Sunday, April 18, 2010
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The relationship between Laila and Mariam begins with Mariam feeling flat-out dislike for Laila because she believes Laila is steeling her husband Rasheed. But not long after Rasheed marrys Laila there becomes an understanding between the two women that blossems into a wholehearted connection making their relationship practically mother-daughter like. A few times in the book they do pass themelves as mother and daughter. How do you think the relationships between Laila and her mother, and Mariam and her mother shaped the way they treated eachother, and the family they share.
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Well Mariam didn't have the greatest childhood. She was an unwanted offspring of a servant and a wealthy man, and had to live with Nana (for fifteen years? I can't remember) in a shack in the middle of nowhere. Nana would always taunt and tell cruel tales to Mariam. Her mother then committed suicide, almost blaming Mariam with her death, and her father betrayed and practically sold her away at first chance. Mariam is a tragic character with a miserable past.
ReplyDeleteLaila on the other hand, grew up quite well except for different sorrows. She had a father who loved her, a friend to support her, but her mother never cared for her. Laila felt that she cared more of her deceased brothers than her living daughter.
Needless to say, I think that Mariam and Laila both didn't have the greatest mother-daughter experience. But I think that they complete each sadness with the other to create happiness, much like the pieces of a puzzle. Mariam became the mother who cared for Laila, and Laila (and Aziza) became the source of love Mariam never had.
I agree with Sola.Both Mariam and Laila moments or experiences in their childhood that were rough. For example Mariam not being invited to live with his family because Mariam was a preduct of his affair, and Laila who didnt get alot of love and support from her mom. I think both Mariam and Laila are good for eachother because the could both offer to eachother what they never had, and also love and support eachother through their circumstance with Rasheed.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that what Laila and Mariam found in eachother makes up for the relationships they had with their mothers, or that the the small loving family they've created is enough love to fill in the holes that were created as children?
ReplyDeleteI think both. They completed each other and then further expanded on that relationship when Laila gave birth to the two children, more Aziza than Zalmai because Zalmai was more attached to Rasheed.
ReplyDeleteI don't think their mothers had an impact on their relationship because I believe Laila and Mariam had similar personality which made them become so close. Also Mariam is older and wiser then Laila which made her more a mother figure to Laila. Due to the situation they were in also had an impact on their relationship.
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between Mariam and her mother was a relationship where her mother pointed out that Mariam had ruined her life. Nana taunted Mariam saying that she was not wanted by her father and that Mariam had given Nana so much trouble that she had to apologize for everything. To Mariam it had seemed that she had to apologize for her birth. Mariam was not treated well by her mother even though her mother did love her.
ReplyDeleteLila’s relationship with her mother was also not that great either. Laila carved for her mother’s attention but she never really received it from her mother. Sometimes her relationship was alright with her mother, when her mother was on her good days. What Laila felt towards her mother was that her mother had given all her love to her two older brothers and that she had none left for Laila.
I think this shaped the way Laila and Mariam felt for each other. Both had carved their mother’s attention but had never gotten it, and when they started getting along they gave each other the attention they wanted and carved. They gave their love to each other and their sadness of not having the right mother daughter relationship was filled by each other. What I think also helped was that Mariam had wanted a child badly and that child took the form of Laila. Laila and Aziza became the most important people to Mariam, she loved and cared for them to the end. She even killed Rasheed because he was going to kill Laila.
Well I actually believe that Mariam had a better relationship with her mom than Laila did, because even though Mariam was known as a Harami and unwanted child.Mariam’s mom cared for her and always tried to look out for her so she wouldn’t get hurt by her father not because she hated him. Nana believed that Mariam was the only thing she had in this world and treated her daughter with great love. On the other hand Laila’s mother didn’t really care fore her she always loved her brothers more than Laila, but she always received great love from her father who even spoiled her. I think that the relationships between both women and their mothers shaped their relationships because even though Laila’s mom was alive she never had a mother like figure to look up to instead it was her father, and Mariam loved her mother and knew how it felt to lose a mother and felt bad for Laila which led her to treat Laila more like a daughter.
ReplyDeleteMariam and Laila went through rough times with their mothers. But Mariam had a better relationship with her mother because eventhough her mother called her a harami, she still loved Mariam because she was all that Nana had. Nana died because of Mariam, as she abandoned her when she went to Jalil's house. Laila on the other hand had a good relationship with her father and Tariq because they always supported them. Her relationship with her mother was not strong because her mother always talked about her sons. Something in common was that Mullah Faizullah supported Mariam and educated her, similarly Laila's father educated her.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Mariam and Laila's relationship was a mutual one. They both benefited from eachother. Mariam was a mother figure to Laila, especially when her own mother barely was, and Laila was like the daughter Mariam lost or never had.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that Laila will be a better mother to Zalmai and Azia because the relationship between Mariam and Laila has taught her how a mother-child relationship should really be. Or that Laila would have been a good mother without having had that experience with Mariam because she would have wanted to show her children affection so they wouldn't have the same relationship that she did with her own mother?
ReplyDeleteYeah I think that Laila learned how to be a mother from Mariam. If it wasn't for Mariam, she probably would have neglected her children like her mother neglected her. But I think she would have loved Aziza regardless because it was Tariq's child.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Laila saved Mariam from being beaten by Rasheed showed Mariam that someone cares for her. Mariam's mother was always negative towards her even though in her eyes she thought she was helping her, she kept telling her that she was a bastard child and that no one but her would love her, this isn't something you should be telling your child. Throughout the novel Mariam just wanted someone to love her and for her to be able to love someone and she found that in Laila. Laila's relationship with her mother was better than Mariam and her mother. It was not until her brothers went to the war, did Laila's mother start neglecting her, even though her mother neglected her she still had her father every day unlike Mariam who had her father once a week. I believe that Laila or Mariam would ever be like their mothers because they felt the pain of being neglected by their mothers.
ReplyDelete