For if you dislike them, perhaps you dislike a thing and Allah makes therein much good.(The Qu'Ran)" The above quote is written for men regarding to their treatment of women. A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini, chronicles the lives of two Afghan women as they attempt to cope with the drastic changes that have occurred in Afghanistan in past years. The novel follows the friendship of Laila and Mariam, by dividing itself into four parts. The first part focusses on Mariam, while the second and last part focus on Laila. The third part of the novel, centers itself towards the friendship that develops between Laila and Mariam and their family. The novel also follows the timeline of communist and Taliban rule, as well as the beginning of the Afghan war and shows how the different cultural interactions affect the main characters. Laila and Mariam, the two protagonist, born a generation apart, propel the novel forward by bringing their individual identity together and giving the audience a modern and traditional view of Afghan life through their eyes.
"And that.is the story of our country, one invasion after another.Macedonians, Sassanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we're like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing to look at, but still standing" (Hosseini 146). This quote was said by the driver during Babi, Laila, and Tariq's trip to the Buddha statues. The quote indicates that throughout the years many have tried to conquer Afghanistan and each conquest has added on some values to the ever changing Afghan culture. This distinctly shows the different parts of the novel especially when it comes to education. In the beginning of the novel, when Mariam tells Mullah Faizullah she wants to go school, her mother states, .
There is only one, only one skill a woman like and me needs in life, and they don't teach it in school.Only one skill. And it's this tahamul. Endure.
