I read A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
The crux of this story is about two Afghanistan women whose destinies twisted in an unexpectable way. Their relationships, first enemies, then friends, then allies, when the older defends the younger from being killed, they are mother and daughter, when the older sacrifices and dies for the younger, they are beliefs and disciple.
Nana
Part One is almost a hundred pages, I binge read them. Mariam’s mom Nana is such a impressive character: she was a maid of Jalil‘s who was rich, having several wives and housekeepers, running different businesses. After Jalil‘s wives know she got pregnant from him, they unanimously decided to kick her out in order to keep their husband’s reputation, because Jalil told them that Nana forced herself on him. Therefore, Nana always knew she and her daughter were unwelcomed, unwanted, and discriminated, no matter how Mariam admired her father, she didn’t wanna Mariam get in touch with him and that whole family. Her famous lines: “1. Rich man telling rich lies. 2. Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. 3. A man’s heart is a wretched, wretched thing, Mariam. It isn’t like a mother’s womb. It won’t bleed, it won’t stretch to make room for you.” Nana is a strong woman, only her daughter’s betrayal fragilizes her. Nana hung herself when she found out Mariam didn’t come back to her that day and night.
Mariam
Mariam was kicked out from his father’s house when she was still in her mother’s womb. Her mother gave a difficult birth to her alone, since then they lived a austere life together in a rural area. Her mother took her insisting to go to her father’s house as a betrayal, and died by suicide exactly the day when she left. Mariam’s father was tender to her, but he never even let this daughter come into his house before her mother died. Mariam was arranged to marry an older man, she miscarried for a few times, she never got her own child through her whole life. She was going through domestic violence all those years. Since she can’t produce, her husband married a second time to another woman: Laila. Two of them were not friendly to each other until one day Laila stopped their husband from beating Mariam. When their husband found the first child that Laila gave birth to was not his child, and Laila actually was meeting her old lover secretly, he beat Laila so badly after her coming back home. Mariam killed their husband in order to protect Laila. The next day after the killing, Mariams suggested that Laila escape with her children and her lover, she herself would stay here to wait the penalty, c’z someone should be responsible for the committed crime, otherwise, all of them would be in danger. Mariam was finally caught and shot to death by a Kalashnikov. Mariam regarded Laila as her own daughter and Laila’s children her own grandchildren. So the moment before she died, she thought she “was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back”.
Those desperate moments in Mariam’s life:
1) when Nana threatened to suicide after Mariam showed her determination to go to his father’s house: “You’re afraid, Nana, she might have said. You’re afraid that I might find the happiness you never had. And you don’t want me to be happy. You don’t want a good life for me. You are the one with the wretched heart.”
2) when her father refused to take her to his home: “She was envious of these birds. They had been to Herat. They had flown over its mosques, its bazaars. Maybe they had landed on the walls of Jalil’s home, on the front steps of his cinema.”
3）Mariam hardly left her room a few days after she move to her husband’s house: “… these would be instruments of her new daily life, all of it reminding her of the havoc that had struck her life, making her feel uprooted, displaced like in intruder on someone else’s life.”
4) For sure, 15-year-old Mariam didn’t want to marry 45 Rasheed, but Rasheed showed a lot of respect and politeness to his newlywed wife at the very beginning: he didn’t ask for sex the first week after Mariam’s move in; he ate up all the food she cooked for him and gave her a praise about her cooking; he liked sleeping alone, and this resulted in giving space and privacy to Mariam; he did a daily talk to her, just like what normal couples did. So Mariam kind of accepted this arranged husband. When she got pregnant, she felt rejoiced and happy, she deeply believed this child would bring her a new beginning, a new life. With all these expectations, when the abortion came without any signs, it is a devastating hit on her. She can’t stop thinking the reason why she lost her very first child:
① “She was being punished for what she had done to Nana”
“treacherous daughters did not deserve to be mothers, and this was just punishment”
② “It was Rasheed’s fault for his premature celebration.”
“For his foolhardy faith that she was carrying a boy.”
“His fault, for making her go to the bathhouse.”
③ “She became furious with herself for sleeping in the wrong position, for eating meals that were too spicy, for not eating enough fruit, for drinking too much tea”
④ “ It was God’s fault, for taunting her as He had.
5) Mariam was pregnant 6 or 7 times after her first abortion, but all pregnancies ended up as miscarriages. When she can not produce, everything she did was wrong. Rasheed accused her rice were either too cold or too hard, he forced her to eat pebbles, leaving her with a bloody mouth and pieces of her broken molars. He abused her all those years.
5)when she defended Laila from being killed by Rasheed
“She turned it so the sharp edge was vertical, and, as she did, it occurred to her that this was the first time that she was deciding the course of her own life.”
4)when she was about to be shot to death in a second
“As she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her.”
“She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last.”
“’Kneel here, hamshira. And look down.’
One last time, Mariam did as she was told.”
Laila
Since her father insisted she should go to school, Laila was an educated girl. Both of her parents were cultured, too. She had two brothers, both died in the Afghan-Soviet War. She had a boyfriend, they were separated because the boy’s family were about to escape to a safer place before another war come. Laila’s mother refuse to leave the city because she wanted to see the victory on this land with her own eyes as a way of memorize her sacrificed sons. Laila’s mother had suicide intent since then, she gave all her heart to her sons, so there is nothing left for Laila. When the circumstance is too bad for them to stay, the mother agreed to leave. Both of her parents died closely before her eyes due to an air attack the moment before they were leaving, herself, also had been hurt badly. It was Rasheed who saved Laila and took her home. He later suggested they get married, and Laila accepted. For one thing, women in Afghanistan was not allowed to walk alone by themselves, she can escape to nowhere; for another, she found herself pregnant, this fetus is the only connection she had with her old lover, she needed a place to live, food to eat, nutrition to thrive. And all this can soon come into fruition as long as she married him. Laila was told her old lover was dead by a stranger who claimed to be a patient once slept next to his bed in a hospital. Rasheed always knew that the first child was not his child, he finally succeeded in sending that little girl to an orphanage. Laila later gave birth to a boy, however this was a miserable labor. First, beds and doctors were insufficient; second, her fetus was not in a proper position under which circumstance a caesarean section was needed; third, there were no pills and anesthetic. Her old lover didn’t die, when Rasheed found out they were dating again, she was about to be killed by him if Mariam had not stopped and killed him in time. Mariam stayed for the penalty, Laila escaped to another place with her old lover and her two children. She then come back to that place, to find some connections with Mariam and to see the victory of this land through her own eyes in memorize of her brothers and her parents, especially her mother. Laila got a sum of money from the son of Mariam’s tutor’s, which was left by Mariam’s father. Laila used that money to rebuild and remodel the orphanage, she then can feel Mariam everywhere.
