TOPIC A

             In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseni, Hosseini uses a tone of sadness and disparity to explore domestic abuse. Hosseini uses imagery and diction to show readers how women are abused.
             First, Hosseini uses imagery to address domestic abuse. Hosseini writes “Mariam struggled against him, mumbling, but he kept pushing the pebbles in” (104). Mariam struggling shows that she is in a position that she doesn’t want to be in, but Rasheed does not care about it. There is a picture that can pop in a person’s mind when you try to imagine someone forcing you to do something. During this part of the book, Rasheed was not happy with the rice that Mariam had made him, so he forced her to chew on pebbles. This allows readers to understand how abusive he really is towards her just because he did not get what he wanted the first or even second time.
            After using imagery, Hosseini uses diction to talk about the destructiveness that Rasheed causes. Hosseini writes “"her hands were shaking badly, and she had to wait for them to stop...dread pressed down on her chest... she caught her pale reflection...” (103). The words that Hosseini uses like “shaking badly” and “pale” let the readers understand just how frightened Mariam is and the color she is. The words are carefully picked in order to establish the calamity of the abuse and to show the readers Mariam’s reaction.
            In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseni, Hosseini uses imagery and diction to develop a sad and desperate tone. He also uses these two elements to show that Rasheed is really abusive and explore the concerns behind domestic abuse in Afghanistan when the Taliban was taking over.