Strength Within Struggle Anonymous 12th Grade

There are certain aspects of the human experience that every one of us can identify with on a certain level. This is what allows us to connect with one another and to develop empathetic and compassionate outlooks. That being said, there are certain common experiences among many of us as well that tend to differ person to person because of our varying outlooks. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, women in the novel share the experience of oppression living in an intensely masochistic Afghan culture. They are repeatedly subjected to violence, both on a physical and also a mental level as they live to cope with the shame that their identities cast upon their person. All of that being said, this is not what the novel is about at its core. It seems that the central focus is instead about the positive resilience of the human spirit. If it were exclusively about the necessity of endurance that women face, it would be a terribly tragic story, but not nearly as spiritually impactful. Hosseini's use of symbolism and his dynamic diction lent to an overarching theme that was devised to resonate with all readers.

Many of the experiences faced by women in this story are ones that are inconceivably destructive on a number of levels—morally,...