A Comparitive Study of the Key Characters in Khalid Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns": The Suppressed & The Suppressor

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, language: English, abstract: This paper analyzes the surge of the male ego, hatred, sexual desires, jealousy and lust, that is evident in the character of Rasheed, in Khalid Hosseini's 'The Thousand Splendid Suns'. The female protagonist on the other hand, is an embodiment of suffering, humiliation, betrayal, sacrifice and love. The heroine of the novel - Mariam- who is termed as a 'harami', that is a bastard and Laila the princess of her parents Hakim and Fariba portray these emotions through the novel. Khaled Hosseini the author - a novelist and a physician took to writing by chance. Belonging to a diplomat family, he was exposed to good life and education both in Afghanistan and in United States. During the Saur Revolution the family was in Paris, France. In 1980, shortly after the Soviet war in Afghanistan. His father sought political asylum in the US and settled in California. Hosseini completed his education and practiced medicine for over ten years. He had a great inclination towards Persian poetry. As a child he read through a number of translated books and versions, ranging from 'Alice in Wonderland" to Mickey Spillane's Mike hammers series. His rich experience in a peaceful Afghanistan, was a motivational source to pen down his thoughts in his first novel, "The Kite Runner", released in 2003, which became the number one bestseller. The plot of the story deals with the main character, Amir, who struggles to establish a close relationship with his father and his dealing with the haunting memories of childhood.