A Thousand Splendid Suns

it was an ugly, loathsome thing to be a harami, like an insect, like the scurrying cockroaches Nana was always cursing (4)

as a bastard, she is no better than an insect; unclean, unwanted, cursed. cockroach - survive anything, like she does

a harami was an unwanted thing; that she, Mariam, was an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance. (4)

she has no right to anything due to her birth

"The children of strangers get ice cream. What do you get, Mariam? Stories of ice cream." (6)

Mariam always gets lesser due to her birth -illegitimacy

the collective gasp of Jalil's family sucked the air out of Herat. (6)

so scandalous they left such an impression

Nana's own father, who was a lowly stone carver in the nearby village of Gul Daman, disowned her. DIsgraced, he packed his things and boarded a bus to Iran, never to be seen or heard from again. (6)

societal disgrace and shame

"Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman." (7)

sexism and seen as natural way of things - speaks of society

she (Nana) wanted to live somewhere removed, detached, where neighbours wouldn't stare at her belly, point at her, snicker, (8)

Nana chose the removed life, she is just a part of her own suffering as others

he (Jalil) sounded like a warden bragging about the clean walls and shiny floors of his prison. (9)

simile, compared to a prison, trapping Nana and Mariam in unhappiness

"she had been hapy. Perhaps for the only time in her life," (9)

when she was young before her epilepsy manifested - she could have been happy and blames everything else for this lack of - never got over her first rejection

"His idea of penance." (11) (13)

Jalil being punished for what he did - actually feels responsible? or so he can dismiss consequences. Repeated, as if Nana cannot think of another reason why he'd help her (kindness? love?)

"I'm sorry," about her own birth (11)

repeated, as Mariam takes blame for her existance, despite it not being her fault. unfair.

"Your favourite?" Mariam asked.

"Well, one of," he said and smiled.

Jalil never held her as his favourite daughter, and so she suffers later.

a tall, bony, barefoot woman leaning in the doorway, her lazy eye narrowed to a slit, arms crossed in a defiant and mockin way. Her short cropped, sunlit hair would be uncovered and uncombed. She would wear an ill-fitting gray shirt buttoned to the throat. (14)

no appearances made by Nana and no respect given to the boys - she looks like a skeleton and the polar opposite of what a afghan woman is expected to look like

The boys never returned the insults. (14)

Nana is the one antagonising everyone else; its not that deep.

It was easy to tell Mullah Faizullah things that Mariam didn't dare tell Nana. (17)

He is perhaps her only friend - how sad this is.

"tahamul. Endure." (18)

theme of a lot of the novel - the strength that women have in this time and place.

"You're all I have. I won't lose you to them." (18)

very us and them idea - Nana sees them as separate from the rest of the world because of the fault of the rest of the world.

it always took effort to stay in the doorway, to wait, (21)

wants to see Jalil so badly but doesn't want to displease Nana.

She believed that she would always land safely into her father's clean, well-manicured hands. (21)

foreshadowing Mariam's disappointment & her fall from grace

He was Mariam's link, her proof that there existed a world at large, (22)

historical context of satellites & moon landing.

historical context and political knowledge of coup - how things were quite good but descend from here for all

"Let's see him bring you gold nect time, your precious father." (24)

Mariam isn't worth more than little trinkets - not anything valuable or celebrated like gold

...watched him exit the clearing, deflated at the thought of the week that stood, like an immense, immovable object, between her and his next visit. (24)

image of time as an object that Mariam is powerless against

"Everything I endured for you! How dare you abandon me like this, you treacherous little harami!" (27)

Nana's anger and manipulation of Mariam to try and get her to stay with her - stages of grief?

"It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed, it won't stretch to make room for you. I'm the only one who loves you." (27)

Nana being horrid. Women as mothers.

"Please stay. I'll die if you go." (27)

Nana's emotional manipulation

"You know I love you, Mariam jo." (27)

repeated - uncertain gray area where she doesn't act like it and yet is her mother. Reader doesn't know what to do with Nana.

she was sick of Nana twisting the truths of their life and making her, Mariam, another of her grievances against the world. (28)

Mariam is fully aware of how Nana is - manipulative and negative and very self centered as she doesn't account for Mariam's thoughts

"Thats what you see, Mariam jo," he had said, "the dark in their underbelly." (29)

clouds foreshadowing Jalil's actions and neglience later in the chapter - truths being revealed

She was, unexpectedly, marvelously, an ordinary person here. (30)

such a radical concept - first time Mariam encounters fact she isn't 'other'.

