Book Report on a Thousand Splendid Suns
CHARACTERS
MARIAM:
She is the main character of the story. She was born illegitimately to a wealthy man of Herat and one of his housekeepers. She tries to force her father to acknowledge her as his daughter, but it leads to the heartache of her mother’s suicide and her own arranged marriage to Rasheed. She lives with him many years as an abused wife until Laila becomes his second wife. They establish a fast friendship and Mariam eventually kills Rasheed as he is choking Laila to death. She is executed by the Taliban for her crime.
LAILA:
She is a beautiful young girl with golden hair who is raised by a modern set of parents to be an educated woman in an Islamic world. Because her parents are killed by a Mujahideen rocket, and she is six weeks pregnant to Tariq whom she believes is dead, she married Rasheed. Like Mariam, she becomes part of a home where she is abused and where she carries on a lie that her daughter is Rasheed’s. Eventually, after Tariq surfaces and Rasheed finds out that she allowed him in their home, she is nearly choked to death by her husband. Only Mariam’s intervention saves her life. She is then forced to leave Afghanistan with Tariq and her children in order to protect her son and daughter. Mariam accepts her fate and is left behind.
TARIQ:
He is the neighbor boy that Laila has always loved. He lost his leg when he stepped on a land mine quite early in his life, but is one of the toughest children in his neighborhood. He always protected Laila from anyone who bullies her. He leaves Afghanistan with his parents when it becomes impossible to stay in a crumbling society. He promised to find Laila when he can. He ends up in a refugee camp where his father dies. He is determined to get his mother out of the camp and accepts a job delivering a leather coat to another city. Unfortunately, the coat is lined with hashish and he is caught by Pakistani police. He is sentenced to seven years in prison, which is really a generous sentence for
MARIAM:
She is the main character of the story. She was born illegitimately to a wealthy man of Herat and one of his housekeepers. She tries to force her father to acknowledge her as his daughter, but it leads to the heartache of her mother’s suicide and her own arranged marriage to Rasheed. She lives with him many years as an abused wife until Laila becomes his second wife. They establish a fast friendship and Mariam eventually kills Rasheed as he is choking Laila to death. She is executed by the Taliban for her crime.
LAILA:
She is a beautiful young girl with golden hair who is raised by a modern set of parents to be an educated woman in an Islamic world. Because her parents are killed by a Mujahideen rocket, and she is six weeks pregnant to Tariq whom she believes is dead, she married Rasheed. Like Mariam, she becomes part of a home where she is abused and where she carries on a lie that her daughter is Rasheed’s. Eventually, after Tariq surfaces and Rasheed finds out that she allowed him in their home, she is nearly choked to death by her husband. Only Mariam’s intervention saves her life. She is then forced to leave Afghanistan with Tariq and her children in order to protect her son and daughter. Mariam accepts her fate and is left behind.
TARIQ:
He is the neighbor boy that Laila has always loved. He lost his leg when he stepped on a land mine quite early in his life, but is one of the toughest children in his neighborhood. He always protected Laila from anyone who bullies her. He leaves Afghanistan with his parents when it becomes impossible to stay in a crumbling society. He promised to find Laila when he can. He ends up in a refugee camp where his father dies. He is determined to get his mother out of the camp and accepts a job delivering a leather coat to another city. Unfortunately, the coat is lined with hashish and he is caught by Pakistani police. He is sentenced to seven years in prison, which is really a generous sentence for