A Thousand Splendid Suns Part 1: Primary Blog Entry ONLY

2/3/2023

In Part 1 of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Nana says the following to her daughter, Mariam: “Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have.” Select three distinct passages from Part 1 (add page #) that show how this sentiment informs Mariam’s life and how it relates to themes you believe will be intrinsic to the larger meaning of the novel.

Primary Blog Expectations (respond to the prompt above):
--200-250 words
--minimal errors in grammar and usage
--thoughtful and thorough writing
--Use the name that you were assigned in class as your nom de plume.
--Be sure to add word count.
--Due by 11:59 PM on Sunday night!
--REMEMBER, this is a Practice Assessment and, therefore, will not be accepted late.

King Cobra

2/3/2023 05:22:58 pm

The first instance that Mariam was informed of this sentiment was when Jalil didn't want her to come to his cinema with him as her daughter, and when he stood her up after he said he'd come for her. This was the first time she had to endure rejection and unwantedness from someone whom she thought so highly of. After seeing Jalil's rejection when she arrived at his house, she was devastated. She cried "tears of deep shame at how foolishly she had given herself over to Jalil." (Hosseini 35) Mariam has also had to endure not being seen as a person in her marriage. Rasheed sees Mariam solely as a cook and maid, and someone who will satisfy his needs. Along with him not seeing her as a person, she also has to endure the abuse. Mariam learns that “after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid.” (Hosseini 98) Lastly, Mariam has had to endure not being wanted. After years of not being able to give Rasheed a son, Mariam becomes worthless to him and it seems as if he wants nothing to do with her. It’s mentioned in the book that “no matter what she did to please him, no matter how thoroughly she submitted to his wants and demands, it wasn’t enough…now she was nothing but a burden to him” (Hosseini 99-100).

Elizabeth Acevado

2/5/2023 01:13:13 pm

One of the instances when Nana's sentiment shows up in Mariam's life was when Rasheed forced her to go upstairs when they had guests. “Rasheed had told Mariam that she was not to come down until the visitors had left” (Hosseini 53). Even though Mariam says that she didn't mind, it's likely that she just convinces herself that she doesn't mind it and it's something that she learned and got used to because of Rasheed's controlling nature. Mariam also had to endure Rasheed's verbal and physical abuse. An example of Rasheed's verbal abuse was when he dismisses Mariam’s questions about communism as as stupid when they listen to the radio . He says, "You know nothing, do you? "You're like a child. Your brain is empty. There is no information in it" (Hosseini 63). When she tries to explain herself, he tells her to shut up and she does. I think that as the story goes on, in part two there will be worse examples of this type of abuse and this might relate to a theme of enduring something for time then being set free. An example of Rasheed's physical abuse was when he forces her to chew rocks, leading her to break a tooth. Rasheed forces her to do this because he complains that the food was overcooked, but it's also possible that he said that an excuse to abuse her (Hosseini 67). Rasheed also says "Now you know what your rice tastes like. Now you know what you've given me in this marriage. Bad food, and nothing else." (Hosseini 67) This shows how much Mariam has to endure because that was a very ruthless and harsh thing to say her but she remains married with him for some purpose.

Dromedary Camel

2/5/2023 04:10:43 pm

In Part 1 of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Nana says the following to her daughter, Mariam: “Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have.” Select three distinct passages from Part 1 (add page #) that show how this sentiment informs Mariam’s life and how it relates to themes you believe will be intrinsic to the larger meaning of the novel?

Within Part One of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam is presented with many difficult and inhuman actions in her life. Yet she shows her mothers statement. One of these is when she arrives at her fathers house yet is refused entry. "But she didn't. She spent the night outside Jalil's house. She watched the sky darken, the shadow engulf the neighboring house fronts" (Hosseini 34). Mariam's situation shows that this statement is true. She has left her mother, in a place far from anything she knows and is now sleeping on the street next to the home of a father who abandoned her. Mariam had nothing left. Yet she continued. This mindset however only builds, as after she is at Rasheed's house, she also has nothing left of her old life. 250,000 kilometers away from Herat and no one she knows is nearby. This sentiment is shown here,
"The next morning, after Rasheed left for work, Mariam unpacked her clothes and put them in the dresser. She drew a pail of water from the well and, with a rag, washed the windows of her room and the windows to the living room downstairs She swept the floors, beat the cobwebs fluttering in the corners of the ceiling. She opened the windows to air the house" (Hosseini 64). Mariam's actions at this point are explained by her last few days. She had been in her room, alone in misbelief and grief. She seems to snap out of it, making herself busy and attempting to start a new life. Enduring. However, through what we have seen from Rasheed so far, this will be a long time of endurance. Lastly, an instance of Mariam keeping to this sentiment would be after she explains her hatred with Rasheeds treatment of her. This has continued for 4 years now, only further proving Mariam's understanding of Nana's phrase.
""Chupko. Shut up."
Mariam did.
It wasn't easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults, his walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid And Mariam was afraid She lived in fear of his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on
occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not" (Hosseini 98-99). Overall, the longer Mariam seems to stay with Rasheed, the longer Nana's statement is true.

