. The name Zaman means destiny. It also means that they tend to initiate/lead events. Zaman, although a minor character in both novels, altered the destiny of the main character in a significant way when they came to visit him. That is my conclusion as to why Zaman was put into both novels. 

Allusion: Nang and Namoos

Hosseini, like most other story creators, tends to put little easter eggs inside their work for devotees. Easter eggs are reference that connect to other stories. Since I read and enjoyed The Kite Runner, I chose to read A Thousand Splendid Suns for my ISU because I was already familiar to the author’s style of writing. The first easter egg I found in this book was the mention of nang and namoos.

                “I have customers, Mariam, men, who bring their wives to my shop. The women come uncovered, they talk to me directly, look me in the eye without shame. They were makeup and skirts that show their knees. Sometimes they even put their feets in front of me, the women do, for measurements, and their husbands stand there and watch…They don’t see that they’re spoiling their own nang and namoos, their honor and pride.” (Hosseini, 70)

                In this statement I learned about what kind of man Rasheed is. He is the kind of man that enforces rules on his wives and children and proves that he is the leader of the household. He doesn’t like the sight of women crying and that his nang and namoos is carried around by those he is related to.

                “ ‘Remember this,’ Baba said, pointing at me, ‘The man is a Pashtun to the root. He has nang and namoos.’ Nang. Namoos. Honor and pride. The tenets of Pashtun men. Especially when it came to the chastity of a wife. Or of a daughter.” (Hosseini, 153)

                The quote above is from The Kite Runner. Amir’s father, affectionately called Baba is lecturing his son on nang and namoos before he runs to hit on an ex-general’s daughter. To Pashtun men, their honor and pride must not only be protected by themselves, but also by their wives and daughter. This is why there is a misconception that husbands force their wives and daughters to wear hijabs or burqas. After reading both quotes from each book, I understand how each man can interpret nang and namoos in a different way. Rasheed has a more controlling interpretation of it where no matter the culture, all women must be covered. The ex-general seems to have a more relaxed grip on the ideal. He still watches his wife and daughter closely but he doesn’t forced them to cover, made evident by the fact that Soraya, his daughter, is seen wearing regular clothing.

Loss

It’s hard to let go of something, especially when the thing that you lost didn’t have to get lost. A Thousand Splendid Suns (contrary to the name) is a book of misfortune, which leads to loss. Although the character experience gain at some points in the novel, they seem to lose something even more valuable the next time misfortune knocks at their door.

When the story of the novel shifts from a misfortunate Mariam, who had recently lost her mother and been married of into a forced marriage by her father, the book seems to take a turn for the better. Laila is a little girl who is neighbours with Rasheed, Mariam’s husband. Unlike Mariam, she was in school, had both parents to raise her and was a pretty little girl, as described by her parents. Laila was meant to be the embodiment of what Mariam could not be. When the book seemed to be at its lightest moment, Hosseini manages to remind readers of his true message. He first eases us in with a light loss.

“One day that same month of June, Giti was walking home from school with two classmates. Only three blocks from Giti’s house, a stray rocket struck the girls. Later that terrible day, Laila learned that Nila, Giti’s mother, had run up and down the street where Giti was killed, collecting pieces of her daughter’s flesh in an apron, screeching hysterically. Giti’s decomposing right foot, still in its nylon sock and purple sneaker, would be found on a rooftop two weeks later.” (Hosseini, 178)

After this loss, Laila and her family decide to move to Peshawar to seek refuge.

                “Laila dropped the books at her feet. She looked up at the sky. Shielded her eyes with one hand. Then a giant roar. Behind her, a flash of white. The ground lurched beneath her feet. Something hot and powerful slammed into her from behind. It knocked her out of her sandals. Lifting her up. And now she was flying, twisting and rotating in the air.” (Hosseini, 194)

                After the rocket hit Laila’s home, Rasheed was the one that saved her. He insisted that in return for her salvation, she should marry him. Hosseini managed to take a girl that was born in a good environment and distort it so that she would have to lose everything. He is one of few authors that can depict loss and misfortunate so beautifully.

Prose

While I was reading the back of the book, I noticed a review from USA Today.

