A Thousand Splendid Suns: Week 6, Post A

VOCAB

Condescension (311): Voluntary descent from one's rank or dignity in relations with an inferior

Despondent (315): Feeling or showing extreme discouragement, dejection, or depression

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

"Bizarre geometric shapes in the light, worms [...]" (312). This is a metaphor because it compares the shapes Laila is seeing the light (while she's being choked) to worms. We have to assume they're moving, and at the same time decreasing as she slowly moves toward death.

"Be brave....Like a lion, she'd say" (325). This is a simile because it compares Mariam's bravery to a lion, she has to be strong, and not scared to do the right thing.

"One last time, she did as she was told" (329). This is a meaningful quote, but also irony in a way. It's ironic that after doing the right thing and following directions her whole life and always getting punished, it just so happens that doing the right thing gets her killed. It's ironic in the saddest way possible.

QUOTE

"One last time, she did as she was told" (329). This is the saddest part of the book, by far. It's a beautifully written part, sweeping and moving and almost (and probably to some people) tear jerking. I think this line just sums up Mariam's life and how she never, not when she was a girl forbidden from entering the city, not when she was forced to marry Rasheed, and not when she had to die, got her way.

THEME

Sometimes, the hardest, most terrible thing in life is the truth, because Mariam told the truth in court and it let to her death, even when it was an undeserved and terrible punishment.