Connector

Connector
~ April 16th, 2014
Amanda Lewis


Essay Questions   
     The first reading section, chapters one through (and including) twelve, can be related to several of the essay topics. The ones I selected to relate A Thousand Splendid Suns are as follows: How does the society of the novel affect key relationships? How do characters deal with society's pressures/values/responses? Can they overcome the obstacles to their personal decisions or fulfillment? and How are women treated/viewed? How do they establish their identity and role in the novel? Are they successful at finding friends and love?
     For the first question, I said that the society greatly affects Mariam's relationships, namely the ones she has with her mother, father, and new husband. Her relationship with her mother is affected because her mother was negatively affected by life. Being a woman, and a poor one at that, Nana had experienced a terrible amount of heartbreak and disappointment. Due to this, Nana is incredibly negative, harsh, skeptical, and so unstable. This, because the only person she lives with is Mariam, is taken out on Mariam. Nana's anger and spite of Mariam is also partially generated because getting pregnant was what threw Nana out of her previous house and job, and she also knows what is out there for women and how they are treated; she wants to warn and protect Mariam from that but she goes about it in the wrong way.
     Mariam's relationship with her father, Jalil, is very restricted. He visits every Thursday faithfully, but only for a few hours that day. Mariam, because Nana and she have been considered by society and pride a shameful thing, cannot have that normal and healthy relationship and interaction with her father every day. She can't live in Jalil's house, see him in his normal routines, and she can't be a part of his family.
     As for her relationship with her husband Rasheed, Mariam is seen as an object and a slave. She is married off because Jalil's wives wanted to get rid of her, and Rasheed accepted even before seeing her because he was only concerned with having a young virgin to be his slave. Her needs and feelings are not considered in this situation, because she is an illegitimate, young girl.
     The other essay question about how women find their identity was easily answered. This book is all about women and how they were treated and viewed in that time. Mariam, and almost all the other women in the book, find their identities in what they do and in what they can do for their husbands namely. Instead of being identified with what they enjoy, their personalities, and skills, they are identified in cooking, cleaning, having kids, and being available to please their husbands.
    
Other Literature    
   A Thousand Splendid Suns had many things in theme that were similar to Persepolis. For example, in bothPersepolis, the women were made to wear the veil properly and without question. Eventually having to wear the veil morphed into a full body covering while the men had every freedom when it came to clothing. In A Thousand Splendid Suns Mariam is made to wear a burqa by her new husband; he said that a wife's face should be the husband's business only. She also had no choice whatever in her marriage because she was merely an object that needed to be disposed of in the eyes of her father and his three wives.
novels, women as a whole are treated as unequal to men. The women in both novels were given next to no rights or no rights at all. In
  I was able to connect this book to another piece of literature other than the ones in the other literature circles. I found that

Unknown/Significant Words

1. Recrimination (Hosseini, 11) - to bring a countercharge against an accuser; to accuse in return.

    This word was previously unknown to me and the other girls of our literature circle. In the book it says that after Nana would relate the supposedly terrible experience of giving birth to Mariam, Mariam would apologize. She then would notice that her mother always gave a slow, reluctant smile after that filled with something Mariam was not sure of, but she thought it looked like recrimination. She and her mother both felt Nana's pain was partially Mariam's fault. However, it wasn't. It was Nana's own bitter outlook on life.
2. Quinces (Hosseini, 15) - a type of yellow fruit in Afghanistan that grew on the Cydonia oblonga tree; it was chiefly used for the making of jelly or preservatives.
    I chose this one because of curiosity. I had never heard of quinces, and at first thought they might be some kind of treat, seeing as they were brought by Nana and Mariam's friend, Bibi jo whenever she visited. I suppose it would be a sort of treat because Nana and Mariam would not otherwise get to have such things because of their isolation and predetermined rations given by Jalil to them every month.
3. Quivering (Hosseini, 16) - shaking, trembling.
    I thought that this word was very well used in the description of one of the few people that visited Mariam's hut frequently. He was a very old man, had a toothless smile, and a beard down to his belly button. His name was Mullah Faizulla. He had been Nana's teacher when she was young, and now he was Mariam's. He was very dear to her.
4. Coup (Hosseini, 23) - successful, unexpected stroke, act, or move; clever action or accomplishment.
    This word's definition doesn't quite describe the context it was put in. The launched coup against the government was implied to be unsuccessful. However, I'm sure the people launching it thought it was going to be. The fact that things like this were happening in their country showed that Afghanistan was on its way to war, if not already in it. This will affect the plot a lot I think.
5. Minarets (Hosseini, 28) - lofty, slender, tower or turret attached to a mosque surrounded by one or more balconies, from which the muzzein calls the people to prayer.
    I really liked the description of the town that Mariam could see from the edge of the clearing where her house was situated. This word was previously unknown to me, so I was curious. In the book it described the minarets as giant's fingers raising up to the sky in the distance. Once I knew what minarets were, it was a mental sight to behold.
6. Reproach (Hosseini, 33) - blame or censure conveyed in disapproval; reproof.
    When Mariam finally goes down to town to find her father when he does not show up to take her to his theater, Jalil's car driver showed "gentle reproach" to Mariam's stubbornness and refusal to leave unless she saw Jalil. This I thought was an interesting paradox. Although it was a bit difficult for me to imagine, the paradox showed that at least someone who worked for her father cared and sympathized with her situation and didn't want her to be hurt. He was following orders, but he could see her hurt already and wanted to spare her of any more.
7. Punish (Hosseini, 42) - to inflict a penalty for; to handle severely or roughly, as in a fight.
    When Mariam was sent up into her room for the night because Rasheed (her husband) had some men over, it was raining. As she was laying there on her bed, the book said that she could hear the loud laughter coming from downstairs, and that the rain was punishing the window. I think this description of something we don't give a second thought about is the best thing I have ever heard! I had never thought of personifying something in that way. That word, describing the driving force of the rain, really made me feel the gloominess and oppressiveness that Mariam was feeling. It was so neat.

