Independent Novel Study a Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hossenni Essay

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Thousand Splendid Suns

Character's Physical Traits

The main character of the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns is a woman named Mariam. She is a harami, or illegitimate child and thus has very little rights in her society. The very first description the reader gets of Mariam is when she is five years old, the first lines of the book. "Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami" (Hosseini 1). Very little information is given about her physically and this is also important. She is described as a weed, something ugly and undesired (329). The reason is that in her society, Mariam is highly unimportant as a single person. She is a woman and that means she is powerless. She is illegitimate which means that any power she may have had as a respectable woman is robbed her by the circumstances of her birth. Mariam's father abandons her and marries her off to a man who is very much older than her and because of the circumstances of her birth, she has no course but to accept the marriage and all the physical abuse that accompanies it. Mariam believes all the terrible things that are said about her because she has no alternative. She is limited in the potential future she may have and the kinds of men that she would be able to marry, ultimately affecting her social standing and her chances for happiness.

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There is little likelihood that she would be able to marry for companionship because she is poor, illegitimate, and ugly.

2. Character's Personality

Mariam is a somewhat stubborn child. She does not accept that her father has truly abandoned her even though she has more than enough evidence to prove that he has indeed left her. Still she would never betray her inner thoughts to those who take care of her for fear of the potential ramifications that she may face. For example, when a relative describes Mariam as a weed, the narrator states: "Mariam frowned internally" (Hosseini 8). After her mother's suicide, she is sent to live with her father's family where she is constantly derided. Her future is decided by the forces around her, sent to destroy her personality and force her to conform to the ideal, submissive female. "The possibilities denied. The hopes dashed" (125). Every struggle that Mariam has to face, she does so silently and suffers on the inside. This is what leads her to continue living with a man who abuses her, because she does not demand aid or even indicate clearly that she is unhappy. She lives in terror of her husband, and it is her meek and terrified personality that keeps her subservient. "As her heart pounded, her mind wondered what excuse he would use that night to pounce on….....

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"Independent Novel Study A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hossenni" (2012, April 25) Retrieved June 4, 2026, from
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"Independent Novel Study A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hossenni", 25 April 2012, Accessed.4 June. 2026,
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