In the beginning of A Thousand Splendid Suns it seemed to be a desperate story of a girl looking to explore the world around her, but her mother was a blocking mechanism of her exploration. She began to question the life of her father and wanted to explore and to her mother she was the only thing that mattered. Mariam chose to leave and Nana hung herself because of it. I feel bad because Mariam felt at fault for the death when really her mother was just crazy and not understanding of her want of freedom. Mariam finds out that her father is actually ashamed of her and she starts to believe Nana’s stories. Jalil her father pronounced her to marriage of a shoe keeper in a town far away from her fathers. She meets the man she is suppose to marry named Rasheed and the wedding took place, but Mariam almost revoked the marriage until Jalil stared her down and she knew she had no choice but to say yes. She moved away from her father and tried to see the good in the forced movement. She thinks Allah has a plan for her and she tries to cope with the changes. I feel bad for Mariam because she is terrified of her newly husband and when they have sex for the first time she was forced into since they were married as he said. When she had the miscarriage it made Rasheed resent her more than he did to begin with and her life became worse and worse. Now that the communist takeover is starting and the government is changing quickly I’m thinking that Mariam’s life is going to take a toll for rock bottom with how the story is starting to get deeper.
So far, part 1 of "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is very intriguing. Mariam spends most of her life apologizing to Nana for being a "horrible" daughter, when in reality her mother was just mentally ill and holding her back from a better and happier life. As she grew older she began to ponder what life would be like living with her father. Eventually, she made up her mind about Nana being a no-good liar and went to live with her father. After Nana heard the news she ended up hanging herself. Like any daughter, Mariam was filled with an immense amount of guilt and sorrow; she felt at fault. We the readers know that Nana was just mentally ill and not capable of loving and wishing the best for her daughter. Soon after, Mariam finds truth in Nanas stories and that her father actually is ashamed of her and her upbringing. She then meets Rasheed, the man she is arranged to marry, and the wedding took place shortly after. Mariam knew she was making a mistake with her marriage and nearly called it off until Jalil came in sight and she was forced to comply. Even though she moved away from her father, she was still miserable. All she could do was breathe, face one day at a time, and believe that Allah had a plan for her.
This response explains part one very well and is put into order with how the events played out into the book. She talks about all of the situations that Marium faced or was forced into such as her arranged marriage with Rasheed. There were a lot of specific little details used in this response that helps the reader better understand exactly what happened in the fisrt part of this book and how all of the events played out in order from first to last.
Part 1: it started at the kolba when Mariam was little and setting the table up and mistakenly dropped her mothers vase which was a family heirloom. Mariam's mother, Nana, was so enraged she called her herami(bastard). Later, her father would visit and her mother would hate it but she would be respectful, then talk bad about him when he leave. Nana would also try to convince Mariam that her father was a fake and was always lying. Sometimes Mariam's half-brothers visited to bring barrels of food over the river for them, which Nana always questioned because Mariam's father Jalil could get servants to do the work. Nana didn't let the boys get too close or she would throw pebbles at them, she always cursed them and they never respond. One day, to make her mother happy Mariam talked bad about them to their faces, but then felt bad about it after knowing they might tell her father. She dreamed of being with her father everyday and living with him, but her mother wouldn't like it. On a day jalil came to the kolba she asked him while they were all together but her mother said that it wouldn't be good idea in a polite manner. While she was walking with him to the river she begged him to come get her and take her to a movie, he told her to meet him at the river the next day. She looked all over for him on the next day but he never showed up so she decided to just cross the river herself. She made it to the city but knew not where to go so she asked an older guy where he lived and he was astonished that she didn't know where the cinema owner lived like everyone else. He asked her if she was from there and she replied "no" so he took her there without pay because it was in the direction she was going. They arrived at the house, when Mariam rang the doorbell a lady answered and asked for her reason for being there. Mariam replied to see her father, Jalil. The lady said she would be back shortly, a man came instead and told her that he is gone and busy. Mariam told them that she would wait, the driver told her that she must leave for he might be gone for a while. Mariam stayed anyway in the cold and dark, she woke up the next morning under a cover. The driver woke her up and insisted on taking her home and told her how she made herself look bad how she slept on the street like a dog. She ran into the yard but was caught by the driver, she cried all the way home. When she arrived at home her and the driver found her mother hanging on the tree. Mariam had to stay with her father until the 3 wives made her marry. Marriam didn't want to marry but she did, before she left she told her father that she never wanted to hear from him again. A couple of years after being married she had 7 miscarriages and was getting beaten by her husband Rasheem.
A thousand splendid suns is about a teenage girl, Mariam, who is the daughter of Nana and Jalil. Her father has many other wives and kicked Nana out of the house along with Mariam. He had two of his sons build them a mud house in the out skirts of the town in which they lived, Herat. Her father comes out to the house once a week, if he's in town or feels like it. Mariam hears stories from Nana about the bad things Jalil does and about how awful men are to women in this society. On the days he visits Mariam, he is so nice and sweet to her and he too feeds her with stories that make Nana look bad. One day she has a plan to go to the theatre with her dad on her birthday: he doesn't show so she takes it upon herself to go find him in the city. She finds her dads house and is told he isn't home but when she looks in his window and sees him, he shuts the blinds. She returns home to Nana hanging from a tree, dead. She is forced to move in with her dad and soon after she moves in Jalil's wives convince Jalil to have a marriage arranged for her so she moves out. She is married to this dude and he seems nice until things go bad and he beats her.