A Siamese Cat

2/5/2023 08:24:05 pm

A huge message I’m seeing in the 1st part is that only when you lose something or someone, you will realize how much they were worth to you. For instance, Mariam always thought Nana wasn’t telling the truth about Jalil until she actually experienced the neglect from him first-handed. Mariam wished that, “‘I shouldn’t have left her. I shouldn’t have—‘“. Mariam admitted that waiting for Jalil and seeing his grand house doesn’t outweigh the affectionate and care that she would’ve received from Nana, even if minimal at times. Even though she regrets leaving her Nana big time, Mariam knows she can’t do anything about it besides moving on and enduring it. Mariam had to learn early on that there may be wrong decisions you make in life, but all you can do is reflect, learn from it, and grow stronger. It may make her feel lonely at times, but her marriage and caring for her husband is all she can do now.

Even if it may seem overwhelming to her saying that she has to, “concede to his moods and issues demands… clean after this man, Rasheed, cook for him, wash his clothes” (Hosseini, pg 49). She will have to learn that some aspects of her life are unfortunately predetermined, and she has to adapt to it since she has no other choice. Her own father, Jalil, is more worried about his own reputation than her daughter, and he doesn’t want rumors to spread around about his scandalous past so this was his only ‘reasonable option’. As unfortunate as it seems, thats just the societal expectations in Afghanistan: Women are expected to care after their husbands, and abide by their father’s words. Mariam was forced to grow up fast without even having the choice of pursuing an education or trying to find another place of residence. She had to learn ways to calm herself and come to terms with her own identity, that her own father may see her as ‘harami’, and that she has to adapt to by now.

This also reveals that money doesn’t automatically mean someone is ideal, and Jalil is a perfect example of that as a father. He left Nana to fend for her own during her pregnancy, and only when Nana went through all that struggle did Jalil visit Nana; But this visit wasn’t to ask if she was okay or anything, it was to see Mariam, aka her daughter… almost seemed like whenever he saw Mariam, he wanted to ignore the elephant in the room. When he was forced to become a father, he didn’t discuss the topic of marriage with her own daughter. He just decided for her with this random older guy Mariam has never met. Even though Mariam said, “I don’t want this. Don’t make me” (Hosseini, pg 47). There were many problems in this marriage: First off, there was no consent and Rasheed was much older, so Rasheed already had financial power over her. Secondly, he had no patience even though Mariam was quite literally an adolescence who was abruptly forced to marry him. Lastly, his expectations for Mariam’s abilities to match up with his previous wife weighs so much on Mariam than he realizes. Once again, the people in Mariam’s life, specifically related to Jalil, show little empathy towards women. They’re only focused on their own selfish desire. But once again, endurance is key.

socotra dragon tree

2/5/2023 09:31:31 pm

In the novel, a thousand splendid suns, the main character Mariam is facing many obstacles at a young age. One of these many obstacles was Nana, Mariam's mother, constantly acting bitter towards her. The narrator states:“Nor was she old enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born”(Hosseini 4). Throughout the beginning of the novel Nana is constantly reminding Mariam of how much of a burden she is, to not only her, but also her father. As Nana shared her stories of endurance with Mariam, she also shared the hardships she endured because of Mariam. Nana knows Mariam is the only thing she has and vice versa but instead of uplifting and protecting Mariam, she broke her down, blamed her for horrible things, prohibited Mariam from doing things she enjoyed, and gave her half and heartbreaking explanations that were confusing and troubling to Mariam. Another one of these many obstacles was Mariam finding out that the father she once praised, never wanted her. Mariam states:“I used to worship you . . . On Thursdays, I sat for hours waiting for you . . . I thought about you all the time . . . I didn’t know you were ashamed of me”(Hosseini 50). This quote takes place after Mariams well-off father set up an arranged marriage for her with a stranger, he then sent her cities away from the only life she knew. Mariam had to find out the hard way that the whole entire time, her father was just a fake. As Nana told Mariam, Jalil was just a lie and although she didn’t see it then, she has to endure it now when she’s just lost her mother to suicide, couldn’t say goodbye to her old tutor, and is married to an abusive no good man. Lastly, another of the many obstacles Mariam had to face to show enduring is all she had is when she made dinner and her husband Rasheed didn’t like it, so he abused her for it. Soon, Rasheed returns with a handful of pebbles and forces Mariam’s mouth open and stuffs them in. He then orders her to chew the pebbles. In her fear, she does as he asks, breaking the molars in the back of her mouth. He tells her, “Now you know what your rice tastes like. Now you know what you’ve given me in this marriage. Bad food, and nothing else” (Hosseini 94). These obstacles are horrible, because she can’t do anything about them. In this case she can’t provide him with a son and because of that he treats her as a maid and burden. Mariams suffered more than several miscarriages and each miscarriage comes with more abuse. Mariam knows if she doesn’t take what's dished out to her in each one of these examples, that her consequence will only be greater. Her whole life she has been seeing others achievements but only gets to witness her abuse.

