The phrase “a thousand splendid suns” from the Saib-e-Tabrizi poem, signifies the peace and hardships that Afghanistan, Laila, and Mariam face throughout their times. When it first appears in the book, Laila’s Babi, mammy, and herself were packing up their things so that they could leave Afghanistan because living there became too dangerous with the war. Babi quotes the poem “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her wall” (Hosseini 192). Here, the phrase is used to express the hidden beauties that Afghanistan had before the war such as the buddhist statues that Laila, Tariq, and Babi once visited. The other time it is used is when Laila expresses Mariam as being in her own heart, “where she shines with the bursting …show more content…
Mariam’s mother told her that when she is “gone you’ll have nothing. You’ll have nothing. You are nothing” (Hosseini 27), and Laila’s mother would cooped “herself up ... not caring where Laila went and whom she saw and what she thought” (Hosseini 164). While Mariam’s mother did not spare Mariam’s feelings and Laila’s mother did not express any motivation of caring to Laila, Mariam and Laila are still able to form a mother-daughter relationship with each other because they both were robbed of that relationship with their own mothers. Their relationship symbolizes strength that comes from those who try. 9. Mariam refuses to see visitors or call any witnesses to trial because she does not want to drag Aziza, Laila, Tariq, or Zalmai into the mess she created when she killed Rasheed. Mariam told Laila knew that they would find her “as guilty as me. Tariq too...What will happen to your children if you’re caught” (Hosseini 357-358)? Mariam wanted the best for them, and because of that, she did not want them caught up in her murder. 11. People take the risk to watch the Titanic under the Taliban’s watch because it gives