Daeun+Lee's+Summer+Reading

=A Thousand Splendid Suns = =by Khaled Hosseini  = =APPROVED =

Essay #1

 * Chapter 2: Nice to Eat with You**

Eating and drinking with another person is always done with an exchange of feelings. “If a well-run meal or snack portends good things for community and understanding, then the failed meal stands as a bad sign” (Foster 11). The emotional bonding through the consumption of refreshments with one another in //A Thousand Splendid Suns// is well presented by the author Khaled Hosseini and his two main characters, Mariam and Laila.

The communion that the two Afghanistan women share can be merely seen as a snack, but is in fact much more powerful. Although they start off as rivals to gain love from their husband, having a few cups of //chai// tea with //halwa// together changes everything. “In this fleeting, wordless exchange with Mariam, Laila knew that they were not enemies any longer” (Hosseini 224). Eating together from a shared bowl breaks down Mariam and Laila’s aversions and replaces with amity by becoming the commonality they share during their bonding. In fact, from that night on, the women make //chai// tea and //halwa// their nightly ritual and strengthen their relationship daily. The communions which Mariam and Laila share continuously have enormous influence on them to the point where dying for the other is worthy enough.

Both fictional and real life characters all create social connections by having food and drinks together. However, it is not the actual meal that makes eating an act of communication, but the atmospheric bond the eaters create while they are eating. The story of Mariam and Laila is a perfect example, because between the two women the unlikely mutual bonds develop, after they share cups of tea. In //A Thousand Splendid Suns//, Hosseini perfectly portrays through these main characters and fully supports the important role eating and drinking together plays in the kinship of people.

Hi Daeun! First of all, my book didn't really have any significant eating scenes,except involving fights, so I was interested in reading your essay. The way you describe how the atmosphere changed as the two female protagonists were eating was quite surprising. The introductory paragraph was well written for eating is what everyone has in common and pointing that out was one way to grab reader's attention. I didn't see any huge mistakes in the introductory paragraph but I'm not sure if I have found the thesis statement right. Is it the last sentence of your first paragraph? (Beginning with "The emotional...") This sentence sounded like a thesis statement but it didn't seem to be a definite, solid thesis statement. The body paragraph was well written. I was able to picture the image in my head. The way you supported your opinion with Foster's explanations was another good point of your essay. It was simple, and easy to understand, making the reader to agree with you without much difficulties. It would have been better if you wrote more analysis about the quote but since it was limited to 300 words, I understand that. The conclusion paragraph was the most well written out of the three paragraphs, in my opinion, because you summarized the points you talked in the previous paragraphs well. The conclusion sentence was clear and simple, well organized and easy to understand for the readers. Overall, I really enjoyed your essay. It was short, simple, clear, and well-supported. It seems like your book is a good book. I would like to read it later when it is available. Great job! - Alice Ahn
 * //Comments//**

Essay #2

 * Ch.11: …More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence**

Does violence really have a meaning? In real life, it would probably be nothing since there’s not much thought put into it. However, in fiction, violence could mean something else that possesses much more meaning culturally. One way brutality can be presented is by causing a specific damage to a character. This distinct type of violence exists to display an important theme in Khaled Hosseini’s novel, //A Thousand Splendid Suns//.

The particular injuries that are caused on the females represent the oppression Afghan women endure. The inhumane acts of Rasheed toward Mariam and Laila, such as beating and locking up them up, support what these women suffer. “It wasn’t easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults, his walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid...he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks” towards Mariam depending on his mood (Hosseini 89). This clearly shows that the writer intentionally chose the specific type of violence that requires physical strength, which men obviously have more than women. Nana also tells Mariam from her experience that, “like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman” (Hosseini 7). The Taliban’s restrictions toward women, the overly biased rules that only apply to powerless females are also part of the unfair treatment women receive under their horrific, inhumane violence. These kinds of abuse are the employed in //A Thousand Splendid Suns// to emphasize inferior treating of women. Violence in literature allows Hosseini to freely and thematically display his ideas.

Essay #3

 * Ch.12 : Is That A Symbol?**

People often wonder whether something noticeable they find in literature is a symbol or not. Can that specific object mean something besides what it appears to be? It definitely can, because anything can be symbols. Though they don’t stand for something specific, symbols do possess a great deal of values that can be understood many different ways. Some representations will be very hard to figure out, but some will be very obvious, just like the novel //A Thousand Splendid Suns// by Khaled Hosseini. Among the numerous symbols in this literature, the title itself is the most evident one.

The title actually comes from a poem called //Kabul// by Saib-e-Tabrizi. Laila’s father recites a part of it, //“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls” (Hosseini 172).// One quite apparent meaning of the symbol could be the beauty of the city. It could be talking about the joys and the happiness of the citizens hidden behind the walls of the houses. Another possibility could be about overcoming hardships and discovering hope, if the “splendid suns” represent the bright future concealed with darkness. Or it could even be about the idealistic Afghan women who are cloistered behind the walls of their houses. “But mostly, Mariam is in Laila’s own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns,” the symbol is mentioned again at the end of the story (366). This time, the representation seems to honor Mariam’s altruistic love and sacrifice. //A Thousand Splendid Suns// could signify almost everything in the city of Kabul. Symbolism in literature can always be interpreted in any kind of objects, people, times, places, and even actions.