In the beginning of “A Thousand Splendid Suns” Mariam was at her village with her mother in Gul Daman. Her father Jalil came into town to visit her and was being very affectionate towards her. I think that Jalil does not actually have passion and love for each of his children because he has so many. That is why I agree with Nana when she called him a hypocrite and a liar. He has nine children back home and sounds like he just wants to keep having sex with random women rather than actually starting a family. Nana continues to talk about him in negative ways because she is a victim of his antics. They had an affair at one time as well which resulted in Mariam being born. All that Mariam wanted to do was go see an American cartoon with her father Jalil, but he avoided it and did not respond to her. Nana called Mariam an ungrateful daughter because Nana feels like Mariam has to stay around in order for her to survive. I agree because Nana is living alone and has no one else to take care of her besides Mariam. I feel bad for Mariam when she said she waited for Jalil to come pick her up on her birthday because all she wanted to do was spend the day with her dad. But when she went all the way to Herat to look for him, a man answered the door and she told Mariam that he was out of town. So obviously he is lying to everyone so he can go out and do what he wants. By the time Mariam got home, another tragedy happened. Nana hung herself. It put Mariam in a horrible spot because she wanted to spend time with her dad but she also could not leave Nana. So now she has to deal with that. Once she marries Rasheed, you get the intention that he is a lot like Jalil in the sense that all he wants is to use the women for sex. When she finds the porn magazines in his drawers, she began to wonder. Once Mariam had her 6 miscarriages Rasheed gets furious with her and pretty much tells her she is worthless because she cannot have a baby. I believe that Rasheed should not make his wife shove pebbles into her mouth and he should not be mad just because she is having a rough time having babies. He should care for her and keep trusting her that she will be able to do it.
This book started off with Marium being a young girl preparing the table for dinner. When she was in the process of setting the table she broke a glass piece of her mothers(also known as Nana) that was valuable. The first part of this book a tone or mood so to speak is set for Marium and her mother and how their relationship is. Marium seemed to always be apologizing to her mother(Nana) and her mother was constantly yelling at her. Marium's mother wasnt completely all their in terms of her head. Its not that she was insane but she was just in a way sick/ill and didn't think correctly. Nana held Marium back from a lot of things in life. Marium was someone who wanted to get out and explore the concepts of things and better understand the world but there was something standing in her way and that was Nana. Marium grew older and wiser and realized her mother was holding her back in life and she decided to move and live with her father. In regards to Marium moving out Nana felt there was nothing left for her and she ended up hanging herself. Once she found out about her mother she felt that it was her fault and that her mother hung herself because she had left but truly she was just mentally unstable and ill. Marium meets Rasheed later on in part one. Rasheed is the man that Marium is arranged to be married to. This is a problem in the culture today that many women face. They are forced to marry a man that maybe they will not agree to. In Marium's case she doesn't feel that Rasheed is the one for her and she tries to avoid being married to him. This is where Jalil comes into play and basically tells her that she has to marry Rasheed and has no other choice but that. Marium was faced with many hardships and things that she never thought she would have to face in her life but she believes that Allah has a plan for her and tries to stay as strong as she can and wait and hope for the best.
At the beginning of A Thousand Splendid Suns, I didn’t understand what the book was talking about, and I thought it would be boring. After about 3 pages in, it all started to make sense. Nana, Mariam’s mother was crazy and constantly verbally abused her. She once was the servant of Jalil up until she got pregnant with mariam. Nana would tell her things such as her father not doing what was right by accepting the fact that he got her pregnant. Instead he kick her out of his house and made them a house somewhere that they wouldn’t be known about. Jalil would visit mariam every thursday and bring her a gift. He would tell her stories about his cinema, and his family back home. One day Jalil promised mariam that he would meet her at noon and take her out with her brother and sisters to see a movie. Mariam waited around for him until hours passed and she figured he wasn’t coming. As a result, she found her way to his home and was treated poorly. They wouldn’t allow her into the house, and lied about jalil being there, she didn’t want to leave without seeing him so she stayed a night outside their house and waited for him. When morning came she was escorted home where she found her mother dead and hanging on a tree. Mariam blamed herself for the death of her mother, she thought that only if she would have stayed at home with her mother maybe she wouldn’t have killed herself. After the death of her mother Jalil came to take her home with him. It was only a few days that she stayed with them until the three wives decided to give her away to a 40 something shoemaker named Rasheed. Without saying a word, Jalil didn’t do anything to keep her to stay.
