Prose: A Thousand Splendid Suns summary Flashcards
1- What does Nana call Mariam at the opening of the book?
Harami- Bastard
1- What does Nana say about ice cream?
“The children of strangers get ice cream. What do you get, Mariam? Stories of ice cream”
1- What does Nana say about men?
“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter. Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam”
2- What does Nana say about Jalil learning of their house when she was preganant?
“he sounded like a warden bragging about the clean walls and shiny floors of his prison”
5-What does Mariam do with stones outside of the kolba?
create stacks of pebbles to represent her siblings and then adds “A solitary, 11th pebble”
5-What happened in the morning after Mariam sleeps on the street in Herat?
-She tried to run into the house via the garden, but caught a face in the upsitars window for a flash of a second: it was Jalil.
-She was angry at Jalil for making her “sleep [ing] on the street like a stray dog”
-On returning to the kolba, she has discovered Nana has killed herself by hanging herself off of a tree
6- Where did Mariam stay after Nana’s death? And why is ironic?
She stays in Jalil’s spare room, and it is ironic because it has always been there
6- What does Mullah Faizullah say to Mariam about Nana’s death?
“You stop that. These thoughts are no good, Mariam jo. You hear me, child? No good. They will destroy you. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your fault. No”
6/7- What happens almost immediately when Mariam arrives at Jalil’s?
-She has been found a suitor
-He is called Rasheed, from Kabul, and is a shoemaker
8-Is the wedding more traditional or not?
No, the Mullah has cut a few bits of the ceremony out as Rasheed and Mariam have to catch the bus to Kabul
8-How is their interests in their marriage shown through the description of the ring?
“Her own band was a little tight, but Rasheed had no trouble forcing over her knuckles”
9/10- what does Mariam say about her new life with Rasheed and how it affects her?
-adjectives such as “wooden”, “narrow”,”unpaved”, “crowded” are used to describe the setting negatively.
-She says the space “suffocate[s]” her
-It affects her deeply as she doesn’t leave bed, doesn’t unpack and cries
-She is scared of the other woman at the tandoor
-She also gets given a burqa by Rasheed
11- What does the kebab house represent?
Reflects Rasheed as a person.
11- How is Mariam eating the ice cream described and how is it important?
-she “never imagined such tricks could be played on a palate”
-she “marveled at the bewitching texture”
this represents the change in Mariam’s life, and this is the height of her embracing it and enjoying it
11- What happens at the end of the chapter that is a key moment?
Rasheed forces himself into Mariam that from a 21st Century Western perspective we would describe as marital rape. There’s a lot of description such as “fingernails catching” to describe the forcefulness and there’s also lots of descriptions of how Mariam feel about this such as “shivering”. Also, the whole event is described heavily, shy of graphically, which Hosseini uses to hightlight the traumatising effects of it.
12- Why does Mariam go into Rasheed’s room and what does he find?
she goes in because her cleaning took her there, is what she says. She discovers a gun to begin with, that after she memorised how it sat, picked it up, she also finds a pornographic magazine full of naked women. This angered Mariam as he talked about honour and his dissaproval of his female customers who weren’t covering. She later felt better about it as she explained it in her head. She then finds a picture of Rasheed’s late son, Yunus. Finally, she also finds a picutre of Rasheed’s late wife, who she has a “[feels a] flicker of jealousy” for as she says that she’s pretty.She also finds it weird the way Rasheed looms over her.
13- How does the description of Kabul change on the way back from Mariam’s first doctor appointment and her doctor’s appointment after the events in the bathouse (hamam)?
First appointment:
-There’s lots of bright colours
-snow begins to fall- pathetic fallacy to romantisise Mariam’s preganancy
Second appointment:
-Her and Rasheed then have another bus ride, which is described as much as the first, and defintely not in as much detail and with such positivity, which Hosseini does to highlight to change in atmoshpere and mood.
15- How had Mariam and Rasheed’s relationship changed since the miscarrage?
since the initial miscarrage, their had been six futher miscarriage episodes, which has caused the complete breakdown of their marriage, and their relationship.
15- What event happens between Rasheed and Mariam at the end of the chapter?
Rasheed makes Mariam eat stones, which he uses to represent how her food tastes.
16- who/what are we introduced to in this chapter, and how is this introduction important?
We are introduced to nine year-old Laila, who is a direct contrast to Mariam, and is introduced as an enigma code, as we have to wait to find out what happens to Mariam.
16- how is Babi described, and how is this a direct contrast to another character?
“Babi was a small man, with narrow shoulders and slim, delicate hands, almost like a woman’s”. This is a direct contrast to Rasheed
16- how is education presented differently in Laila’s version of Afghanistan?
-majority of girls go to school
-parents see importance of school
-female teachers
-equality rules for women and men to be equal
16- how is Babi’s statement used by Hosseini to highlight the advancements of Afghanistan?
“Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance.” This shows how views of women being matriarchs of the domestic home shift to educated women with successful jobs
18- How does the chapter end and how does it foreshadow the next chain of events?
Babi says that “the only enemy an Afghan cannont defeat is himself”, which foreshadows some itnernal conflict in Afghanistan
