I consider the purpose of the novel written by Khaled Housseini is to inform. This is very similar to the reason of his first best seller, The Kite Runner. In both novels, the author tells a story of someone in Afghanistan in the 70’s and 80’s that wants to get away and be free from the USSR and the Taliban. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam shows the female perspective on what was going on in Afghanistan at the time. The Kite Runner showed the story through the eyes of a father and a son, and Mariam shows the other side of the story through the prejudice she is subject to for being considered a bastard. What Housseini is trying to explain to the world is the path and hardship of those in Afghanistan. His first novel came out in 2003 and this novel came out shortly after. At that time, America was opposed to anything labeled Afghanistan. Housseini wanted to show the world that not all Afghans are evil. They are people, just like you and me, and they can make mistakes (sometimes major ones) and they have their own flaws just like everyone else. Mariam just wanted to get to know her father, like any bastard child separated from a parent would want. Mariam’s mother wanted Mariam to appreciate her and stop thinking foolish things, but Mariam was not going to let the men in power and society keep her from getting to know her father, being a successful woman in Afghanistan, and being free.
A relationship I did not like throughout the course of the novel was the almost artificial relationship between Mariam and her mother Nana. Nana was there to care for her daughter and try to teach her how to survive in life. But Mariam didn’t want to listen. She was more interested in her father. She didn’t listen to her mother, and when she was most rebellious, she came home to see her mother had killed herself. Mariam had so many unanswered questions about life and her father, and she took her mother for granted. So when she needed her most, Nana wasn’t there. His made me dislike their relationship. Mariam was not respecting Nana enough, or realizing her importance until she was gone.
If I were to add a chapter to this novel, it would be early in the novel and it would be more in depth about Nana before she had Mariam. This novel would help explain her upbringings and help the reader see why Nana does what she does.
She wakes up early each morning to help prepare breakfast for her master. Her mom was a servant to a relatively wealthy man that worked for an oil company in the area. She and her two sisters worked for around seventeen hours a day to all of the needs of their master and his family. These three young servants were demanded to care for two adults and their three kids. Their duties included washing dishes, washing clothes, cleaning the house, serving guests, and sometimes even helping bathe their master. They were often abused and never felt safe at while serving. They felt that at any moment one of the masters would snap and kill them. They worked for this man and his family for a long time, and were sold when they were in their teens to another family. There new master would father the child of Nana in the future. Both of Nana’s sibling died due to starvation at the last house, so Nana was in it alone now. She was always worried even still of possible attacks from her master, but this new master turned out to be nice and kind to her. He never raised his voice and rarely was angry. These qualities ended up being reasons for her attraction to her master, which inevitably led to a baby that Nana would name Mariam.
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