assignment #2 disscusion B

  In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini, tales the story of two young girls who bond through oppression, and war of thier society. this remorseful novel repeats the motif of gender relations. this motif is expressed through the literary elements of characterization and irony. these two elements express the oppression women go through and their expectations in society.
    Hosseini uses characterization to make up what society sees a women should be. mariam's life all she has known to the characteristic of a women was to be " she would have to clean after this man, Rasheed, cook for him, was his clothes. And there would be other chorse aswell. " with this stereo type of the typical house wife cleaning, and producing babies, mariam already knew what her role was when she was to be married. this is based on thier society aswell keeping everything in tradition that women were inferior to men, weak, and uneducated. Through the life of Mariam she learned that all women have only one skill to learn and that was to "Endure" and also learned that "Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman." the connotaion to endure means to tolerate something and in this case Nana talks about the oppression of women to men, and how women endure maythings compare to men. the simile Hosseini used expresses how men always point to women to blame them. and this feeds off into the way women are seen in society ass evil at some point by men and the best thing to do to control the women would be to blame them. throught this book much of the motif of gender relations is created by society and the chraracteristics of being a "women". This coonects to the meaning of this novel on the way the characters delevlope into this role as they grow up.
     The men say many things bout what a women should do and act, and sometimes the men can contradict what they say and can be unfair to the women. Rasheed states " a woman's face is her husband's business only." this explains the inferior Mariam experiances when she is given the burqa. this statement is later contradicted by the magazines Mariam finds "beautiful women, who wore no shirts, no trousers, no socks or underpants." this expresses the irony of how Rasheed wants to cover up Mariam cause she is married to him, but yet the women in the magazines are not married to Rasheed. this is also expressed in society when men want thier women to be conservative but yet allow other women to dress in a racy way.
        Hosseini uses these lieterary elements to express the injustice of gender relations and also used as satire to our own nation. even though it not maybe to this extreme women experince injustice in America aswell. And Hosseini tries to express how the women feel, and tolerate such injustice for the world to see. Equality is among everyone no matter of sex, orientation, or disability.