Over the years, Mariam would have ample occasion to think about how things might have turned out if she had let the driver take her back to the kolba. But she didn't. (33)

foreshadowing Nana's death and subsequent terrible events - she could've lived an entirely different life

The curtains fell shut. (34) (on her father) ... A gust of wind blew and parted the drooping brances of the weeping willow like a curtain, (35/6) (to reveal her mother)

curtain image - blocking her out of her parents life - other side of a window, can only catch glimpses - Mariam's otherness

sleeping on the street like a stray dog. ... He let her sleep on the street. On the street. (35)

Mariam caught on this detail - how embarassing and neglected she is. similie to stray - no family to turn to

Nana, who had warned her, who had been right all along. (35)

Mariam following the way her mother did things and understands as she grows up - regret that she didnt listen

She could hear so clearly now the insincerity that had always lurked beneath, the hollow, false assurances. (38)

Mariam learns and grows bitter at Jalil for it.

His weakness and inability to be a good man, more than just decent.

Like the wind through the willows around the kolba, gusts of an inexpressible blackness kept passing through Mariam. (40)

depression - directly associated with willows where she found her mother - she can do nothing to curb these feelings

"I shouldn't have left her. I should have--" (43)

Mariam's regret - cut off - unsure of what she could've done; stayed home? less miserable then than now

"These thoughts are no good, Mariam jo... They will destroy you." (43)

foreshadowing Mariam's downfall - all ties back to her guilt and depression?? to her mother??

They sat across from her, (45)

deliberate segregation between, 'us and them' class systems - see her as lower and lesser

The wives each had on a flimsy black scarf, which they wore not on their heads but tied loosely around the neck like an afterthought. (45)

Didn't really consider mourning before, implies a rush decision to make themselves more acceptable, don't actually care but want to be seen like they do.

Fifteen, evidently, was not a good, solid marrying age for them. (47)

Good enough for Mariam as she's illegitimate and considered 'less', shows classism.

"Rasheed is healthy, and interested in you. He has a home and a job. That's all that really matters, isn't it?" (48)

Fast paced, no chance to flee. Mariam's feelings are not important. It worked out for wives so it will for Mariam - society point. Trying to make it seem less horrid for Mariam, not that they care.

"You'd be a burden to his family." As you are now to us. Mariam almost saw the the unspoken words exit Khadija's mouth, like foggy breath on a cold day. (48)

no shame saying noone wants her - cruelty.

"Goddann it, Mariam, don't do this to me." (49)

Jalil caught between rock and hard place. Wives have power over him and Mariam both. Inverted gender roles. He has no choice as he's already damned her by siring her.

every time she breathed out, the surface fogged, and she disappeared from her father's table. (50)

Her existence is impermanent in Jalil's life, she will never hold true 'daughter' status.

Mariam smelled him before she saw him. (51)

He smells distinctive and strong, unpleasant, choking. Smell is strong memory trigger, forevers remembers this moment.

His harsh, raspy voice reminded Marian of the sound of dry autumn leaves crushed underfoot. (52)

Dead, trodden on (like Mariam, oppression?), end of life and end of seasons.

And yet Mariam saw that, oddly enough, the whole of these unmemorable parts made for a face that was not pretty but, somehow, not unpleasant to look at either. (53)

Mariam still sees self worth in herself at this point, despite Nana and Jalil, shows her strength, this moment marks a change in this. She knows shes worth more.

Rasheed had no trouble forcing it over her knuckles. (53)

Implies/foreshadowing her rape.

The next time Mariam signed her name to a document, twenty-seven years later, a mullah would again be present. (54)

Foreshadowing far into the future. Signing her life/freedom away both times.

"I didn't know. I didn't know that you were ashamed of me." (54)

Repetition emphasises her own disappointment and shock. Bitterness also - wants to stress to Jalil how much he hurt her - spite.