Lion

2/5/2023 10:44:59 pm

I feel like a key theme that will be intrinsic to the larger meaning of this novel is oppression of women. This is becuase earlier inside of the passage they mention how this story takes place in Afghanistan where it is known that women have historically faced oppression, and when Mariam's mom said the words of " Women like us. We endure" it shows the societal norms that Mariam might potentially experience as result of this oppression

star of bethlehem

2/5/2023 10:46:49 pm

Through the characters of Mariam and her mother, Nana, Part 1 of A Thousand Splendid Suns exposes us readers to the compelling and persistent concept of endurance. The words of Nana, "Women like us. We endure. It's all we have," (Hosseini, 11), sums up the ideas covered in this section. It offers a foundation for comprehending the novel's underlying ideas as well as the protagonist Mariam. Mariam is introduced to a world where she is treated as inferior throughout the first part of the book. The introduction of Mariam's mother, Nana, establishes the central idea of Part 1: the resilience and determination of women in the face of difficulty. Mariam is taught to withstand terrible situations from a very young age. The line "This life, our life... It's like a narrative that's been told so many times, it's become a cliché" is spoken by Nana to Mariam (Hosseini, 21) This passage emphasizes Mariam's sad fate's recurrence as well as her capacity to accept it and carry on. Mariam encounters a number of difficulties, which are reflected in Nana's feelings. Mariam states that she "had grown accustomed to disappointment" (Hosseini, 6). Part 1's overarching theme is this sense of resilience in the face of difficulty. (Hosseini, 13) Mariam considers her life and comes to the conclusion that "there was no escape" from her dilemma.

Sarah E. Goode

2/5/2023 11:01:41 pm

In the novel A thousand Splendid suns, Mariam goes through a lot. One of the first moments Mariam was informed of this sentiment is when Nana, Mariam's mother, is constantly acting bitter towards her.” Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami…. Nana grabbed Mariam by the wrist, pulled her close, and, through gritted teeth, said “your a clumsy little harami” (Hosseini 4). At the age of 5 Mariam already gets the feeling of being unwanted.
“He let her sleep on the street. On the street.” (Hosseini 35). This is another one of the instances when Nana's sentiment shows up in Mariam's life. She realizes that her own father has no respect for her. Her own father has allowed her to sleep outside all night like she is a homeless person. She is ashamed. She is ashamed how she believed and confided in Jailil. She is ashamed of how much she trusted jalil. Most of all she was ashamed of how she refused to believe Nana, who had been right all along.
“She had failed him– Seven times she had failed him–and now she was nothing but a burden to him. She could see it in the way he looked at her, when he looked at her. She was a burden to him” (Hosseini 100).This is another instance of when Nana's sentiment shows up in Mariam's life. Once again Mariam is feeling neglected and worthless. At this point Mariam doesn't know her worth/ what she is good for.

2/6/2023 08:21:47 am

Hi Sarah,

Would you send me a Remind text or an email letting me know who you are? Thx!

Striped Hyena

2/5/2023 11:03:03 pm

Pelusios Castaneus (Mud Turtle)