I think this is very good summary. I agree that I don't really understand what the book about at first. However, the more I read, the more I discover new things. Flash back to my country at that time, I understand how the society in the book worked
In the start of the book...I didn't really get it right away...It seemed kind of boring..and I didn't think it would interest me much. Once I got a little deeper into the book, I started understanding a little bit more. I learned that NANA was crazy and mean and she wasn't as good as some people expected. Sometimes she would come off as cool and loving but really she was a shrew. One day Jalil promised mariam that he would meet her at noon and take her out with her brother and sisters to see a movie. Mariam waited around for him until hours passed and she figured he wasn’t coming. As a result, she found her way to his home and was treated poorly. They wouldn’t allow her into the house, and lied about jalil being there, she didn’t want to leave without seeing him so she stayed a night outside their house and waited for him. When morning came she was escorted home where she found her mother dead and hanging on a tree. It was kind of sad. People had a hard time with all that was happening and it was hard to grasp for them.
The beginning of a Thousand Splendid Suns started off by meeting Mariam was a little girl. It was the first moment when we learn that she wasn’t all the much liked because during that time she accidentally dropped her mothers vase, which was a beloved family heirloom. Her mom freaked out and called Mariam a herami, which in english translation means bastard. Yeah this was her mother who called her daughter a bastard for essentially just being a child, and as it sounds her father is faking liking her as well. Her mom is always how he is only telling lies to her, when the only thing she really wants to to have a loving family that she can care for and love her back which her father gave to her even if her might have been lying. To me it sounds like the mother hates Jalil for getting her pregnant and Mariam for being the baby she had to have. But then later when she goes to school her mom is protective of her by saying she must endure anything that is done or said to her because they will be mean to like she her mother was when she was little. At one time she left to go see her father at his house and when she showed up the lady at the door said he wasn't there so she was left by herself. Later Mariam’s mom died and her dad took her home to his house and she meet the other kids in his house. A while later when she was older she was forced to get married and from then she never wanted to see her father again. After that it all became worse because she had miscarriage after miscarriage and her husband beat her.
Part one of a thousand splendid suns was some what interesting in the way that there was a lot going on. At the beginning of part one is that they give back ground of what the family's status in the world was. The main girl and her mom were banished from where the father lived because he did not want them. The mom told the daughter bad things about the father and as the book went on the and Mariam became a parent she saw that her mom was being beaten by Rasheed who was a step parent sort of. At the end she haas her own kid and it is how she goes to school and a boy named Tariq who she was friends with.
Part one of a Thousand Splendid Suns started out with talking about Mariam and her mom named nana. Mariam was five years old and that day she was restles and preoccupied that day she had Jalil over and she visited her. Mariam picked up a tea set that was a relic of Nanas mother Mariam was really clumsy and she slipped and dropped the tea set and it shattered. Nana was so mad her face flushed red and her upper lip shivered and her eyes both of them even the lazy settled on Mariam in a flat. Nana then called her harami. Nana would yell at Mariam all the time and call her harami. Jalil had three wives and nine children nine legitimate children all of whom were strangers to mariam. Mariam came back from going to she her father finding Nana dangling from a tree.
Wow, well Part one was long but it was very informal and it left the reader on a hook. So it starts out with a young girl named Mariam living in a small house with her mother. Her mother is not very nice to her and after years of wanting to know where her dad is, her mother tells her that she had a kid with a wealthy man from Kubul.Although her mother tells her about the bad stories about him, Mariam really wants to meet him so for her fifteenth birthday, she travels to Kubul in hopes that her father will bring her to a movie. she had been in touch with her father before this and they both agreed on going but when the time came, the father never showed up. Anxious for the movie and to spend time with her dad, she waited outside his house until he arrived. He arrived but he did not allow her to come in. The next day when the father drove her back to her house, she found her mother dead and realized she committed suicide. The father felt bad and offered Mariam into his house but all three of his wives refused to have her in the house so the father married her to a shopkeeper in the city. He treated her well at first but soon after a miscarriage, he treated her poorly. In chapter 15, it turns out that it is four years in advance and Mariam had six more miscarriages.
At the beginning of A Thousand Splendid Suns it starts off by describing Mariam cleaning off the table and breaking a tea cup of her mother's and being yelled and for it. Nana, who is Mariam’s mother was very mean to her daughter and constantly verbally abusing her. She once was the servant of Jalil until she got pregnant with mariam which made Jalil very upset and caused even more problems adding onto the affair. Nana would tell her things such as her father not doing what was right. By him kicking her out of his house and making them a house somewhere that they would not be known about. Jalil would visit mariam every now and then to bring her gifts. He would tell her stories about his cinema, and his family back home. One day Jalil promised mariam that he would meet her and that he was going to take her out with her brother and sisters to see a movie. Mariam waited around for him for a very long time and she figured he was not coming so she found her way to his home and was treated poorly. The people around who saw her trying to get to her father would not allow her into the house, and lied about Jalil being there, she did not want to leave without seeing him so she stayed a night outside their house and waited for him. When morning came she was escorted home where she found her mother dead and hanging on a tree. Mariam blamed herself for the death of her mother, she thought to herself that if she would have stayed home with her mother and not felt so abandon she would not have killed herself. After the death of her mother Jalil came to take her home with him. It was only a few days that she stayed with them until the three wives decided to give her away to an older man who was a shoemaker named Rasheed. Jalil had no say in this and kept his mouth shut and did not seem to care very much about Mariam after her mother died.
