February Blog

This month we finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. Since most of the discussion in class was about the women in the novel, I decided I would use this month's blog to discuss the men in the novel. One of the first men that Mariam encounters in her lifetime is her father, Jalil. Mariam feels drawn to him and gets excited when he comes to visit because she does not see him often. What Mariam does not know is that her father is not a very good guy. This bothers me because as a child, Mariam was too naïve to realize the faults in her father and to be cautious about their relationship. The next male that Mariam had contact with was Mullah Faizullah. This man, in my opinion, is a little understated considering the fact that he did not have a huge part in the novel even though he had a huge impact on Mariam's life. She learned a lot from him and his presence allowed her to grow and be herself. I believe that Mullah Faizulla was included not only to show that not all men are monsters but also almost as a father figure to Mariam. Mariam's father clearly was not very fatherly toward her. In the next stage of her life, Mariam is forced to marry Rasheed. Although it is easy to say that Rasheed is evil and a rapist and practically the worst human being to ever walk the earth because of the way he treats women, we also have to understand that he is a victim of his society. Men are brought up to believe that they are superior to women and in turn, the raise their sons to do the same (as Rasheed does with Zalmai). It becomes a vicious, never ending cycle. I am not excusing Rasheed's actions or saying that he has no way to break from the cycle but I am simply stating that the way he was brought up has a major effect on the way he treats other people. He is a victim of his society but he is still abusive and a rapist and a horrible person. The last major male in the novel was Tariq. Tariq is the exact opposite of Rasheed. He does not look down upon women and he genuinely cares about Laila and what she is comfortable with. Tariq's ability to care for Zalmai as one of his own children shows that he is a compassionate human being and is unlike Rasheed or Jalil, who could not even care for a child that actually was his. Although there are many characters in this book that I did not particularly care for, this was probably my favorite book we have read so far. I think that the emotions it drew out of me made Mariam and Laila easy to relate to even though I have never been in a situation nearly as horrible as they were. Overall, it was a really great book.