2/5/2023 11:59:38 pm

In part 1 of ATTS, Mariam is met with many instances in which all that she can do is endure.
The first instance in which this sentiment is witnessed is in Chapter 1, Part 1 when Mariam breaks her mothers china and is called “harami“ for the first time (Hosseini 4). It is in this instance that we first see how poorly Mariam is treated by her mother, Mariam’s mother, Nana, is not shy to say what is on her mind no matter the effect that the words have on Mariam. This open and harsh attitude is the first time that we see what Mariam must endure. Mariam cannot go against her own mother and so she simply has no other choice but to listen to her.
The second instance in which this sentiment is witnessed is in Chapter 5, Part 1 where Mariam witnesses the faults of her father for the first time. On her 15th birthday, Mariam waits for Jalil to arrive, and when he doesn’t, she decides to go to his house. After being told that her father is out of town, Mariam refuses to leave and “spent the night outside Jalil's house…[watching] the sky darken” (Hosseini 34). Mariam was determined to see Jalil and persisted that she would remain present until she was able to see him. Sleeping overnight in front of the very place she was not allowed to enter, driven by her personal desire, exhibits an instance where all that Mariam can do is “endure”. She is not a person of status or authority to be listened to, so in this instance she makes herself heard by not leaving Jalil’s property and even running into his garden because she knew there was nothing that she could do except deal with the circumstances.
The second instance in which this sentiment is witnessed is when Mariam is forced to marry a man named Rasheed. Mariam is quickly told that she is a poor woman because she lacks the skills of a housewife, and although she tries to become better and does end up cooking a successful meal for Rasheed, Rasheed “with each disappointment…had grown more remote and resentful” in which Mariam claims, “nothing she did pleased him” (Hosseini 99). Nonetheless, Mariam remained with him. Although her duties in cooking became a cause of anxiety, she continued to do so, even to the point where she was made to eat pebbles as punishment for what Rasheed thought was her poor cooking. Once again in this instance, all Mariam could do as a woman was endure; she did not hold any power in her relationship and was treated as a servant. All Marima could do was shoulder the unfortunate events.
Throughout Part 1 of ATTS, we see Mariam struggle with adverse circumstances that are in no way earned through any fault of her own. I believe that the powerless experiences of Mariam highlight possible themes of gender inequality, perseverance, and shame and reputation. Mariam being a woman, a wife, and a daughter leads her to always be controlled by others who should be in an equal stance with her but instead hold the power of the relationship, such as her mother, her husband, and her father. I believe that if these themes are prevalent, we will see what happens when Mariam challenges her role in her relationships.

Snow Leopard

2/6/2023 12:41:33 am

In part one of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Nana’s quote to her daughter Miriam, “Women like us. We endure. It's all we have”, serves as a kind of foundation and foreshadows the tragedies and tribulations that Mariam is soon to be faced with. One of the earliest examples of this in the novel is when Mariam is stood up and blatantly ignored by Jalil on her 15th birthday at the Herat. This is is seen when, “A hand appeared and frantically pulled at a cord. The curtains felt shut(Hossetni 35).” During this scence, Mariam sees Jalil upstairs in a room but when he sees her, he closes the curtain. This is just after she spent the night outside of his house trying to find and hoping he was there. This act by her father reveals his true feelings he has towards and how he’s willing to abandon his daughter like it’s nothing.
Secondly, the first tragedy we see in the novel occurs in chapter 5 with Nana commiting suicide by hanging herself. Shortly after being escorted back from Herat by Jalil’s chauffeur, Mariam is met with the gruesome sight of her dead mother with a rope on her neck. “The rope dropping from a high branch. Nana dangling at the end of it(Hosettni 36).” A 15 year old experiencing this just after her birthday is extremely traumatic which no one, regardless of age, should go through. Nonetheless, Mariam had to go through this and move on without even grieving properly.
The third disgusting thing that Mariam experiences because of her father follows shortly after her mother’s death which is marrying a middle aged man as a 15 year old with no say in the decision. This takes place in chapter 7 when she’s in Jalil’s house and the family starts talking about her suitor by the name of Rasheed who is well in his 40s. “Yes. But I’ve seen nine year old girls given to men twenty years older than your suitor, Mariam(Hosettni 47).” To the family, this is completely normal by their standards and traditions, however, this is extremely disturbing and shouldn’t even exist. The misfortunes that Mariam already experienced and it’s only the beginning of her story is pretty shocking and disturbing for readers. Her mother’s quote about endurance serves as a very important theme that I know will be repeated as the novel continues.

Arabian Leopard

2/6/2023 12:54:30 am

The first instance of Nana's sentiment comes up when Miriam's birthday wish is disregarded. When she shares the sentiment that she wants to go to her father's cinema, she is immediately shot down. She is then given false hope by her father and he makes it clear that he doesn't want to be seen with his daughter. Miriam spends more than half of her day waiting for him. When looking again she sees, "The face was there for only an instant, a flash, but long enough... Then it snapped from view" Jalil knew his daughter had high hopes and he watched as he crushed them. Unfortunately, Miriam knew she had to move on and go back and see Nana.

