A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is a splendidly written novel. There are two protagonists in this novel: Mariam and Laila. The main antagonist of this novel is Rasheed, Mariam and Laila’s husband. It is divided into four parts. The first focuses solely on Mariam, while the second and fourth on Laila. The third section alternates between Mariam and Laila throughout the chapters. The story is very interesting as it details a general and widespread event or situation with a specific example. This particular situation is the hardships of Afghan people in Afghanistan, especially women, during wars in their country. In this way, the novel chronicles the past 30 years of history almost month by month.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam is shown as being brought up by her mother, Nana, and embittered women in a small village near Herat. It is revealed that Mariam is conceived illegimately by her wealthy father, Jalil. On her fifteenth birthday, her father promised to take her to watch Pinocchio, but he never did. So Mariam went to her father’s house to find him even though her mother told her ‘“I’ll die if you go.”’ When she made her way to her father’s place, he refused to see her. Upon returning to her own home, she found that her mother hanged herself, and immediately regretted her own leaving. Jalil then took her in, but soon forced her into a loveless marriage to the insensitive Rasheed. Childless, Mariam was treated very cruelly by her husband. He constantly insults her : ‘“You know nothing, do you? You’re like a child. Your brain is empty. There is no information in it.”’ As well as often attacking her: ‘he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks’.

During the course of the civil war in Afghanistan, Rasheed and Mariam adopts 14 year old Laila, orphaned by a bomb attack. Laila is an intelligent and beautiful girl who gets caught in an unfortunate series of events. Rasheed soon takes her as a second wife, doting over her. But when she gave birth to a girl, Aziza, Rasheed’s disappointment made him treat Laila like he treated Mariam. In the beginning of Laila’s time with Mariam, Mariam was almost cruel to Laila, reflecting her own treatment. But as time passed they found in each other what society deprived them of, and became very intimate friends.

As the story progressed the tension built up. Mariam, Laila and Aziza were once deprived of food and water for three days by Rasheed after they attempted to escape. This also points to Rasheed immense cruelty and insensitivity. His tyranny was finally ended when ‘Mariam brought down the shovel. This time, she gave it everything she had.’ Laila had pleaded with Mariam to run away with her, but she decided to turn herself in. On the last day, Laila told Mariam ‘”You’re the best friend I ever had”’.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is an extraordinary novel. It is very emotional and extremely sad at parts. Although it had a happy ending, we are made to remember the tragic events, how it affects their lives and reflect upon ours. When I read it, I often forgot that a large part of it was set in the late 20^th Century, and some in the 21^st Century. This element made the story more immediate, and thus more shocking. I can say the second last chapter almost made me cry—to me, that is an indication of a well witten book. I would highly recommend it for its content, as well as being a simply good read. As Lev Grossman said in Times, “Suns is a dense, rich, pressure-packed guide to enduring the unendurable.”

-copied from my 2008 wide reading

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

In addition to the obvious idea of time travel, which this novel is greatly credited with popularising, The Time Machine also explores themes such as benefit/harm of technology and human nature.

The book portrays the unnamed Time Traveler as a somewhat eccentric scientist. It is described that his friends doubt the possibility of time travel, or of such a device that permits it, even when a time machine was made to disappear before their eyes. Only the unnamed narrator (and perhaps on or two others) seems to believe in the achievements of the Time Traveler. This highlights the fact that most people are uncomfortable and often immediately reject ideas that are seemingly improbable at the time. It is because of this doubt in him that the Time Traveler is determined to prove them wrong by traveling forward in time and bringing back a specimen.

The Time Traveler does eventually return after traveling to A.D 802,701. From there he brings back an odd plant which all his friends agree do not exist in the time they live in. The Time Traveler decides to return with cameras and additional equipment to bring back more proofs but the story concludes with him presumably lost in time. This probably shows the danger of the unknown.

Perhaps the most important comment in this novella is conveyed through what the Time Traveler saw during his journey. In A.D. 802,701, he stumbled upon a seemingly peaceful society, almost utopic in nature. The species at that time are, however, less intelligent than now. The author, through the Time Traveler, directly comments on the possibility that, with everything made and done for us through technology, the beings have no need to do anything but play. This caused them to devolve into a more peaceful, happy and primitive species, the Elois. They represent the previously upperclass people who had everything and didn't have to do anything. But beneath that brightness lies an unspoken evil, the Morlocks, who are cannibalistic huminids. They represent the lower class worker society who did all the work. The have also devolved, but into a more brutal creature. Although both the species are primitive, the Morlocks seems slightly more advanced than the Elois despite them having devolved from a lower class. This indicates that as the human need to conquer all was satiated, the upperclass people was left with nothing to do. This means they eventually couldn't do much, thus are left clueless except for the utopic ideas imposed on them. Eventually, the devolved into the Elois. The Morlocks, on the other hand, devovled from the worker class, who, although there were advanced technology, they were still considered below those who lived high up, so they were confined to the darkness. This, in a way, caused them to become the dark, the unknown, the fear.

Oh man, I blabbed on for so long without saying anything. Basically, the book is about the dangers of trying to create a utopia or trying to conquer all. (period)
(full stop).

I'll try to write something more meaningful next time...

Yay! Created account.

So, on recommendation by my English teacher, Ms Krohn, I have created this blog. This shall be used for the texts which I have read and my thoughts on them(this is a reminder to myself incase I decide to post something else).

I hope to see more people from my class on this soon =)