In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns there is an extensive use of first person POV and imagery that conveys a woman's view of men under the Taliban decree. With the authors use of these literary elements readers can truly understand that in their time to be a woman it meant more than just enduring life's misfortunate events but they had to fight to keep their sanity in a setting that always tries to push it over the edge.
Hosseini's most noticeable element would be the use of first person POV. When the readers are following the plot it can be found that when readers have to knowledge of what goes though a character's mind in the course of any situation readers can easily feel or experience whatever difficulty they face. For example when the plot turns to Miriam's trial Readers understand that under the Taliban domination it seemed to favor Rasheed's course of action towards his spouses. "I admit to what I did brother, Mariam said, but if I hadn't he would have killed her. He was strangling her. So you say. But, then, women swear to all sorts of things all the time. ( page 324, lines 22-25)" Now true, Miriam's action was extreme but when the readers look back into the earlier situations of the plot when Rasheed forced Mariam to chew pebbles to insult her cooking, comparing her to a Volga, and having to deal with his actions to gain Laila's hand readers probably found that his death was unnecessary but it was a deserving fate to be killed by the wife he had so passionately abused that in her old age she felt the same fear of him when she first married him. Rasheed, in his last moments didn't even learn to regret his actions. In fact the man was so used to being the more powerful influence he thought he still had the upper hand." Was that respect she saw in his eyes? Regret? But then his upper lip curled back into a spiteful sneer, and Mariam knew the futility....the irresponsibility of not finishing this (page 311 lines 6-10)”
The second literary element that was put to excellent use would be Hosseini's use of imagery. With the author's use of imagery reader can obtain he vivid scenes of the character's life's struggles to the quiet settings of amour. Readers need to understand the extent of gender inequality in their time with Hosseini's use of imagery readers can almost "see" or easily imagine the violence of a situation or how calm it gets. For example, Readers can image the atmosphere when all the characters were at the one hospital for patients who were women. As underfunded and insuffient the "hospital" was readers can picture Mariam's struggle through the crowd of women who all seeked treatment from an overburdened doctor. "Before the registration window was a horde of women, shoving and pushing against each other......Mariam waded in. She dug in her heels and burrowed against the elbows, hips and shoulder blades of strangers(page 255 lines 24-25 & 29-30)" Readers can literally imagine a large crowd of struggling women seeking treatment and Mariam forced to push, swat and roughhouse her way to get a doctor to se Laila.
In conclusion, when reviewing Khaled Hosseini's use of imagery and first person POV it can be realized that in comparison to a factual read of gender inequality to Hosseini's storytelling prowess readers can understand that women in America are truly fortunate in comparison to women in Afghanistan who face hardships due to the Taliban decrees. Women in Afghanistan have it hard compared to their men who are all treated like kings going out to restaurants, getting proper medical treatment and it leaves room for domestic violence to take place.
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