On this page, I'll discuss the themes in A Thousand Splendid Suns. All in-text citations' page numbers are based off of the hard-cover version of the book.
The theme I found most prevalent was loyalty. It existed in many of the characters, but was lacking in others. Fariba was very loyal to Afghanistan for staying there even as it spewed corruption and as the Taliban terrorized civilians every day. For better or for worse, she was very anti-communist because it was different than the traditional political system in Afghanistan. While she had good intentions, her actions didn't exactly help her daughter's future, nor did it agree with her husband Hakim's views on the communists, as he supported them since they supported women's rights, especially regarding education. She also wanted to honor her two sons, Ahmad and Noor, who died while fighting for the Mujahideen, by staying in the country.
Similar to Tariq, Mariam's loyalty was very strong to some people, like her father, Jalil, and to Laila, who she developed a sisterly relationship with fighting Rasheed and too weak to at least one other, that person being her mom, Nana. In addition to revealing the innocent foolishness that led her to try to move in with Jalil, defying Nana's demand that Mariam not leave, she was too loyal to Jalil and that drew her away from Nana, who was in shock and committed suicide after Mariam left. Of course, Jalil didn't return much of her loyalty until the end, when he sent Mariam a letter apologizing for not answering the door when Mariam showed up on that day so many years ago. Rasheed was incredibly disloyal by our society's standards, marrying both Mariam and Laila. Hypocrisy was okay for men, while women had no rights anyway so they weren't writing the rules of how people should act anyway. The most demeaning acts of hypocrisy by Rasheed was that he made his wives wear burqas, yet looked at pornographic magazines in his spare time. "On every page were women, beautiful women, who wore no shirts, no trousers, no socks or underpants...Her stomach revolted with distaste. Was this what he did then, those nights that he did not visit her room? Had she been a disappointment to him in this particular regard? A woman's face, he'd said, is her husband's business only. If so, why did Rasheed insist that she cover when he thought nothing of looking at the private areas of other men's wives and sisters?" (Hosseini 75). Traditionally, people of the same ethnic group would have agreed about most things, but because of the Taliban's extreme hypocrisy, even other Pashtuns disagreed with them, such as Zaman, the orphanage director. He said that the Taliban had "disgraced the name of" his people, such as by not allowing women to "go out and make a living" (Hosseini 283).
The darkest theme was the huge amount of conflict that went on during the book, especially among adults. From the lack of hospitality among strangers to the Taliban's inhumanity, Laila and Tariq's relationship seemed more unique since they got along so well and got married in the end. Since they met each other as young kids and were best friends for so long it really symbolizes the innocence of youth. In contrast, Rasheed was presumably the oldest character in the book and was by far the biggest antagonist. Even though it was to a much lesser extent, Tariq's parents didn't get along very well either and "could easily pass for his grandparents", according to Laila (Hosseini 116). Mariam resented Laila when they first met because Laila was marrying Rasheed, which made Mariam's frustration reasonable, but Laila just wanted to get along with Mariam. While Rasheed was far from the best father in Afghanistan, his treatment of Zalmai was leagues better than his treatment of Laila and especially Mariam. This was of course because they were women and Mariam was a harami as well. Rasheed rudely said "'What's this crying about?'" and dished out similar rash complaints when Mariam cried (Hosseini 54). The reader learns so much about the positive values of Afghan culture and the ones that people are trying to change thanks to Khaled Hosseini's use of themes in A Thousand Splendid Suns, in addition to plenty of life lessons.
The theme I found most prevalent was loyalty. It existed in many of the characters, but was lacking in others. Fariba was very loyal to Afghanistan for staying there even as it spewed corruption and as the Taliban terrorized civilians every day. For better or for worse, she was very anti-communist because it was different than the traditional political system in Afghanistan. While she had good intentions, her actions didn't exactly help her daughter's future, nor did it agree with her husband Hakim's views on the communists, as he supported them since they supported women's rights, especially regarding education. She also wanted to honor her two sons, Ahmad and Noor, who died while fighting for the Mujahideen, by staying in the country.
Similar to Tariq, Mariam's loyalty was very strong to some people, like her father, Jalil, and to Laila, who she developed a sisterly relationship with fighting Rasheed and too weak to at least one other, that person being her mom, Nana. In addition to revealing the innocent foolishness that led her to try to move in with Jalil, defying Nana's demand that Mariam not leave, she was too loyal to Jalil and that drew her away from Nana, who was in shock and committed suicide after Mariam left. Of course, Jalil didn't return much of her loyalty until the end, when he sent Mariam a letter apologizing for not answering the door when Mariam showed up on that day so many years ago. Rasheed was incredibly disloyal by our society's standards, marrying both Mariam and Laila. Hypocrisy was okay for men, while women had no rights anyway so they weren't writing the rules of how people should act anyway. The most demeaning acts of hypocrisy by Rasheed was that he made his wives wear burqas, yet looked at pornographic magazines in his spare time. "On every page were women, beautiful women, who wore no shirts, no trousers, no socks or underpants...Her stomach revolted with distaste. Was this what he did then, those nights that he did not visit her room? Had she been a disappointment to him in this particular regard? A woman's face, he'd said, is her husband's business only. If so, why did Rasheed insist that she cover when he thought nothing of looking at the private areas of other men's wives and sisters?" (Hosseini 75). Traditionally, people of the same ethnic group would have agreed about most things, but because of the Taliban's extreme hypocrisy, even other Pashtuns disagreed with them, such as Zaman, the orphanage director. He said that the Taliban had "disgraced the name of" his people, such as by not allowing women to "go out and make a living" (Hosseini 283).
The darkest theme was the huge amount of conflict that went on during the book, especially among adults. From the lack of hospitality among strangers to the Taliban's inhumanity, Laila and Tariq's relationship seemed more unique since they got along so well and got married in the end. Since they met each other as young kids and were best friends for so long it really symbolizes the innocence of youth. In contrast, Rasheed was presumably the oldest character in the book and was by far the biggest antagonist. Even though it was to a much lesser extent, Tariq's parents didn't get along very well either and "could easily pass for his grandparents", according to Laila (Hosseini 116). Mariam resented Laila when they first met because Laila was marrying Rasheed, which made Mariam's frustration reasonable, but Laila just wanted to get along with Mariam. While Rasheed was far from the best father in Afghanistan, his treatment of Zalmai was leagues better than his treatment of Laila and especially Mariam. This was of course because they were women and Mariam was a harami as well. Rasheed rudely said "'What's this crying about?'" and dished out similar rash complaints when Mariam cried (Hosseini 54). The reader learns so much about the positive values of Afghan culture and the ones that people are trying to change thanks to Khaled Hosseini's use of themes in A Thousand Splendid Suns, in addition to plenty of life lessons.