CONTENTS
Acknowledgements.. i
Abstract.. ii
摘 要..iii
1 Introduction.. 1
2 The Plight ofWomen Behind TheWalls of Afghanistan..5
2.1 Oppressed and Powerless Victims of Tragic Sweep ofWars 5
2.2 Socio-political Injustice6
2.3 Properties of Men.7
3 Twists of Fate 9
3.1 Mariam--Lifelong Endurance.. 9
3.2 Laila--Transition from Everything to Nothing 10
3.3 Encounter of The Two Miserable Women -- Mutual Redemption..11
4 Great Love with Overwhelming Power..12
4.1 Sacrificial Friendship..12
4.2 Noble Man-woman Love..13
4.3 Bond Between Parents and Children.14
5 Conclusions. 15
Bibliography18
1 IntroductionA Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) , which spans the three decades of turbulent history inAfghanistan ranging from post Soviet war to Taliban rule, could be claimed as an epic ofAfghanistan in turmoil.The novel follows the lives of two women characters in the scenario of a war-torn country. Mariamwas an illegitimate child who lived with her mother since born, while her mother’s suicide and herfather’s cowardice forced Mariam to marry a shoemaker Rasheed, a man three times her age. Theyfailed to conceive a child, hence Rasheed married Laila, a well-educated young girl, but lost herwhole family in a bomb attack. Born a generation apart and with different backgrounds, Mariamand Laila faced the war, poverty and family violence together and finally helped each other to findfreedom, through life or through death.A Thousand Splendid Suns was inspired by the author’s own experience back to his hometownKabul. He saw these burka-clad women sitting at street corners, with four, five or six children,begging for change. Hosseini wondered how life had brought them to that point. The voices, facesand incredible stories of survival all stuck with him and turned out to be the stimulant for his secondnovel. As Hosseini once said in an interview, “I hope the book offers emotional subtext to theimage of the burka-clad woman walking down a dusty street in Kabul.” (Memmott, 2013:1)Authored by Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns was eagerly awaited even before itspublication for the popularity of The Kite Runner (2003), the best-selling debut of Hosseini. Livingup to everyone’s expectation, A