The book started with talking about Mariam.When she dropped her mother's tea set. Then the book talks about Mariam and her family. That her father is Jalil and her mother is Nana. Nana seems to dislike Jalil but Mariam really likes him and can not wait until he comes for his weekly visits. On his visits he would always dress up and bring her gifts. He always told stories about his life . About his family and the cinema. Nana can not believe some of these stories. Like how Jalil gives away free ice cream to strangers. But according to her doesnt do enough for them.One time Jalil is running late and Mariam does not want to wait any longer so she goes into town to find him. When she get to his house he is not in there. So she waits outside all night for him.When Mariam goes back home she finds her mother dead, and so she goes to live with Jalil. But Jalil's wives do not like having her there. Jalil doesnt know what to do and lets his wives do what they want. So they set her up with a guy named Rasheed. He is in his 40's and owns his own shop. At first Mariam likes him because she thinks he cares about her. But he is not very nice to her for long. He gets mad that she keeps having miscarriages. And so acts very cruel to her. I think he was so mad because he already had to bury a child. And So when Mariam asks to have a funeral for her miscarriage he is not happy because he already had to bury one kid. So of the cruel things he does is making Mariam eat pebbles which makes her mouth bleed and breaks some of her teeth.
I think Mariam is really poor girl. She is the daughter of rich businessman but she can't live with him and her brothers and sisters. She always has to listen her mother Nana complain how awful her dad is. Nana even tells Mariam that she is just a harami and she has to learn how to endure because that's how a woman has to do. Mariam is innocent girl; she just wants to have a happy life with her dad. She loves him so much. In the book, Jalil tries to ignore her because he wants to save his reputation. On the other hand, I think doesn't want to bring her home with him just because he loves her. He doesn't want to see her live unhappily with his wives and his kids. When Mariam has to marry Reshed; she is very sad. I think at that time, she understands what Nana has told her before: endure. At first, her husband treats Mariam very well. Mariam has to suffer many things such as veiling her body with burqa and serve the husband as a wife. All her rights to be a normal person are banned. She has to rely on him; she can't talk to his friends. I think when she sees Rasheed's dead wife and son is the foreshadow that her baby will be dead soon. She has miscarriages six times; however, in my opinion, it's not her fault. I gradually don't like the husband because he gets mad at her. She is a woman in pregnancy time, she needs to be cared and relaxed. However, she still has to clean the house and make meals for him. He becomes a violent man when he forces her to eat a pebble, and she breaks her two molars. I think I can't live in this society because they will take away all my rights.
Part one shows that Mariam will be an important part of the book. It starts out with her dropping a really important plate and breaking it. This angers her mom a lot and the reader starts to see the true relationship with her and her mom. Mariam’s life is really torn at this point. She doesn’t know what to believe and is caught up in family problems. In her eyes her father is everything. She adores the fact that he visits her once a week and is almost the only thing she ever thinks about. Mariam grows up slowly realizing that her mother is right. Nana repetitively would say that Jalil was a liar; he didn’t care for Mariam or her future. In one chapter, it is mentioned that Mariam’s mom would always wash her hair or fix it up the day Jalil would visit. This basically shows that she probably was still longing for him or trying to fix up their relationship. Mariam dreams of getting an education and being able to learn. Nana ends up committing suicide after Mariam runs off to find Jalil. This forces Jalil to take her into his home, where he has three other wives. It becomes a duty not a privilege to Jalil so he ends up finding one of his old friends who is estimated to be about forty five years old. They marry Mariam off to Rasheed and with disappointment and frustration, Mariam leaves Jalil. When reading this part it seemed as if the wives pushed for this to happen. It was a shame for Jalil and the rest of his family. They didn’t want to be bothered Mariam because it wasn’t public that Jalil had another child with his maid. Either way Mariam’s childhood was tough and filled with a lot of drama.
First chapter started off by meeting Mariam when she was a little girl. You could tell she wasn't the family favorite after she broke a family vase Forcing her mom to call her a bastard. Her parents doesn't get along in fact they can't get their story straight about how Mariam was born. Her mom says that she gave birth in a ditch outside for two days and her dad wasn't there. Mariam dad says he wasn't there because he was away on business and wanted her to go to the hospital. They tell lies about each other before Mariam up bringing. She went to visit her dad but the lady at the door said he wasn't there so Mariam was there alone outside her fathers house while he was there. the first night she slept outside his house. The next day she checked again and she seen him in the window and he seen her but the lady still told him she wasn't there. I guess Jalil out of guilt went out to get his daughter. No matter what gender you are or what religion you believe in I don't understand how you wouldn't accept your child. It seem like a evil thing to do. Her dad end up sending her off to get married with some stranger name Rasheed. A 30 year old grown man while Mariam was only 15. Then it gets worst she has 7 miscarriages because he beats her. Mariam had a tough childhood and before it was even finish she was forced into adulthood.
