Literature: Book Review (Essay Sample)

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns
By Joanne Smith
Course: Asian Literature
Tutor
University of Crete
Date
War: how does the book bring the war in Afghanistan home to you? Do you know anyone who has served overseas or plans to do so? Does the discussion of the effect of war in Kabul make you feel more aware of what war does to people? Describe three characters who suffer terribly because they lived through war. (No deaths). They do not have to be major characters.
The book brings the war in Afghanistan home to me by showing that war affects real people through loss of life, breaking up of families, and perpetration of violence against women. Living in a peaceful country has the effect of making people insensitive to and oblivious of the suffering that war causes. Until war affects them directly, they develop a sense of safety and consequently, care less about what is happening in other countries. Although I do not know anyone who has served overseas, after reading the book and its description of its effects in Kabul and its residents, I am more conscious of the reality of war and its negative impact on society. War is no longer the fantasy or fiction that I read about in fiction thrillers or watch in Hollywood movies. It is a phenomenon that is as real as the people it affects.
In the novel, the characters of Laila, Tariq, and Aziza are badly affected by war. Laila’s life is disrupted from childhood when she is forced to drop out of school because of the war. Her family is also disrupted after her older two brothers leave to join the war against the Soviets. She later loses them both after they are killed in the war. In addition, she loses both her parents when a rocket hit their house.
Tariq, Laila’s childhood lover, is forced to leave the country and flee to Pakistan, which disrupts his family life. As a young boy, he loses his leg in a landmine explosion, and he is disabled for life as a consequence. His life in Pakistan as a refugee forces him into hashish smuggling, which lands him in prison.
Aziz, Laila and Tariq’s daughter, suffers as a child when Rasheed, her stepfather, takes her into an orphanage partly because he is not her biological father and partly because he does not value girls.
B. Do Men Hate Women? Does the book make you think that men hate women? Why or why not? Who hates women in this book? Who mistreats them? How does the fate of women change throughout the novel? Are there any advantages in living in such a society? If so, name them. If not, explain why not? Are there men who do not seem to hate women in this book? Who are they? Describe in detail what two of them do to show that they value women and care about their fate.
The manner in which female characters are treated in the novel can easily lead to the conclusion that men hate women. However, the novel shows that it is not an issue of hatred, but rather the existence of cultural norms and ideologies that promote institutional oppression of women and violation of women’s rights. The oppression of women begins from childhood exemplified in the way the Muslim society values boys than girls. In the novel, Rasheed mistreats and abuses his first wife because she has not been able to give him a son. Secondly, the lack of legal protection for women against domestic violence, and the impunity that men who abuse their wives enjoy, shows how the marriage institution promotes oppression of women in Muslim societies. Thirdly, the Taliban, upon coming to power, implements laws that prohibit women from traveling without male company. This shows that society promotes the oppression of women both at individual and institutional levels.
It is arguable, however, that Rasheed has a personal hatred toward women from the way he abuses Mariam both verbally and physically. For instance, he forces Mariam to chew pebbles of rocks after complaining that she has been giving him bad food (Hosseini 2009; 94). In addition, he mistreats and refuses to take care of Aziz because she is a girl and not the boy he desires. Thus, his cruelty towards women indicates that he hates them personally.
The fate of women changes throughout the novel differently for different characters. Nana becomes a single mother after giving birth to Mariam out of wedlock. Her condition in life worsens when Jalil banishes her from the town in which she worked. She eventually commits suicide after concluding, incorrectly, that her daughter has run a...