Words: 667
Indeed, a depressing and melancholy mood is seemed to be perpetuated throughout the book, which has a large time frame spanning over decades (making it also a thought-provoking historical fiction); we agonies over the misfortune of the any characters, over their fickle lives under the most evil torture of the human rights. It’s not the kind of affliction or anguish that is easy to resonate with, as lives as well as the social norms in Afghanistan are unfamiliar to most of us.
But somehow, no matter how this book is portrayed as a fiction, from deep inside my heart, I know this must be the reality, the bare truth of a brutal period of modern history. The first reason, I assume, is that Hussein is a master of story-telling. When I marveled at Maria’s courage to stand up against Rehashed, moved by Leila and Tarsi’s unfading hope for a brighter future, wonder, aren’t they just people who cannot be more ordinary?
Every time when a person died in the story, especially those who are not the crucial roles and their deaths were merely mentioned in one line, it occurred to me that there must be thousands of Alias, Traits and Maria’s in Afghanistan. Each one of them had been the hero in his/her own story. That’s why at the end of the story, I felt so real and so empowered might be the hero of my own story. The second reason, is that every character is created so real that you cannot simply love or hate anyone. As really surprised that I didn’t cry for many of the sad scenes until read about Jail’s Disney tape and his letter. Jail, the one who deeply broke or, more precisely, devastate Maria’s heart, who once been a cold businessman and gave away his daughter without a dither turned out to be a father who really cared for Miriam for all those years, who still regretted the Disney movie he didn’t take her to watch. He realized that at the ND of his life, the thing that should be cherished most is the opportunity of being a father, the thing that should be embraced most tightly is his daughter.
This person, is just so real. Even Rehashed, who is the major cause of the two women’s misfortune, has showed his fatherly love when Kalmia was born. Everyone in this story is a three-dimensional person; none of them is perfect, but each one of them can be a splendid sun shining in the sky of Afghanistan. “Real” is definitely not the only feeling I have after reading it, the most overwhelming one must be “hopeful”. Hussein has never intended to depress anyone since the very first beginning when he wrote down the title of book – “A thousand splendid suns”.
Though the walls may seemed to be ashen and rough, can still see the thousand splendid suns hide behind the walls. This is exactly the motto, the spirit that inspired everyone in this book to keep on struggling. For Miriam, she was able to have “a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings. ” because she “has loved and been loved back”. For Leila and Atari, their splendid suns are their children, children in Afghanistan and each other. For Laic’s Baby, his splendid SUns are Leila and her Mamma.
For Jail, at the end of his life, he still possessed hope to take Miriam in his arms “as he should have all those years ago”. Even for Rehashed, he once lost a splendid sun in his life, that’s why he would never let it go once Kalmia was born, who turned out to be his new splendid sun. Yes, most of them died. But they were lucky; they died with hope. In the end, I feel so real and hopeful that almost see a thousand splendid suns shining in the sky now.