Essay #4

 * Ch. 18 : If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism**

One of the most common events that occur to characters in stories is their drowning. There are numerous ways that characters can be drowned in water, such as being pushed, dragged, tripped, and much more, which all possess different meanings. “Drowning has plenty to tell us in a story,” ranging from very basic facts about characters to in-depth analysis of themes (Foster 162). In Khaled Hosseini’s //A Thousand Splendid Suns,// Rasheed’s son is a great example. His accidental death contributes the revelation of his father and the perspective of violence in terms of Rasheed, thematically.

The story reveals that Rasheed’s son drowns in a lake while his father is drunk. This incident definitely shows how Rasheed’s irresponsibility doesn’t make him an ideal father. Also, this man’s comment on Laila’s baby, “You should not get so attached… one out of four children will die before the age of five,” definitely unveils how much “attached” he himself was to his son (Hosseini 215). Rasheed’s wholehearted love for his son seems to turn into deep sorrow and guilt, which eventually becomes anger. As a result, the rage Rasheed has is expressed through violence towards Mariam and Laila, a huge theme of this book.

Along with Rasheed’s personality and quality revealed is the theme of violence from his view. Hosseini makes the horrific, unjustifiable actions seem more understandable. Basically, drowning adds depth to the characters, to the story, and overall, to everything in a piece of literature. Every drowning carries out different purposes, all which later become parts of the important traits in written compositions.

Essay #5

 * Ch.26 : Is He Serious? And Other Ironies**

Readers usually expect to find revitalizing and purifying in irony. However, that is very unlikely, because the whole purpose of irony is to build up on their expectations, then give a surprising twist to them. Writers very often use it to push the readers to go deeper and understand the various messages hidden below. To some authors, “irony is a full-time business, so that as we read them more and more, we come to expect that they will inevitably thwart conventional expectations” (Foster 244). The book //A Thousand Splendid Suns// by Khaled Hosseini is full of irony, because the characters’ behaviors and words appear the opposite of what they mean to the readers. The novelist employs this literary device throughout his novel, adding humor, misery, and even sarcasm to it.

The protagonist, Mariam, is a character who lives a life full with tragic irony. Young Mariam imagines her husband, crying to save his drowning son, and feels sympathy towards him. She tells herself that “they would make good companions after all,” but ironically they never do, because later on, she becomes his slave. This poof Afghan woman, who is happy to have a home, a husband, and a baby, exclaims, “How glorious it was to know that her love for it already dwarfed anything she had ever felt as a human being, to know that there was no need any longer for pebble games,” and “asks God not to let all this good fortune slip away from her” (Hosseini 80-81). Paradoxically, she loses the baby, which provokes Rasheed’s anger towards her for the rest of her life. It is not only the characters, but also the words and situations that also contain irony. Hosseini applies irony to //A Thousand Splendid Suns//, giving much more richness and depth to it.

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Hey Sarah, I really think that Billy’s experience is a perfect example of Baptism in literature. He’s drowning, he’s thinking of the past, he’s rescued, and he goes through pain. They’re all great evidence that proves Billy is being reborn. Your quote is also nice, since it supports the fact that Billy did indeed go through pain while he was emerging from the water, or should I say, being baptized. I like how you mention Billy’s reminiscence about his past because it adds more meaning to his rebirth. However, it would be even better if you talk about what happens after he is rescued. Knowing the exact changes would fully make his drowning a baptism, but right now, it feels a bit incomplete. In what ways does he change? How does he deal with his memories and his past? Explaining these parts would make your essay much more easier to understand, even for people like me that haven’t read the book. Other than that, everything seems to be fine. Great job!======

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Hi Soobin, I chose to read this essay, because season is a topic that I didn’t get a chance to write on. First of all, your essay’s sentence fluency is really great. All word choices are great, and I don’t see any awkward or vague phrases. Just to point out, I found a little grammar mistake on your second paragraph. It should be “The sixth and seventh chapters explain,” instead of “The sixth and seventh chapter explains.” Anyways, I see that you added even more analysis to winter than Foster did in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, which is great. According to your essay, winter can be associated with death, religion, and coldness. Though I really like your ideas, I would have written them differently. For instance, instead of having two body paragraphs, I would have three, so that each main idea could have a solitary section of its own. That would probably have made the quote support the essay much more, since it’s a bit hard to understand why you used that specific quote for this paragraph. Dealing with that would improve your essay much more, but I don’t see any other parts that seem weird. The essay overall is really nice, especially your content and writing style. Well done!======


 * IMPORTANT: Your summer reading assignment page should have five essays (copy and pasted) and two comments (copy and pasted). If I have to look for your assignments, points will be deducted!**