A Thousand Splendid Sun Summary

                    A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUN

INTRODUCTION

We all are familiar with the condition of the people residing in Afghanistan and “A thousand splendid sun”, written by Khaled Hosseini, is an offering in spreading awareness about the deprivation an Afghan had to go through during their lifetime. Through this book, he tried to show the actual picture of Afghanistan and how its people, especially women, got pompous by the war. Domestic violence, rape, beating, disrespect are the things women had to tolerate during the war and still endure.

This book is female dominant, and the entire story roams around two women, Mariam and Laila. Khaled Hosseini has expressed the grief of Afghan women through the fictitious character of Mariam and Laila. Taking these two ladies into consideration, he demonstrated the roles of females in Afghan society.

 

KHALED HOSSEINI

An Afghan-American novelist, Khaled Hosseini, was born on March 4, 1965, in Kabul, Afghanistan. He has written three novels till now which include The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Sun, and The Mountains Echoed.

His first novel, The Kite Runner, has spent one hundred and one weeks on the list of New York Bestsellers, the first three weeks at the number one position. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Sun, has spent one hundred and three weeks on the New York Bestseller list, first fifteen weeks at number one. And his third novel, And the Mountains Echoed, has remained on the list for at least thirty-three weeks.

 

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUN STORY

This story is a mother-daughter story. We can divide the story into four parts. The first part includes the story of a girl named Mariam, who got married at the premature age of fifteen to a man (Rasheed). His age was forty-five. After marriage, he took her to Kabul. The second part includes the story of a girl called Laila, who became the third wife of Rasheed. The third part brings both the women under one roof, and the last part contains the story of Laila and her family.

 

FIRST PART

The first part of this book consists story of a girl named Mariam, a harami. Harami means someone who has sinned or one who was born illegally. Her mother whom she called nana, was the third wife of her father. As she was born harami, she was kept away from the city lights in a Kolba. Her father came to her see once every week. She loved her father more than her mother. One day, on the occasion of her fourteenth birthday, she decided to live with her father. Although she was aware of the story of her mother, she chooses to not believe it.

She left her mother alone and went to see her father. There, she was not allowed to enter inside the house and not even allowed to meet her father. She got upset and now she knew that her mother was right about her father that he worries about his status and will never accept her in his house. When she arrived at her home, she saw her mother was hanging from a tree. After this incident, she was taken to her father house where her stepmothers forcefully married her to a guy named Rasheed, a forty-five years old man. His first wife and son were dead. His only motive was to have a boy child, and that’s the reason he married Mariam.

After marriage, he took her to Kabul and here Mariam got pregnant. She was truly happy for the first time after the death of her mother. Rasheed was throwing a party every single day. But this happiness did not last too long. Mariam had a miscarriage and not only this time but every time she got pregnant. And this made her devastated. Rasheed behaviour towards her was getting worse day by day. He started scolding and even beating her on every little thing.

 

SECOND PART

Laila was dwelling in the same street with her parents and two elder brothers where Mariam and Rasheed were living. She had a friend Tariq, who always protect her from bullies.

Meanwhile, there held a war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. Laila father sent his both son to war. After a month, both her brothers had died in the war. But the day of freedom was not far after the Soviet Union decided to leave Afghanistan. Everything was starting to fall in its place and everyone was getting engaged in their daily chores. Meanwhile, Laila and Tariq started developing feelings for each other. Unlike previous days, these days did not last long, and soon the war began once again. This time more hazardous. Bombs and rockets were bombarding houses. Everywhere sounds of a rocket could be clearly heard. It was getting worse day by day.

One day Tariq came to inform Laila that his family had decided to leave this country soon. Laila got really upset with him. There was no one in the home, and for the first time, they made love physically. Tariq had also proposed to her to marry him, but Laila denied it because she did not want to leave her parent in this critical situation.

After two days, when Tariq and his family had gone, Laila parents had informed her that they would also be leaving soon. On the day of their departure, they met with an accident in which Laila got injured and lost her parents. Rasheed and Mariam took her to their home. 

 

THIRD PART

Tariq and his family have met with an accident, a man conveyed this message to Laila. She assumed that Tariq and his family has dead now.

Against the will of Mariam, Rasheed decided to marry Laila. Mariam conveyed this message to Laila. No one knew that Laila was going to give birth to Tariq child. To protect her child, she agreed to marry Rasheed, and after their marriage, she successfully made everyone believe that she had Rasheed child in her belly.

After seven months, she gave birth to a girl child and named her Aziza. This child has changed the relation between Laila and Mariam drastically for good. Now both of them are standing against the cruelty of Rasheed. One morning they decided to run from Kabul. At this time, women were not allowed to go alone anywhere. There must be at least one man with them. When they reached the bus station, they asked for help from one man, but he betrayed them and informed the authority that they are alone. Authority has not done anything with them, but Rasheed beat them with belts.

They never tried to run after this incident, and by this time Taliban had occupied Afghanistan. However, the status of women did not change. They were not allowed to work, to study, to roam alone, and the brutality and crimes were achieving their maximum height.

Soon Laila gave birth to a boy child and named him Zalmai. Rasheed loved him dearly, and despite not having money, he always brought him toys. Rashid shop got burned in a fire, after which their condition was getting worse every day. Rashid was now jobless, and they had nothing to eat. So, collectively they decided to send Aziza to an orphanage.

Laila tried to see Aziza at least one time every day. And for this, every day she paid a price. She got brutally beaten and scolded, but her nature to see Aziza had never ended.

One day someone rang the doorbell. It was Tariq. Laila was now meeting Tariq. Her own Tariq, Aziza father, Tariq. She was not in her senses. It seems that she was living those times again. He was now tall, handsome, had broad shoulders, and his one leg was not real. They talked about everything, and between their conversation, she told him about Aziza. And asked him to come tomorrow to meet her.

When they were communicating, Zalmai was there. He told everything to Rasheed. Rasheed was now angrier than ever before. He took out his belt and started beating Laila. He was all in the mood to kill Laila today. Suddenly, Marriam came with a shovel and hit Rashid twice, giving all her strength.

 

Fourth part

Mariam convinced Laila to go with Tariq and leave her alone here. Laila with two children Aziza, and Zalmai went with Tariq to Pakistan, where Laila and Tariq got married.

For killing Rasheed, Marriam was being punished death sentence.

When Laila heard the news that the Taliban are no longer ruling over Afghanistan and everything is getting normal once again, she asked Tariq to start their living in Kabul once again.

On returning to Kabul, Laila visited kolba, Mariam home. There she met Mullah Faizullah’s son Hamza. He gave her a box, which was reserved for Marriam.

Laila and her family were now living in Kabul. Aziza and Zalmai were started going to school. And Laila gave tuitions at her home. She was going to be a mother soon, and for that, every evening, they played a game of suggesting boy name. They all knew if a baby girl was born, she would be named Mariam.

 

CONCLUSION

The characters of this book are fictional, but the environment and surroundings described are all real. It depicts the actual situation of an afghan woman during those eras. Women had to face molestation, sexual abuse, rape, and domestic violence during that time.

 

SOME RELATED QUESTIONS

Q.1 Is “A Thousand Splendid Sun” a real story?

ANS. No, this book is a work of fiction, but the conditions of women depicted in this book are very similar to real life.

 

Q.2 What is the meaning of “A thousand Splendid Sun” and where is it taken from?

ANS. The name is taken from a poem Kabul, composed by Saeb-e-Tabrizi. He used this line to describe the beauty of Afghan women and the cultural achievements of Afghanistan.