入圍
姓  名 王瑋莉 學  校 高雄市立高雄女子高級中學 年  級 二 年 十四 班

 

 

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a touching story about two women who understand and help each other under the war. To maintain her father’s reputation, Mariam, a wealthy merchant’s bastard, was forced to marry a middle-aged widower. Yet, the fine marriage changed into suffering due to Mariam’s each abortion. Her husband, Rasheed, became even more irritable, and regarded Mariam’s effort for their family as nothing. And Laila, who was well-educated and nineteen years junior to Mariam, was taken away from her original wonderful future by the ruthless battle. Her parents, her brother, and her friends were dead unfortunately. To survive, she had no choice but to marry surly Rasheed. Therefore, the two women who were not related originally connected their fates and bridged love after suffering miseries together. With the passions to lives and the thoughts to defeat the God of fate, finally they twisted their own roads of lives.

“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.” In the book, we can see the humble status that traditional Kabul females stand and their sorrow. The sentence seems to be plain, but the meaning lying behind it is so serious. We live in such a free nation, and almost forget that there are still some people suffering distress to struggle to live in some places around the world. We usually complain about our imperfect lives, and annoy what we want to get but can’t get it; however, we seldom explain on the other side: what we have possessed that others don’t have? Definitely, the thing that we pursue is better material satisfaction. But Mariam and Laila, those Islamic women’s epitomes, they merely needed a family that existed love and a sense of belong; nevertheless, it seemed that God won’t realize such a little wish easily.

Women are menial in the typical Islamic nation. They are their husbands’ businesses only, so they obey their husbands absolutely. Since Mariam and Laila’s husband practiced it thoroughly, they suffered from domestic violence together, and as time went by, their emotions changed from hostility to deep friendship, they can even sacrifice their lives to protect each other.

And what supported the two miserable women to take every effort to live on in an unknown future? It was love. Although in this kind of tragic fate love might be added a little sorrow, it made everything more touching and worthier however.

The story is serious but it also gives us a chance to reflect. Compared with those women in Afghanistan, we are really far luckier than them! Perhaps we could only give more compassion to them in spirit; the most important is that we can find new power to conquer difficulty and cherish what we have through the women’s courage and wills.

“Mariam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she could die this way. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.” Even if Mariam lived in misfortune through her whole live, she could face death calmly because she found her worth in the world in the end. She did feel regretful after killing her husband, but more was the feeling of happiness. She could eventually make a decision for herself, live for her own. Although this decision needed her life as return, she still felt unparalleled satisfaction. Everything deserved. She defended the things she considered worthy, and passed on love to support survivors to live on bravely.

What do we live for? There is still no exact answer to it nowadays. But indeed there is something worthier than fame and wealth—it is affection. It is rare to meet each other on earth. With the connection of affection, even our lives are filled with sorrow and hardship, we can also see the faint glimmers of hope and go on.