Abstract

A Thousand Splendid Suns is written by Khaled Hosseini who is an American Afghans novelist. Hosseini describes lives of Afghans by setting in Afghanistan from the 1970s to the early 21st century. He focused on two women with different backgrounds and characters but both had tragic fates. They suffered from the war year after year, the tragedy of family and the pressure taken by patriarchy in Afghanistan, but by a relentless struggle together, they finally gained freedom. Sisterhood is a concept that is proposed by feminists to challenge patriarchy. It’s a very important theme in English and American literature and also is an important aspect of feminist literature. The thesis will analyze the novel from the perspective of sisterhood, and then describe the formation and development of sisterhood between Mariam and Laila and how sisterhood affects their lives. This thesis will put the theory sisterhood into the work by the approaches of literature research and text analysis. It consists of three parts. The first part explains the connotation of sisterhood and analyzes the causes of it, especially the oppression of patriarchy and war. The second part analyzes the process and development of sisterhood in the novel from weak to strong which they changed their attitudes from mutual compassion and pity to mutual care and support. The third part analyzes the effects of sisterhood in the novel. It fosters the awakening of their female consciousness, and helps them to resist patriarchy and pursue love and hope. The conclusion generalizes the preceding discussions and summarizes the meaning of this paper. Sisterhood has a great practical and social significance for the liberation of contemporary Afghan women.

Key words: A Thousand Splendid Suns; Sisterhood; War; Patriarchy; Female Consciousness

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1  Introduction-1

2  Literature Review-3

3  An Unforgiving Time: The Need of Sisterhood-5

3.1 The Connotation of Sisterhood-5

3.2 Oppression: Patriarchy and War-6

4  An Unlikely Friendship: Sisterhood from Weak to Strong-8

4.1 Compassion and Pity-8

4.2 Hostility and Rivalry-9

4.3 Mutual Care and Support-10

5  An Indestructible Love: Awareness and Action-12

5.1 The Awakening of Female Consciousness-12

5.2 Against Patriarchy-13

5.3 The Realization of Love-14

6  Conclusion-16

Bibliography-18

Acknowledgements-19