Other Literature Circle Novels
     I was able to connect this novel to The Road by Cormac Mccarthy. In both novels, the parent to child relationship is very similar. The parent is very adamant about the way things are and have been done, but the child sees something that they think should change and wants to do something differently.
     This novel also connects to Brave New World by Aldous Huxley in the sense that both of the main characters of each respective novel are dissatisfied with society. They feel that there is something wrong in the way that things are run and how people are treated. They want to see society functioning differently.
     I also realized that A Thousand Splendid Suns is different than all the other literature circle novels. While the other novels were written by the authors about the future, this novel was written in modern times about the past. I thought that was pretty cool.

April 24th, 2014
Mary Soppitt

Essay topics:

1) The first connection is how society of the novel impacts key relationships. Clearly, Afghanistan is a male favoured country. This affects the women in the country in many different ways. They are forced into arranged marriages, controlled by their husbands, fathers and brothers, forced to fully clothe in any public situation and in Mariam's case she isn't allowed to talk to any of the males. Laila's life is slightly different until she marries Rasheed. During her child hood Laila has a great relationship with her father and Tariq because she is an independent women who is allowed to make her own decisions. However, once she marries Rasheed, she is cut off from having intimate relationships and has more forceful relationships. Both Mariam and Laila experience a relationship that is fuelled by fear of Rasheed. Even when Laila gives him a daughter, Aziza, she is fearful of her own father. This society provokes forced relationships as a result. The ladies in the novel find their true intimate relationships with each other. Since neither of the girls can stand up to Rasheed, they confide in each other for support and love. The obstacles that they must over come to fix the relationship is unattainable because of society they live in. The only way they would be free from this fearful relationship would be if he was to pass away. 

2) The second essay topic I chose to connect the story to is how women are treated and viewed. The women in Afghanistan are viewed more as prizes and unwanted necessities. They are forced into marriages to cook, clean and have children for the men. Very rarely are they treated with respect or dignity and very rarely do they get an education. As the novel progresses even Laila is married into a family where her freedom is taken away from her. The women in the novel can almost be viewed as extra luggage that men have to drag around with them. They are beaten and starved when they make mistakes and are forbidden from showing their faces in public. All the rules of the government revolve around women and the freedom that isn't theirs. Mariam and Laila establish their identity in each other. They confide in each other for safety and belonging because they both understand what each other is going through. Literature Circle Novels:Brave New World:
People in Brave New World are immune to suffering until they realize that suffering is natural and everyone must go through it. Likewise, Laila is pretty sheltered from suffering compared to other people in her life until everything starts going wrong. Both people in these novels come to the realization that suffering is inevitable.

