A Thousand Splendid Suns

How to Laila and Marium change throughout the novel?

how do the women change at the end, when they separate

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This is a pretty involved question for this short answer space. I can make a general comment. Both women live within a patriarchal, and in many cases, misogynist world. They want love and happiness, even within the context of very conservative Islamic values. Mariam and Laila both loose hope for any kind of family with Rasheed. The only love they find is between each other. Both women become disillusioned and frightened with the prospect of a life with Rasheed. Mariam eventually sacrifices her life for Laila in order that she may find some happiness in life.

The character that stood out in this novel is Laila. At the beginning of the Novel Laila was small, and she was the only child of her parents since Laila’s brothers Ahmad and Noor went to war. Laila was very intelligent and educated girl and she also had very good friend boy named Tariq and her very close friend Hsiana. However one day Laila was so offended one day after school by three boys, because one day she was going at home after school when she saw three boys that were not really nice and they had urine in the water bottle and sprayed all over her and her hair. As she want home she was so upset and she was crying. Later in the novel Laila was 14 years old and she fall in love with her best childhood friend Tariq so they both liked each other. Laila wanted to marry Tariq but unfortunately his parents were moved to Pakistan to avoid the war that was in Kabul so Laila and Tariq could not marry each other. One day Laila's father was helping her in homework and then all the sudden they got horrible news that her brothers Ahmad and Noor had died in the war which really made everyone upset. Unfortunately it affected their mom the most. After this incident Laila and her life has changed because her parents were so upset, and her mother was blaming this on Hakim because he was the one who agreed for them to go to war so Laila was worried too, even though she did not know them very well. Also after all of this her mom was in the bad and she was not getting up until she would get news that Afghanistan has won the war against Soviet Union. This changed her life because she had to study and she had to cook food for her parents as well. After a while, they finally got the news that Afghanistan had defeated Soviet Unions in the war. So since they won the war in her mother's mind it was like Ahmad and Noor died in the war but it was worth it. Laila and her family were happy after the fact that Afghanistan won the war. Furthermore, then the war was in Kabul and Afghanistan was fighting each other. One day Laila got a news about her best friend that was going to marry was killed in the war so Laila was crying so much and she was devastated because she has lost her best friend. Also Laila and her family decided that they were going to leave Kabul too. As Laila and her parents were living the house suddenly the rocket fall on their house and killed her parents. After Laila had realize what has happened she was not eating food, and she was horrified. After Laila has lost her friend, her parents and the fact that Tariq left her life changed it affected her in a terrifying way. So then she didn’t had other way but to stay with Mariam and Rasheed because she did not had house or place for her to live in. After that Laila was married to Rasheed because Rasheed wanted a baby and Laila agreed to marry Rasheed. Rasheed wanted to have boy from Laila but they had girl which made Rasheed mad and upset. Because of that then Laila was trying to steal some money slowly from Rasheed hoping he doesn't realize and then she was planning to run away from the house because Rasheed seemed not to like the baby because he wanted boy but she was girl. This is how Laila's life was at the beginning of the novel and then how it changed throughout the novel. Another way Laila changed throughout the story is that Mariam and Laila didn’t seem to get along with each other but lately they started to be friends and kind of be against Rasheed together so Laila was nicer to Mariam now. Also Mariam changed throughout the novel by actually defending herself from Rasheed. In the story it says that Laila punched Rasheed in the face because her and Mariam had enough already. Laila changes in the the novel as she has another child Zalmai. Laila now that send Aziza to the orphanage and she found Tariq. Then Laila fall in love with Tariq again and they were talking about what happened to them since Tariq left and Lila got married. After all sh started getting little bit more diffensive with Rasheed especially when he used to beat Mariam and tried to help her. She changed because she wanted to be with Tariq again and leave Rasheed alone. And when they were talking Rasheed did not like that and thought that Laila was cheating on him and after Tariq left he took Zalmai up stairs and started to beat her up with a belt and started choking her so Mariam took shovel from garage and kills Rasheed. Also, in the book it says Laila changed because that day she was so nervous and panicking because she knew that her and Mariam could be killed by Talibans. Later in the novel Mariam turned herself in and she died. So after couple days Laila started having nightmares about Mariam in the book it is stated that Laila was walking in the hallway back in Rasheed’s house and she was hearing sounds from the room where Miriam was and them once Laila would go in the room was empty no one was there.

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A thousand splendid sons book