In the beginning of A Thousand Splendid Suns it seemed to be a desperate story of a girl looking to explore the world around her, but her mother was a blocking mechanism of her exploration. She began to question the life of her father and wanted to explore and to her mother she was the only thing that mattered. Mariam chose to leave and Nana hung herself because of it. I feel bad because Mariam felt at fault for the death when really her mother was just crazy and not understanding of her want of freedom. Mariam finds out that her father is actually ashamed of her and she starts to believe Nana’s stories. Jalil her father pronounced her to marriage of a shoe keeper in a town far away from her fathers. She meets the man she is suppose to marry named Rasheed and the wedding took place, but Mariam almost revoked the marriage until Jalil stared her down and she knew she had no choice but to say yes. She moved away from her father and tried to see the good in the forced movement. She thinks Allah has a plan for her and she tries to cope with the changes. I feel bad for Mariam because she is terrified of her newly husband and when they have sex for the first time she was forced into since they were married as he said. When she had the miscarriage it made Rasheed resent her more than he did to begin with and her life became worse and worse. Now that the communist takeover is starting and the government is changing quickly I’m thinking that Mariam’s life is going to take a toll for rock bottom with how the story is starting to get deeper.
ReplyDeleteSo far, part 1 of "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is very intriguing. Mariam spends most of her life apologizing to Nana for being a "horrible" daughter, when in reality her mother was just mentally ill and holding her back from a better and happier life. As she grew older she began to ponder what life would be like living with her father. Eventually, she made up her mind about Nana being a no-good liar and went to live with her father. After Nana heard the news she ended up hanging herself. Like any daughter, Mariam was filled with an immense amount of guilt and sorrow; she felt at fault. We the readers know that Nana was just mentally ill and not capable of loving and wishing the best for her daughter. Soon after, Mariam finds truth in Nanas stories and that her father actually is ashamed of her and her upbringing. She then meets Rasheed, the man she is arranged to marry, and the wedding took place shortly after. Mariam knew she was making a mistake with her marriage and nearly called it off until Jalil came in sight and she was forced to comply. Even though she moved away from her father, she was still miserable. All she could do was breathe, face one day at a time, and believe that Allah had a plan for her.
ReplyDeleteThis response explains part one very well and is put into order with how the events played out into the book. She talks about all of the situations that Marium faced or was forced into such as her arranged marriage with Rasheed. There were a lot of specific little details used in this response that helps the reader better understand exactly what happened in the fisrt part of this book and how all of the events played out in order from first to last.
DeletePart 1: it started at the kolba when Mariam was little and setting the table up and mistakenly dropped her mothers vase which was a family heirloom. Mariam's mother, Nana, was so enraged she called her herami(bastard). Later, her father would visit and her mother would hate it but she would be respectful, then talk bad about him when he leave. Nana would also try to convince Mariam that her father was a fake and was always lying. Sometimes Mariam's half-brothers visited to bring barrels of food over the river for them, which Nana always questioned because Mariam's father Jalil could get servants to do the work. Nana didn't let the boys get too close or she would throw pebbles at them, she always cursed them and they never respond. One day, to make her mother happy Mariam talked bad about them to their faces, but then felt bad about it after knowing they might tell her father. She dreamed of being with her father everyday and living with him, but her mother wouldn't like it. On a day jalil came to the kolba she asked him while they were all together but her mother said that it wouldn't be good idea in a polite manner. While she was walking with him to the river she begged him to come get her and take her to a movie, he told her to meet him at the river the next day. She looked all over for him on the next day but he never showed up so she decided to just cross the river herself. She made it to the city but knew not where to go so she asked an older guy where he lived and he was astonished that she didn't know where the cinema owner lived like everyone else. He asked her if she was from there and she replied "no" so he took her there without pay because it was in the direction she was going. They arrived at the house, when Mariam rang the doorbell a lady answered and asked for her reason for being there. Mariam replied to see her father, Jalil. The lady said she would be back shortly, a man came instead and told her that he is gone and busy. Mariam told them that she would wait, the driver told her that she must leave for he might be gone for a while. Mariam stayed anyway in the cold and dark, she woke up the next morning under a cover. The driver woke her up and insisted on taking her home and told her how she made herself look bad how she slept on the street like a dog. She ran into the yard but was caught by the driver, she cried all the way home. When she arrived at home her and the driver found her mother hanging on the tree. Mariam had to stay with her father until the 3 wives made her marry. Marriam didn't want to marry but she did, before she left she told her father that she never wanted to hear from him again. A couple of years after being married she had 7 miscarriages and was getting beaten by her husband Rasheem.