Jalil looked down, and, like an overgrown child, dug at something with the toe of his shoe. (55)

Mariam sees him how Nana saw him now - disappointment. She has gained maturity over him now, expectations between men/women and status and rank in family.

His powerlessness in this situation? how immature he is compared to Mariam now Mariam has lost everything and grown up quickly.

At the kolba, she could touch the ceiling with her fingertips. She could lie in her cot and tell the time of day by the angle of sunlight pouring through the window She knew how far her door would open before its hinges creaked. She knew every splinter and crack in each of the thirty wooden floorboards. Now all those familiar things were gone ...She was in a stranger's house, with all its different rooms and its smell of cigarette smoke, with its unfamiliar cupboards full of unfamiliar utensils, its heavy, dark green curtains, and a ceiling she knew she could not reach. The space of it suffocated Mariam. (57/8)

familliar vs unfamilliar but she adapts. tiny specific details (30 wooden floorboards) contrasting with vague statements (dark green curtains)

Rasheed sighed irritably. A puff of his smoky breath hit Mariam's face. "I won't take that personally. This time." (58)

Threat to her, 'hit' indicates violence. Foreshadows he later will take her emotions and feelings personally, and how she will probably suffer.

her first lie in their marriage. (59)

Significant, plenty more to come until it becomes insignificant.

these would-be instruments of her new daily life, all of it reminding her of the haoc that had struck her life, making her feel uprooted, displaced, like an intruder on someone else's life. (61)

small details of kitchen reflect her situation and her dealing with the situation (microcosm)

only then would the metal fist gripping her belly let go. (63)

metal fist is metaphor - control fear anxiety

Mariam wondered how so many women could suffer the same miserable luck, (65)

existential questions, women as a whole rather than just her.

Mariam backed away. She was hyperventilating. Her ears buzzed, her pulse fluttered, her eyes darted from one face to another. She backed away again, but there was nowhere to go - she was in the center of a circle. (66)

short sentences and verbs used to emphasise staccato thinking and feeling, panic.

A flare of pride caught her off guard. (68)

not used to feeling prideful, desperate for praise.

"...walking the streets alone with nothing on her head but a scarf. It embarasses me, frankly, to see a man who's lost control of his wife." (69)

symbol of control and domination.

"Where I come from, a woman's face is her husband's business only. I want you to remember that." (69)

traditionalism = oppression.

This man's will felt to Mariam as imposing and immovable as the Safid-koh mountains looming over Gul Daman. (69/70)

mountains are symbolic of Rasheed's control and expectations, overwhelms Mariam, looming over her, caging her in

(burqa) The loss of peripheral vision was unnerving, and she did not like the suffocating way the pleated cloth kept pressing against her mouth. (71)

Mariam can't see, helplessness?. Suffocated, he's restricting her and endangering her.

"With time, I bet you'll even like it." (71)

Not accounting for her feelings, he simply doesn't care and feels as if she will just get used to it and agree for him.

It was like a one-way window. Inside it, she was an observer, buffered from the scrutinizing eyes of strangers. (72)

She feels free from her anxieties in covering up, relief, thankful to Rasheed in a roundabout way for giving her this. Not healthy as she never confronts fears, suppressing feelings and so avoiding consequences.

Rasheed did not wave her over, did not introduce her. (73)

Rasheed doesn't think of her like a person that needs to be introduced or conversed with. She is not relavant enough to introduce to other people.

These women were- what was the word Rasheed had used? - 'modern'. (74)

Sees modern world and modern people through Rasheed's eyes - tainting her ideas of it. Shows her learning and picking up on things

Mariam watched the cantering uninhibited down the street, ...all swinging handbags and rustling skirts. Mariam even spotted one smoking behind the wheel of a car. (74)

Like horses? Running and moving, bouncing, have none of the anxiety Mariam feels, not as oppressed. Admiration for them - like they are some wonderful spectacle for her. General shock at this being allowed

Rasheed did a touching thing then. He blinked and averted his gaze. (75)

Respectful? Mariam sees it as sweet, perhaps shy of giving her something? Reality is probably not, doesn't look because of his beliefs, doesn't care.

"There is no shame in this, Mariam... It's what married people do." (76)

Thinks her reluctance is due to shame, no concept of her actual feelings and that she's not ready.

he pushed back the blanket and left the room, leaving her with the impression of his head on her pillow. (76)

A mark that he's left on her, a scar, metaphorical.

