ഇനി എത്ര ദൂരം

 

Finding Light in the Darkness

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is a powerful narration of the pain and suffering of two women, Mariam and Laila, from Afghanistan. The two come together due to life’s unforeseen circumstances. Alongside, we see them both struggling under the heavy burden of war, oppression, and loss. Mariam’s tale is of strength and sacrifice. A woman tempered in rejection, suffering and the cruelty life readily brings forth, we find that she stands strong, grows fierce and loving, a reminder that even in the depths of despair, selfless love thrives.

Mariam’s story is that of a relinquished hope – a sad tale of a life filled with exclusion. She is born as an illegitimate child, constantly made to remember her status as a harami or illegitimate daughter of a man in Afghanistan. Her mother, Nana, never misses an opportunity to drill into her head that she is not like everyone else, that she would remain unloved and unaccepted in the way children who are ‘legitimate’ receive affection, and would always rank low when it comes to choices. In spite of this, Mariam longs for a relationship with her father, Jalil, a wealthy and prosperous business who secretly stops by but never truly shows her off to the world.

She was beyond her love for her father and would not believe the truth until the very last moment; standing right by the gate of that big house that was never hers, but only then, waiting for the door to open, she knew she wouldn’t be welcome, and she would never be included in the life she wished to be a part of. She envisioned our father's life being her life. Our father knowing her name and proudly boasting she was his daughter. But her dreams were dashed almost immediately when she took herself to find him at his home. Instead of receiving the love and attention that she so craved, she was turned away and was outside for the night, on the run from the father she idolized. That was a realization for Mariam and an awakening; she would never be involved with a family like that. When she, finally, went back home, she found Nana had committed suicide, leaving her sad and depressed in such an unfair world.

The only thing she can now expect is to be "married off" to Rasheed, who is many years, and many pounds overweight and much older than her. The hope of belonging dies in her, replaced by a deep-seated certainty that she is no longer in control of her life. Mariam tries to be a good wife at first. She thinks if she obeys Rasheed, if she does what he expects from her, he might even treat her kindly. She eventually discovers that the affection he has shown is conditional and can change quickly as he asserts dominance and control over her. He makes her wear a burqa, stripping her of her identity; he responds to her failure to bear him a child with disappointment, that leads to his violent reaction. Over the years, Mariam develops the painful talents of endurance. She adapts to his anger, his insults, his beatings, she begins to accept this as her fate. She tells herself that suffering is all she will ever know-that her mother had been right all along; dreams were dangerous; hope was foolish; women like her did not get to want more. But even in this violent marriage, Mariam still has something very important, her inherent quiet strength. Even though she is told and treated as if she is worthless, she continues to live on. Even though she is treated as if she is undeserving of love, she still burns for connection.

The arrival of Laila into Mariam’s world and drastically changes what Mariam considers normal. For Mariam, the war brought Laila to the door of Rasheed’s home, battered and aching for family and home, forced yet again to marry (as Mariam once did). At first Mariam resents Laila for showing up as Rasheed’s new wife. Mariam has stronger feelings about being invisible and is concerned with Laila replacing her, making her feel more invisible. Slowly it begins to shift. Laila has to start treating Mariam in a way that Rasheed does not – by noticing her, talking to her, and listening. Laila’s attention forces Mariam to begin remembering what it feels like to be noticed. As they endure the painful experience of Rasheed’s cruelty together, they forget the significance of age. Their relationship (although punctuated by their thin social fabric of Islam) is one of the rare examples of beauty to occur in the book – its a sisterhood, each becomes the other’s strength and the other’s home. For Mariam, Laila has a girl named Aziza, and Mariam has the love she thought she would never have. In every sense of the word, Mariam becomes a mother, she pours everything she has waited to pour into the little girl. For the first time, Mariam has happiness – even with the suffering.

Mariam’s most significant gesture of love is definitely through her sacrifice. After Rasheed’s aggression becomes violently uncontrollable, Mariam is certain that only she can do something. In a moment of sincere bravery, she shoots him in order to save Laila and Aziza. She is fully aware of the situation, understands that there will be no getting away for her, but she still goes on. It is love that has given her the power to do the things she never thought possible. When the law enforcement officials capture her, she is directed to be executed, she does not fight, nevertheless. She does not attempt to get any compassion. She deals with it calmly, with a spirit. The first occasion that she has chosen something for herself, not one that was compelled to her or that was from others, she has a decision that is of significance. A choice that eventually became the saving of those who were closest to her. Reflecting on her past as she is at death’s door, Mariam is devoid of any feelings of guilt. She comes to the conclusion that even though she underwent a lot of pain, she discovered love. Being loved mattered. And that is the only thing she needs.

Mariam’s life is an epitome of the power found in endurance. She was never allowed to dream, to hope, or to choose her own way but still, she found a place in the world through the love she gave. She might not have been powerful by the conventional standards, but she was invincible in spirit. Hosseini, through Mariam, depicts the nature of a kind of quiet heroism—the one that does not ask for any indication of its existence but is there in the selfless sacrifices of the women that are made every day. She is a symbol of the innumerable women who are at their wits' end after the torment they face, who are repeatedly told that they are nothing, yet they keep on loving, protecting, and resisting. Mariam has not lived through but her legacy is still there. The memory she evokes is not her suffering, but her strength. Her power to give, when she was empty. In Laila, in Aziza, and in the hearts of readers, Mariam is still there—as the demonstration that love, at the very last, is the most potent force of all.

 Ms. Adithya. S

Assistant Professor, Department of English

Al Shifa College of Arts and Science, Kizhattoor, Perinthalmanna