Other LiteratureMy last connection is to Persepolis. The connection I’m making is the struggle the girls in both novels face to find their true identity. Both Mariam and Laila are forced to wear Burqas and hide behind their marriage to Rasheed. Marjane struggles with this also. The government bans her from making her own decisions ie. Wearing makeup and going out alone. Rasheed forces his two wives to wear Burqas when they leave the house and they are under very strict rules. All the women in the novels face this difficulty of identity and finding out who they really are.
Word finder
1. Myriad:a countless or extremely great number.
pg. 183 "And the look, the myriad looks on tariq: of apprehension, tenderness, apology, embarrassment but mostly, mostly of hunger." A significant change has taken place in the dynamic of their relationship. This also signifies their love and this word shows the different feelings Tariq is having toward their newfound love.
2. Guileless: innocent and without deception.
3. Ironclad: covered or protected with iron.
pg. 183 "His look was one of conviction, of guileless yet ironclad earnestness." Two words that describe how Laila is perceiving Tariq.
4. Kalashnikovs: a type of rifle or sub machine gun found in Russia.
pg. 201 "Mariam would see them when she passed by, always dressed in their fatigues, squatting by the front door of tariq's house, playing cards and smoking, their Kalashnikovs leaning against the wall." These are the people Mariam saw infront of her house, knowing the word Kalashnikovs shows that they had weapons with them.
5. Hamwatan: Arabic word meaning master or guardian. 
pg. 208 "He was glad, I think, that there was a hamwatan next to him." The man is referring to himself as he's telling Laila the story of Tariq in the hospital. 
6. Disingenuous: not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does. 
pg. 219 "Dishonorable, disingenuous and shameful." This shows how Laila continues to deceive Rasheed even though it is wrong, for the sake of her baby. 
7. Sofrah: type of table clothe
pg. 228 " After, Rasheed went upstairs to listen to his radio,and Laila helped Mariam clear the sofrah."

~April, 29th, 2014

Meaghan Ballanger

Essay Topics:
This section connects to society's values, expectations and way of thinking. The society that Mariam and Laila live in is very male-centric, and in being so it takes its toll on how the main characters can live their own lives. For instance when they try to run away but are caught by the police. The officer is interrogating Laila and at one point he says to her, "what a man does in his home is his own business". This favouritism shows a very unhealthy ignorance and even willful blindness to the crimes, violence, or abuse that went on. As if to prove my point, Rasheed, after getting his wives back beat Mariam, and locked Laila in a room, Mariam in a shed, for so long they thought they would die of dehydration. Later on when Zalmai is born, Rasheed is over-joyed for a boy is much more useful and a lot more accepted in the community. Yet when Aziza was born Rasheed was angry with Laila for giving birth to a girl.

To the other literature circle novels:
Brave New World: Just as some of the men in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns"don't care what happens to a woman, so do the people of Brave New World not care about connecting on an emotional level with each other. Everybody serves their purpose within society and each person is there for anybody to use (even sexually), which is similar to 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' because the wife is there to serve their husbands purpose and fulfill their needs (ex. Laila providing Rasheed an heir).

To other literature:
Persepolis: Both these books show a hypocrisy in society. In 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' the men don't care what happens to a woman in their own household, (ie. a man can kill their wife and not be punished), but when a woman tries to protect themselves they are punished. In 'Persepolis', Marjane is running down the street and is stopped by guards who told her to stop running, because she jiggled to much. This shows a hypocrisy. Especially in their clothing restrictions. Marjane exposes this when she goes to art school and presents her case to the leaders of the school. The women are made to wear loose clothing and cover up pretty much every part of their body, while men aren't told to cover up anything.
The Secret Daughter: Just as in this section, Rasheed is wanting only a boy, in Secret Daughter, a woman gives away her daughter because she is afraid of what her husband might do if he finds out she gave birth to a girl. They bend to the society's expectations of what a proper family should look like, even though, as it shows throughout the book, both parents loved the daughter.