...frozen stars in the sky and a cloud that draped the face of the moon like a wedding veil. (76)

Moon concealed, innocence and femininity hidden away like her wearing burqa. Hints at her marriage, and frigid-ness hints at cold feelings between them, no love.

To see at last that contentment and beauty were not unattainable things. Even for the likes of them. (80)

Feels like things are looking up for her and wishes the same could've happened for Nana, hopeful for future.

She felt prized by his protectiveness. Treasured and significant. (80)

Things behaviour is acceptable and complimentary, thinks it's good because she has no point of reference.

He was a man, after all, living alone for years before she had moved in. His needs differed from hers. (82)

trying to make excuses for him, shows her naivety and her want for marriage to work, wants to forgive and forget.

(sex) was fierce, sometimes bordering on the violent. (82)

Excusing it? Evidently not enjoying it - certifiable rape.

Could she fault him for being the way God had created him? (82)

sort of being conditioned? Used to bad things, could be worse.

The way her body tilted forward subtly, as though she were trying to wriggle free of his hands. (83)

she is trying to get away, unhappy marriage, signals mistreatment and her dislike, warning sign that Mariam picks up on and refuses to let mean anything.

She told herself that they would make good companions after all. (84)

ignoring obvious, desperate for this to work as she literally has no other options.

It was as though a rainbow had melted into her eyes.(85)

Beautiful image of everything in colour - she can see good and happiness in the world now she feels it.

To catch the fleeting grace of a new season, a lovely beginning, before it was trampled and corrupted? (86)

foreshadowing Mariam's life, marriage, and motherhood experiences?

her love for it already dwarfed anything she had ever felt as a human being, to know that there was no need any longer for pebble games. (87)

No need for her to think on Jalil and her siblings now as she is to be a mother, she will have real, legitimate family.

Rasheed's wife shriveled into a corner, (89)

energy, life, hope,youth sucked out of her when she miscarried. She is no longer her own person, adopted role of wife.

As a reminder of how women like us suffer, she'd said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us. (90)

Nana's words coming back to follow her, can't leave childhood behind, persistent bad luck, maybe becoming more like Nana.

The grief washed over her, swept her up, tossed her upside down. (91)

Like a rag doll, no control over her life, like a storm at sea?

Children that they had not bled away with soapy water and the bodily filth of strangers down some bathhouse drain. (92)

Jealous of other women, comparing her own experience with theirs.

She had fitful dreams, of Nana's jinn sneaking into her room at night, burrowing its claws into her womb, and stealing her baby. (92)

Blames many things for miscarriage, Nana is haunting her dreams, and Mariam thinks she has inherited her curse.

Ransacked with guilt, Mariam would kneel and pray for forgiveness for these thoughts. (93)

guilt

I've already buried one son. I won't bury another. (94)

Rasheed is angry with her, doesn't want to accept further loss, permanently in denial and anger.

Give sustenance, Allah. Give sustenance to me. (95)

Prays for strength, she will endure but can't do it alone, finds comfort in her faith.

Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid. And Mariam was afraid. (97)

Mariam sees how much she can endure when afraid, living how Nana said she was to expect and didn't realise until this point.

there had been six more cycles of hopes raised then dashed.(98)

Seven miscarriages in four years. They have both given up.

washed it all off, tears of shame mixing with soapy water, rouge, and mascara. (98)

Like blood in the bathhouse. Image of cleaning - big thing in Islam.

In this most essential way, she had failed him, (98)

Blames herself for being infertile, and feels like she deserves his anger.

She could see it in the way he looked at her, when he looked at her. She was a burden to him. (99)

Pretends she isn't there, can't bear to look at her. "Burden" is word used repeatedly by family and mother also.

"Bad food, and nothing else." (103)

No children and no joy.

Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars. (103)

Pebbles, symbolic of Mariam's loneliness, breaks her teeth. He is barbaric and abusive.

"I am not going to cry! Not over you. Not in a thousand years." (107)

foreshadowing - but will in the future

time stretched and contracted depending on Tariq's abscence or presence. (108)

Time depends on Tariq - her surroundings alter for him.

his reculsive wife (110)

Mariam and Rasheed