ReplyDeleteA thousand splendid suns is about a teenage girl, Mariam, who is the daughter of Nana and Jalil. Her father has many other wives and kicked Nana out of the house along with Mariam. He had two of his sons build them a mud house in the out skirts of the town in which they lived, Herat. Her father comes out to the house once a week, if he's in town or feels like it. Mariam hears stories from Nana about the bad things Jalil does and about how awful men are to women in this society. On the days he visits Mariam, he is so nice and sweet to her and he too feeds her with stories that make Nana look bad. One day she has a plan to go to the theatre with her dad on her birthday: he doesn't show so she takes it upon herself to go find him in the city. She finds her dads house and is told he isn't home but when she looks in his window and sees him, he shuts the blinds. She returns home to Nana hanging from a tree, dead. She is forced to move in with her dad and soon after she moves in Jalil's wives convince Jalil to have a marriage arranged for her so she moves out. She is married to this dude and he seems nice until things go bad and he beats her.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of “A Thousand Splendid Suns” Mariam was at her village with her mother in Gul Daman. Her father Jalil came into town to visit her and was being very affectionate towards her. I think that Jalil does not actually have passion and love for each of his children because he has so many. That is why I agree with Nana when she called him a hypocrite and a liar. He has nine children back home and sounds like he just wants to keep having sex with random women rather than actually starting a family. Nana continues to talk about him in negative ways because she is a victim of his antics. They had an affair at one time as well which resulted in Mariam being born. All that Mariam wanted to do was go see an American cartoon with her father Jalil, but he avoided it and did not respond to her. Nana called Mariam an ungrateful daughter because Nana feels like Mariam has to stay around in order for her to survive. I agree because Nana is living alone and has no one else to take care of her besides Mariam. I feel bad for Mariam when she said she waited for Jalil to come pick her up on her birthday because all she wanted to do was spend the day with her dad. But when she went all the way to Herat to look for him, a man answered the door and she told Mariam that he was out of town. So obviously he is lying to everyone so he can go out and do what he wants. By the time Mariam got home, another tragedy happened. Nana hung herself. It put Mariam in a horrible spot because she wanted to spend time with her dad but she also could not leave Nana. So now she has to deal with that. Once she marries Rasheed, you get the intention that he is a lot like Jalil in the sense that all he wants is to use the women for sex. When she finds the porn magazines in his drawers, she began to wonder. Once Mariam had her 6 miscarriages Rasheed gets furious with her and pretty much tells her she is worthless because she cannot have a baby. I believe that Rasheed should not make his wife shove pebbles into her mouth and he should not be mad just because she is having a rough time having babies. He should care for her and keep trusting her that she will be able to do it.
ReplyDeleteThis book started off with Marium being a young girl preparing the table for dinner. When she was in the process of setting the table she broke a glass piece of her mothers(also known as Nana) that was valuable. The first part of this book a tone or mood so to speak is set for Marium and her mother and how their relationship is. Marium seemed to always be apologizing to her mother(Nana) and her mother was constantly yelling at her. Marium's mother wasnt completely all their in terms of her head. Its not that she was insane but she was just in a way sick/ill and didn't think correctly. Nana held Marium back from a lot of things in life. Marium was someone who wanted to get out and explore the concepts of things and better understand the world but there was something standing in her way and that was Nana. Marium grew older and wiser and realized her mother was holding her back in life and she decided to move and live with her father. In regards to Marium moving out Nana felt there was nothing left for her and she ended up hanging herself. Once she found out about her mother she felt that it was her fault and that her mother hung herself because she had left but truly she was just mentally unstable and ill. Marium meets Rasheed later on in part one. Rasheed is the man that Marium is arranged to be married to. This is a problem in the culture today that many women face. They are forced to marry a man that maybe they will not agree to. In Marium's case she doesn't feel that Rasheed is the one for her and she tries to avoid being married to him. This is where Jalil comes into play and basically tells her that she has to marry Rasheed and has no other choice but that. Marium was faced with many hardships and things that she never thought she would have to face in her life but she believes that Allah has a plan for her and tries to stay as strong as she can and wait and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of A Thousand Splendid Suns, I didn’t understand what the book was talking about, and I thought it would be boring. After about 3 pages in, it all started to make sense. Nana, Mariam’s mother was crazy and constantly verbally abused her. She once was the servant of Jalil up until she got pregnant with mariam. Nana would tell her things such as her father not doing what was right by accepting the fact that he got her pregnant. Instead he kick her out of his house and made them a house somewhere that they wouldn’t be known about. Jalil would visit mariam every thursday and bring her a gift. He would tell her stories about his cinema, and his family back home. One day Jalil promised mariam that he would meet her at noon and take her out with her brother and sisters to see a movie. Mariam waited around for him until hours passed and she figured he wasn’t coming. As a result, she found her way to his home and was treated poorly. They wouldn’t allow her into the house, and lied about jalil being there, she didn’t want to leave without seeing him so she stayed a night outside their house and waited for him. When morning came she was escorted home where she found her mother dead and hanging on a tree. Mariam blamed herself for the death of her mother, she thought that only if she would have stayed at home with her mother maybe she wouldn’t have killed herself. After the death of her mother Jalil came to take her home with him. It was only a few days that she stayed with them until the three wives decided to give her away to a 40 something shoemaker named Rasheed. Without saying a word, Jalil didn’t do anything to keep her to stay.