Nana's sentiment comes up again when Miriam is already going through enduring her mother's death by suicide. This is brutal for a young child to have witnessed. Instead of Jalil providing a home for her, he again makes it clear that he doesn't want her there. She then learns that she is being married off to a man around 30 years older than her. Her aunt breaks the news with. "'You have a suitor.'" Mariam notes that her, "chest was tightening. The room was reeling up and down, the ground shifting beneath her feet" (46). Miriam had to deal with the tulmutuous feelings of her mother dying and now has to deal with being abandonded again by her father.

Lastly, Nana's sentiment comes up when Miriam believes that she has a good companion. Life doesn't seem so bad when she's pregnant with Rasheed's child. Unfortunately these good feelings don't last. "The grief washed over her, swept her up, tossed her upside down. Mariam was dumbfounded that she could miss in such a crippling manner, a being she had never seen" (92). Sadly, Mariam has to endure this feeling 7 more times.

Sun Bear ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ

2/6/2023 01:55:01 am

Mariam, in "A Thousand Splendid Suns", endures her father's betrayal, her mother's suicide, and her husband's abuse, which furthers the themes of loneliness, belonging, and family. Mariam, having previously idolized her father, realizes that he is ashamed of her, proving her mother to be right. When Mariam goes to see Jalil, she is told by his chauffeur that he is on a business trip. Dedicated to see her father, she spends the night sleeping outside. When she is forced to leave, Mariam sees Jalil through the window and realizes that she had been lied to; he was ashamed of his illegitimate child and wanted her away from his real life (Hosseini 35). Before this betrayal, Mariam adored and trusted Jalil. She never believed her mother's claim that he was an untrustworthy and deceitful man. Knowing that her father was ashamed of her perpetuates the theme of loneliness throughout Mariam's part. This theme is further developed by her mother's suicide. Before her death, Nana says that Mariam will be nothing without her (Hosseini 40). Knowing that she is unwanted by her father, Mariam believes this sentiment and feels alone in an unfamiliar world--she no longer saw her father as the man he once was, and she was far from the life she had lived with her mother. Mariam struggles to find a sense of belonging, which is another theme prevalent throughout "A Thousand Setting Suns". Even with her mother, she felt unwanted and isolated, but now she truly had nothing familiar in her life. When she is married off to Rasheed, he too, does not treat her like family. He treats her harshly and acts intolerant towards her emotions. Mariam's character represents resilience in the face of cruelty. In order to survive, she has to endure her husband's abuse, such as when he shoves pebbles in her mouth (Hosseini 59). Mariam is unwanted by her mother, isolated by her father, and mistreated by her husband, which furthers the theme of family. Mariam wants nothing more than to belong.

Sibagh link

2/6/2023 10:03:31 am

A Thousand Splendid Suns contains many lines that fortify the idea that she isn’t like most people. Page six contains the line “The children of strangers get ice cream. What do you get? Stories about ice cream.” This is said by Mariam’s mother, Nana, to set her apart from the children who live down in the village. Nana believed it was the best thing for Mariam. She wanted to protect Mariam from the world that hurt her so much when she lived in it. Nana also said that “To Jalil and his wives, I was a pokeroot. A mugwort. You too. And you weren't even born yet” on page 8. This was said to tell Mariam that she was always set apart. Even before she was born, the life ahead of her was set in hatred and shame. When Mariam talks with Jalil before leaving town on page 55, she says plainly: “you were ashamed of me”. She is fully aware of the circumstance she was born into. She knows that she has been shunned by the world for something the world did before she entered it. Since there is no way she can change this, all she can do is try to survive.

The Veronica polifolia

2/6/2023 10:07:33 am

Mariam began to endure the wrath of life from the moment she was born. To be unwanted, but also be naive to the circumstances of life is a great challenge. Mariam was born through secrecy and disgrace, but even more impactful, born to a mother who suffers from mental illness. In situations like this, the roles are almost reversed. Children are forced to grow up faster than light, building trauma that is hard to break. The opening of the book, the first passage, is told about Mariam's first time being called a disgrace. Though it becomes routine to her ears, hearing it from such a young age requires somebody of great strength to survive.
The second time she shows endurance is when she is denied schooling by her mother (pg 17). Mariam desires to expand her knowledge- to learn, but is brought down by the weight of her mother's presence. She has to learn to live with the fact that she will never be free from the battles of being a woman in low-class of the world.
Mariam endures when she experiences betrayal from her father. When she learns of his other side and sleeps outside for the night, while he watches from the window. It is one thing for people to be ashamed of you, but to learn of that, especially at the age she was, is a whole other battle in itself. Mariam lost her innocence at this point. Nature no longer nurtures her mind, but now shows her the evils of the world. The greed that exists within men and how she must learn to conquer and rise in these battles.

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