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A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns. What meaning does war bring to our lives?. Context: Afghanistan.

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A Thousand Splendid Suns

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  1. A Thousand Splendid Suns What meaning does war bring to our lives?

  2. Context: Afghanistan • Cold War: the United States and the Soviet Union began spreading influences in Afghanistan,which led to a bloody war between the US-backed mujahideen forces and the Soviet-backed Afghan government in which over a million Afghans lost their lives • 1990s civil war: the rise and fall of the extremist Taliban government and the 2001–present war • Three decades of war made Afghanistan the world's most dangerous country, including the largest producer of refugees and asylum seekers • terrorist groups which lead to hundreds of assassinations and suicide attacks • radical Islamism 

  3. Context: Women’s Rights • Institutionalized and systematic sexism • Blur between rule of religion and politics • Extreme Islamists, Taliban… women as property void of rights

  4. Context: Clothing Burqa Hijab

  5. Plot Preview • Set in Afghanistan from the early 1960s to the early 2000s • Spans two generations of families • Preview from Publisher: A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

  6. Characters • Protagonist: Mariam Jo • She lives with her spiteful and stubborn mother, Nana; while her father Jalil, a successful businessman, visits Mariam — his only illegitimate child — once a week. • Rasheed: becomes Mariam’s husband by force; a fruitless marriage • Laila: neighbor of Rasheed and Mariam; Laila, a young, intelligent girl from a loving family • Tariq: neighbor of Rasheed and Mariam; Laila’s best friend and adolescent love

  7. Themes • The effect of war • Humanity’s capacity for evil, and humanity’s capacity to cope/redeem evil • The response of women to humanity’s evil and oppression • The nature of loyalty, friendship, endurance, hope/optimism and redemption • The oppression of women • The relationship and influence of faith and truth • The complexity of family units

  8. Literary Devices • 3rd person narrator, omniscient • Tone • Symbolism: burqa, Titanic, Pinocchio, abortion, Tariq’s prosthetic leg, virginity • Motifs: dreams, thousand, good-byes • Juxtaposition of external (national) conflict with internal (household, personal) conflict • Characterization, foil

  9. Reading Requirements for Each Night • 3 dialectical journal entries • Or • 5 post-it notes • Characterization, theme, literary devices, connections, questions, clarifications, predictions, conflict development, tensions, effect of war, search for redemption…

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