ReplyDeleteI think this is very good summary. I agree that I don't really understand what the book about at first. However, the more I read, the more I discover new things. Flash back to my country at that time, I understand how the society in the book worked
DeleteIn the start of the book...I didn't really get it right away...It seemed kind of boring..and I didn't think it would interest me much. Once I got a little deeper into the book, I started understanding a little bit more. I learned that NANA was crazy and mean and she wasn't as good as some people expected. Sometimes she would come off as cool and loving but really she was a shrew. One day Jalil promised mariam that he would meet her at noon and take her out with her brother and sisters to see a movie. Mariam waited around for him until hours passed and she figured he wasn’t coming. As a result, she found her way to his home and was treated poorly. They wouldn’t allow her into the house, and lied about jalil being there, she didn’t want to leave without seeing him so she stayed a night outside their house and waited for him. When morning came she was escorted home where she found her mother dead and hanging on a tree. It was kind of sad. People had a hard time with all that was happening and it was hard to grasp for them.
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of a Thousand Splendid Suns started off by meeting Mariam was a little girl. It was the first moment when we learn that she wasn’t all the much liked because during that time she accidentally dropped her mothers vase, which was a beloved family heirloom. Her mom freaked out and called Mariam a herami, which in english translation means bastard. Yeah this was her mother who called her daughter a bastard for essentially just being a child, and as it sounds her father is faking liking her as well. Her mom is always how he is only telling lies to her, when the only thing she really wants to to have a loving family that she can care for and love her back which her father gave to her even if her might have been lying. To me it sounds like the mother hates Jalil for getting her pregnant and Mariam for being the baby she had to have. But then later when she goes to school her mom is protective of her by saying she must endure anything that is done or said to her because they will be mean to like she her mother was when she was little. At one time she left to go see her father at his house and when she showed up the lady at the door said he wasn't there so she was left by herself. Later Mariam’s mom died and her dad took her home to his house and she meet the other kids in his house. A while later when she was older she was forced to get married and from then she never wanted to see her father again. After that it all became worse because she had miscarriage after miscarriage and her husband beat her.
ReplyDeletePart one of a thousand splendid suns was some what interesting in the way that there was a lot going on. At the beginning of part one is that they give back ground of what the family's status in the world was. The main girl and her mom were banished from where the father lived because he did not want them. The mom told the daughter bad things about the father and as the book went on the and Mariam became a parent she saw that her mom was being beaten by Rasheed who was a step parent sort of. At the end she haas her own kid and it is how she goes to school and a boy named Tariq who she was friends with.
ReplyDeletePart one of a Thousand Splendid Suns started out with talking about Mariam and her mom named nana. Mariam was five years old and that day she was restles and preoccupied that day she had Jalil over and she visited her. Mariam picked up a tea set that was a relic of Nanas mother Mariam was really clumsy and she slipped and dropped the tea set and it shattered. Nana was so mad her face flushed red and her upper lip shivered and her eyes both of them even the lazy settled on Mariam in a flat. Nana then called her harami. Nana would yell at Mariam all the time and call her harami. Jalil had three wives and nine children nine legitimate children all of whom were strangers to mariam. Mariam came back from going to she her father finding Nana dangling from a tree.
ReplyDeleteWow, well Part one was long but it was very informal and it left the reader on a hook. So it starts out with a young girl named Mariam living in a small house with her mother. Her mother is not very nice to her and after years of wanting to know where her dad is, her mother tells her that she had a kid with a wealthy man from Kubul.Although her mother tells her about the bad stories about him, Mariam really wants to meet him so for her fifteenth birthday, she travels to Kubul in hopes that her father will bring her to a movie. she had been in touch with her father before this and they both agreed on going but when the time came, the father never showed up. Anxious for the movie and to spend time with her dad, she waited outside his house until he arrived. He arrived but he did not allow her to come in. The next day when the father drove her back to her house, she found her mother dead and realized she committed suicide. The father felt bad and offered Mariam into his house but all three of his wives refused to have her in the house so the father married her to a shopkeeper in the city. He treated her well at first but soon after a miscarriage, he treated her poorly. In chapter 15, it turns out that it is four years in advance and Mariam had six more miscarriages.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of A Thousand Splendid Suns it starts off by describing Mariam cleaning off the table and breaking a tea cup of her mother's and being yelled and for it. Nana, who is Mariam’s mother was very mean to her daughter and constantly verbally abusing her. She once was the servant of Jalil until she got pregnant with mariam which made Jalil very upset and caused even more problems adding onto the affair. Nana would tell her things such as her father not doing what was right. By him kicking her out of his house and making them a house somewhere that they would not be known about. Jalil would visit mariam every now and then to bring her gifts. He would tell her stories about his cinema, and his family back home. One day Jalil promised mariam that he would meet her and that he was going to take her out with her brother and sisters to see a movie. Mariam waited around for him for a very long time and she figured he was not coming so she found her way to his home and was treated poorly. The people around who saw her trying to get to her father would not allow her into the house, and lied about Jalil being there, she did not want to leave without seeing him so she stayed a night outside their house and waited for him. When morning came she was escorted home where she found her mother dead and hanging on a tree. Mariam blamed herself for the death of her mother, she thought to herself that if she would have stayed home with her mother and not felt so abandon she would not have killed herself. After the death of her mother Jalil came to take her home with him. It was only a few days that she stayed with them until the three wives decided to give her away to an older man who was a shoemaker named Rasheed. Jalil had no say in this and kept his mouth shut and did not seem to care very much about Mariam after her mother died.
