The Past is Preeminent
Past experience is the only driving force behind a person’s actions and personality, as they are mentally and emotionally shaped by what has happened in previous years. The past can positively or, more commonly, negatively affect a person as they discover who they are and what they think, similar to the main character in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini vividly illustrates through the progression of the main character Mariam’s life how acutely her past contributes to her personality later on as a person and guides her in the discovery of who she is.
Mariam’s life as an adolescent was laced with daily struggles both physically and mentally. She continually was told by one of two people present in her …show more content…
A value established in Mariam in the beginning of her life is a distrust of men, as the only man she loves proves to be a fraud and leaves her when she needs him most. Jalil “lets [Mariam] sleep outside,” when she’s fighting with Nana and leaves to find his home as a child (Hosseini 33). This early act of betrayal on Jalil’s part creates a long lasting disgust for him, as he comes to see her several times and she refuses, and really all men in general after that point in the novel. Another attitude established in Mariam is that of ‘I am lucky to be where I am because I am worthless’ visible in countless encounters with Rasheed, which I believe is a direct correlation to the mistreatment of Mariam in her youth. In a conversation between Mariam and Reeshad later in the book, Mariam is told to “Chup Ko. Shut up,” by Reeshad, and because Mariam doesn’t see the worth in herself, assumes it because she’s ignorant and follows his crude orders to stop speaking (Hosseini 89). Without the lack of trust in men and the ‘it’s good enough for a harami’ attitude Mariam possessed, as readers it would be more difficult to see how deeply her past affected her. These two values/attitudes were very clearly present in the beginning of the novel, and so Hosseini made them clearly visible throughout her adult life as well to …show more content…
Mariam’s entire young life she was being treated as incompetent, less-than, and ignorant. It wasn’t until Mariam decided internally to step up and become the strong, smart woman she was that she actually began to believe she was capable of being just that. Jalil, Nana, and Reeshad constantly told her how useless she was and it wasn’t until her final days of living did she understand she “was a legitimate person,” and deserved a happy life (Hosseini 330). Mariam’s past was crucial in the discovery of the theme because without the internal conflict in her, as readers we would not be able to understand the strength it took for her to overcome her preconceived ideas of what/who she was. Mariam had to discover for herself that she was an important and beautiful person before she would actually believe
Past experience is the only driving force behind a person’s actions and personality, as they are mentally and emotionally shaped by what has happened in previous years. The past can positively or, more commonly, negatively affect a person as they discover who they are and what they think, similar to the main character in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini vividly illustrates through the progression of the main character Mariam’s life how acutely her past contributes to her personality later on as a person and guides her in the discovery of who she is.
Mariam’s life as an adolescent was laced with daily struggles both physically and mentally. She continually was told by one of two people present in her …show more content…
A value established in Mariam in the beginning of her life is a distrust of men, as the only man she loves proves to be a fraud and leaves her when she needs him most. Jalil “lets [Mariam] sleep outside,” when she’s fighting with Nana and leaves to find his home as a child (Hosseini 33). This early act of betrayal on Jalil’s part creates a long lasting disgust for him, as he comes to see her several times and she refuses, and really all men in general after that point in the novel. Another attitude established in Mariam is that of ‘I am lucky to be where I am because I am worthless’ visible in countless encounters with Rasheed, which I believe is a direct correlation to the mistreatment of Mariam in her youth. In a conversation between Mariam and Reeshad later in the book, Mariam is told to “Chup Ko. Shut up,” by Reeshad, and because Mariam doesn’t see the worth in herself, assumes it because she’s ignorant and follows his crude orders to stop speaking (Hosseini 89). Without the lack of trust in men and the ‘it’s good enough for a harami’ attitude Mariam possessed, as readers it would be more difficult to see how deeply her past affected her. These two values/attitudes were very clearly present in the beginning of the novel, and so Hosseini made them clearly visible throughout her adult life as well to …show more content…
Mariam’s entire young life she was being treated as incompetent, less-than, and ignorant. It wasn’t until Mariam decided internally to step up and become the strong, smart woman she was that she actually began to believe she was capable of being just that. Jalil, Nana, and Reeshad constantly told her how useless she was and it wasn’t until her final days of living did she understand she “was a legitimate person,” and deserved a happy life (Hosseini 330). Mariam’s past was crucial in the discovery of the theme because without the internal conflict in her, as readers we would not be able to understand the strength it took for her to overcome her preconceived ideas of what/who she was. Mariam had to discover for herself that she was an important and beautiful person before she would actually believe