Word Finder: 
1. Incredulous: unwilling or unable to believe something.
pg. 268 "Laila pictured him as he must have been an hour, or maybe minutes, earlier, rushing from one room to another, slamming doors, furious and incredulous, cursing under his breath." This quote helps us understand the height of his rage and temper.
2. Disregard: 1) to pay no attention to, 2) lack of attention or regard; neglect.
pg. 274 "Ever since the failed escape two and a half years ago, Mariam knew that she and Laila had become one and the same being to him, equally wretched, equally deserving of his distrust, his disdain and disregard." This quote shows how quickly both Mariam and Laila quickly went from being treasured and treated with respect to being disregarded and disrespected.
3. Incorruptible: incapable of being bribed or morally corrupted.
pg. 274 "At least the Taliban are pure and incorruptible." This quote is ironic considering the havoc and cruelty that follows because of the Taliban. But perhaps in some way Rasheed is right. The Taliban are incorruptible because they are already corrupt.
4. Pragmatic: realistic, practical
pg. 291 "She said this in a pragmatic, almost indifferent, tone, and Mariam understood that this was a woman far past outrage." This quote illustrates the pivotal point of grief and pain the happens to the inhabitants of a war-stricken country. There is a point in that much pain and suffering where the person (in this case the doctor) is past being angry and just strives to relieve the pain and the suffering. They channel their anger into a more worthy cause.
5. Tortuous: involving torture
pg. 331 "Tall, bearded, slimmer than in her dreams of him, but with strong-looking hands, workman's hands, with tortuous, full veins." I picked this quote because I was confused by the adjective. A vein can not be tortuous. But I realize from doubling back over the book that she mentions this once before. She says something along the lines of his 'tortuous' veins being, in her mind, masculine. So she must find this attractive. It is an old thing to find attractive.
6. Recrimination: an accusation of wrong-doing made against somebody who has made a similar accusation.
pg. 341 "There was no hidden reproach, no recrimination, in the way he had said this. No suggestion of blame." I chose this quote because it contrasts with the quote that Amanda chose when defining the same word. In Amanda's quote the word 'recrimination' is used in the context of Mariam's mother looking at Mariam with a look of 'recrimination', so accusing her. While in this instance, Tariq is looking at Laila with no recrimination, no accusation in his looks. The contrast I thought was neat to show the opposite ends of the spectrum.
7. Volumes: 1) a book 2) a series of printed sheets 3) a series of issues
pg. 338 'And I wrote you.'
'You did?'
'Oh, volumes,' he said, 'Your friend Rumi would have envied my production.' I picked this quote because it just communicates the love that existed between Tariq and Laila. Even over time their love didn't diminish. I would even say that over the years their love increased in volumes.

~May 1st, 2014

Abigail Burns

To the essay topics:

1. Society’s impact- rules restricting women, and authority not getting involved with events with the husband and wife not helping. 

        3. Women are treated as objects and possessions, which is shown when Rasheed strangles Laila because she went   behind his back. Through her decision to kill Rasheed, Mariam values her role as a mother above all else; like any mother, she's willing to do whatever it takes to protect Laila. Mothers always put their children ahead of all other matters. Mariam demonstrates her maternal nature in the aftermath of Rasheed's death. She attends to Laila's wounds and allows her time to recover from the shock of Rasheed's killing. Mariam encourages Laila to pull herself together long enough to drag Rasheed into the tool shed. 

4. Justice to them in afghanistan was killed Mariam for killing Rasheed

To the other literature circle novels:

•  Laila and a character from Brave new world children with people they weren’t supposed to in rough circumstances 
• Trying to control them by not letting other views influence them and being in touch with their emotions 
• 1964 - dairy was not allowed, with no recording things
• 10000ss- books were no longer allowed
• Farenheight 451- all books were burned 
• Brave new world- main character got a dairy, wrote feelings of bad emotions which was not allowed

• Brave new world-- new rules, no more bible
• Same with 1000ss new rules were implemented with a new ruler for the time period
• In The Road Killed and cooked the baby as a sacrifice -Mariam also had to sacrifice herself at the end of the section 

To other literature: 

• Theme of sacrifice- 
• Hunger games books
• My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. Her sister is dying of cancer and her parents actually conceived her to be a genetic match who would donate her cord blood and later bone marrow to their older daughter. The book starts when the younger sister hires a lawyer to help her not have to donate a kidney.
  

• The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe- Aslan selflessly gives his life so the witch will delay a while longer for the sake of the others. 

• The dressmaker of khair khana- setting in afghanistan in kabul 

(Plot summary of Khair Khana) 

The story begins in 1996 on the day that Kamila graduates with her teaching certificate, and the day the Taliban first arrive in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan and home to the Sidiqi family. Inspired by the sharia law of Islam, it would become the doctrine of the Taliban to completely isolate women from society. Women were not permitted to work, attend school, or even leave the house without a male relative, or mahram. Kamila’s father and brothers do not escape persecution either, and are soon forced to flee the city. Unable to teach and desperate to support her family, Kamila masters the art of dressmaking and passes on the skills to her younger sisters. In order to find work for the budding business, Kamila frequently makes the dangerous trek to the market and meets with the owners of local dress shops. Soon the business is growing, and Kamila sees an opportunity to help other women in her community. With the help of her sisters, she opens a tailoring school in their home to teach women how to sew and to give them work once they completed their training. At a time of almost insurmountable poverty, she is able to employ nearly one hundred of her friends and neighbors, all the while escaping the scrutiny of the Taliban.