ReplyDeleteThe book started with talking about Mariam.When she dropped her mother's tea set. Then the book talks about Mariam and her family. That her father is Jalil and her mother is Nana. Nana seems to dislike Jalil but Mariam really likes him and can not wait until he comes for his weekly visits. On his visits he would always dress up and bring her gifts. He always told stories about his life . About his family and the cinema. Nana can not believe some of these stories. Like how Jalil gives away free ice cream to strangers. But according to her doesnt do enough for them.One time Jalil is running late and Mariam does not want to wait any longer so she goes into town to find him. When she get to his house he is not in there. So she waits outside all night for him.When Mariam goes back home she finds her mother dead, and so she goes to live with Jalil. But Jalil's wives do not like having her there. Jalil doesnt know what to do and lets his wives do what they want. So they set her up with a guy named Rasheed. He is in his 40's and owns his own shop. At first Mariam likes him because she thinks he cares about her. But he is not very nice to her for long. He gets mad that she keeps having miscarriages. And so acts very cruel to her. I think he was so mad because he already had to bury a child. And So when Mariam asks to have a funeral for her miscarriage he is not happy because he already had to bury one kid. So of the cruel things he does is making Mariam eat pebbles which makes her mouth bleed and breaks some of her teeth.
ReplyDeleteI think Mariam is really poor girl. She is the daughter of rich businessman but she can't live with him and her brothers and sisters. She always has to listen her mother Nana complain how awful her dad is. Nana even tells Mariam that she is just a harami and she has to learn how to endure because that's how a woman has to do. Mariam is innocent girl; she just wants to have a happy life with her dad. She loves him so much. In the book, Jalil tries to ignore her because he wants to save his reputation. On the other hand, I think doesn't want to bring her home with him just because he loves her. He doesn't want to see her live unhappily with his wives and his kids. When Mariam has to marry Reshed; she is very sad. I think at that time, she understands what Nana has told her before: endure. At first, her husband treats Mariam very well. Mariam has to suffer many things such as veiling her body with burqa and serve the husband as a wife. All her rights to be a normal person are banned. She has to rely on him; she can't talk to his friends. I think when she sees Rasheed's dead wife and son is the foreshadow that her baby will be dead soon. She has miscarriages six times; however, in my opinion, it's not her fault. I gradually don't like the husband because he gets mad at her. She is a woman in pregnancy time, she needs to be cared and relaxed. However, she still has to clean the house and make meals for him. He becomes a violent man when he forces her to eat a pebble, and she breaks her two molars. I think I can't live in this society because they will take away all my rights.
ReplyDeletePart one shows that Mariam will be an important part of the book. It starts out with her dropping a really important plate and breaking it. This angers her mom a lot and the reader starts to see the true relationship with her and her mom. Mariam’s life is really torn at this point. She doesn’t know what to believe and is caught up in family problems. In her eyes her father is everything. She adores the fact that he visits her once a week and is almost the only thing she ever thinks about. Mariam grows up slowly realizing that her mother is right. Nana repetitively would say that Jalil was a liar; he didn’t care for Mariam or her future. In one chapter, it is mentioned that Mariam’s mom would always wash her hair or fix it up the day Jalil would visit. This basically shows that she probably was still longing for him or trying to fix up their relationship. Mariam dreams of getting an education and being able to learn. Nana ends up committing suicide after Mariam runs off to find Jalil. This forces Jalil to take her into his home, where he has three other wives. It becomes a duty not a privilege to Jalil so he ends up finding one of his old friends who is estimated to be about forty five years old. They marry Mariam off to Rasheed and with disappointment and frustration, Mariam leaves Jalil. When reading this part it seemed as if the wives pushed for this to happen. It was a shame for Jalil and the rest of his family. They didn’t want to be bothered Mariam because it wasn’t public that Jalil had another child with his maid. Either way Mariam’s childhood was tough and filled with a lot of drama.
ReplyDeleteFirst chapter started off by meeting Mariam when she was a little girl. You could tell she wasn't the family favorite after she broke a family vase Forcing her mom to call her a bastard. Her parents doesn't get along in fact they can't get their story straight about how Mariam was born. Her mom says that she gave birth in a ditch outside for two days and her dad wasn't there. Mariam dad says he wasn't there because he was away on business and wanted her to go to the hospital. They tell lies about each other before Mariam up bringing. She went to visit her dad but the lady at the door said he wasn't there so Mariam was there alone outside her fathers house while he was there. the first night she slept outside his house. The next day she checked again and she seen him in the window and he seen her but the lady still told him she wasn't there. I guess Jalil out of guilt went out to get his daughter. No matter what gender you are or what religion you believe in I don't understand how you wouldn't accept your child. It seem like a evil thing to do. Her dad end up sending her off to get married with some stranger name Rasheed. A 30 year old grown man while Mariam was only 15. Then it gets worst she has 7 miscarriages because he beats her. Mariam had a tough childhood and before it was even finish she was forced into adulthood.
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