A Thousand Splendid Suns: Mariam’s Relationship with Her Father
Unfortunatly, Mariam’s relationship with her father leads her to an abusive marriage which she cannot prevail due to her role as a women. Mariam being forced into an arranged marriage accepted by Jalil. One of mariams main conflicts is She is forced into an arranged marriage with a person who is much older to her in age. Mariam’s submission to destiny and adversity is not limited to leading an abusive and unhappy married life. She unfortunately is not able to conceive a child which makes Rasheed more violent and angry towards Mariam. Rasheed is often agitated that she is not fertile and his ambition to have a son is not materializing.
Her childless marriage to Rasheed eventually forces Mariam into a life of submission and misery. Mariam is under terriable adversity, that Rasheed is not worth loving and ulitamtly she is not able to have a child to love. All of Mariams sources of having a loving family is sealed and she finds no strength to prevail the life that’s ahead of her. In the scene Mariam recollects how she played with pebbles her father had gave her when she was a child, and how the pebbles represented a sense of family of love and self belonging towards Mariam. But when Rasheed made her “CHEW” the pebbles due to her lack of love in her food.
She spit out blood breaking too molars . Mariam realizes the powerful adversity she is facing and to add to her hurt Rasheed spits at Mariam saying ,”Now you know what you have given me in this marriage. Bad food and nothing else”[104]. This quotes reveals that mariam is facing adversity in her life,due to the effortless tastless food she made for Rasheed. She had given up and lost this hope of having love and self belonging she was longing to have. Hosseini suggest about mariam that her marriage to Rasheed had created more adversitites in her life, and giving up the hope and strength to prevail against this powerful adversity.