“Hosseini’s writing makes our hearts ache, our stomachs clench, and our emotions reel…[He] tells this saddest of stories in achingly beautiful prose through stunningly heroic chracters whose spirits somehow grasp the dimmest rays of hope.” (USA Today)

One word struck me out of the whole review: prose. I strongly agreed with the fact that Hosseini was capable of using prose to his fullest advantage. But what is prose? There are many ways to define prose since it doesn’t really have any rules that apply to it. My definition for Hosseini’s version of prose is that he uses it to express the feeling around the current setting. When the reader reads his setting/character descriptions, they will know if the character is nostalgic or vengeful. Here is an example below:

“The Bamiyan Valley below was carpeted by lush farming fields. Babi said they were green winter wheat and alfafa, potatoes too. The fields were bordered by poplars and crisscrossed by streams and irrigation ditches, on the banks of which tiny femal figures squatted and washed clothes…‘It’s so quiet,’ Laila breathed. She could see tiny sheep and horses but couldn’t hear their bleating and whinnying.” (Hosseini, 148)

There is a very enchanting way that Hosseini handles character/setting descriptions. He makes the reader feel as if they are present in the dream or nightmare he writes on the paper. He also uses Arabic words to cement the prose into his work. He uses them as if the reader is also part Arabic and can connect to the words like he can connect. Finally, elements of nature are ever-present in his work, just like orthodox poetry. From ‘lush farming fields’ to ‘sun-light hair’, the reader is able to ‘feel’ the wind blowing through their hair.

Foreshadow: Meem-reh-yah-meem

When Mariam was first married off to Rasheed, she had to sign a legal document to seal the marriage. She signed the legal document the way she was taught: first with the meem, then the reh, the ya, and the meem again.

“Mariam signed her name – the meem, the reh, the ya, and the meem again – conscious of all eyes on her hand. The next time Mariam signed a document, twenty-seven years later, a mullah would again be present. ‘You are now husband and wife,” the mullah said. “Tabreek. Congrau

lations.” (Hosseini, 54)

Twenty seven years later, Mariam shares a house with Rasheed and Laila, a younger wife that Rasheed picked up. Rasheed is a man with a bad temper and he finds out that Laila has found her long lost lover, Tariq. Enraged, he picks up a belt and beats her with it. She tries to fight back but Rasheed just hits her and drops the belt to choke her. In a panic, Mariam goes into the toolshed and gets a shovel. She first hits him with the broadside. Rasheed stumbles off of Laila but the murderous intent was still visible in his eyes. Mariam then turns the shovel on its blade and swings down. Mariam decides that both she and Laila cannot escape because they will find Rasheed sooner or later so she decides to take the fall.

“Before they led her out, Mariam was given a document, told to sign beneath her statement and the mullah’s sentence. As the three Taliban watched, Mariam wrote it out, her name – the meem, the reh, the ya, and the meem – remembering the last time she signed  her name to a document twenty seven years before, at Jalil’s table, beneath the watchful gaze of another mullah.” (Hosseini, 366)

Comparison: Mariam's green hijab

As a kid, Mariam loved the visits that her father, Jalil, made. One day on a visit, she made him promise that he would take her to the movies with the rest of her family. What she didn’t know was that her mother, Nana, called her a harami (bastard) because she was a bastard child.

“The next morning, Mariam wore a cream-coloured dress that fell to her knees, cotton trousers, and a green hijab over her hair. She agonized a bit over the hijab, its being green and not matching the dress, but it would have to do – moths had eaten holes into her white one.”(Hosseini, 29)

Mariam was bothered by her green hijab not matching her cream dress because she wanted to look nice for Jalil, her biological father, who wouldn’t even let her live in the same house. When Jalil didn’t come to her house to pick her up, she finally set down the hill into the city, which was supposed to be a killing zone for harami as described by Nana. There she found out that Jalil wasn’t home. Still, she waited on the doorstep for his return. After a long while of waiting, Jalil’s driver was sent out to drive Mariam home but it was in vain since they found Nana hanging from a tree.

                “In the morning, Mariam was given a long-sleeved, dark green dress to wear over white cotton trousers. Afsoon gave her a green hijab and a pair of matching sandals.” (Hosseini, 51)

                 After Nana’s death, Jalil was forced to take his harami in. Mariam was not too happy about this either. The father she waited for so eagerly every time he came to visit had betrayed her trust. Of course, Jalil didn’t want to live with his mistake any longer so he made arrangements to have her married off to an older man living in Kabul.