Considering the fact that I didn't know much about the Middle East, other than what I've learned so far in class and what I've seen on the news, I found Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns to be extremely enlightening. Not only did it broaden my horizons with the plethora of cultures represented in the Middle East, but it educated me on how Middle Eastern women are treated today. The book is divided into two sections, both of which follow the daily lives of Mariam, a young girl and Laila, a teenager. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the first section the author introduces the reader to Mariam, a young girl who lives with Nana. Nana constantly takes out her problems on Mariam as a child, calls her "harami", who will later be called a bastard. Mariam was born out of wedlock to an illegitimate businessman, who has three wives. In the first chapter, Mariam acknowledges that she is the reason her mother's life is ruined. Personally, Nana wasn't one of my favorite characters to say. She constantly dumps everything on Mariam, her daughter and not only that, she talks to her about her father. He can see his father, I think every week, on Thursdays. He sometimes brings her gifts and tells her stories during their time together. One day, her father didn't show up to meet her. Mariam decides it's best if she goes to visit her father at his house, she basically ends up being denied in the house and decides to sleep outside while she waits for her father. I noticed throughout the book that he is hesitant with Mariam, only because she was born out of wedlock. Things get worse when Nana decides to commit suicide. Mariam is then forced to go and live with her father for a short period of time. When her wives decided they didn't want her there anymore, they married her to a boy named Rasheed, who is more than 20 years her senior. She is forced to leave everything and everyone she knows to go and be with a stranger. Which, I think is personally messed up, how dare you let your wives decide for your son? Mariam basically goes through the entire book believing that she doesn't deserve anything better than the life she's living, which is truly heartbreaking. The book gives us the second point of view with Laila, who is a young girl and lives down the street from Mariam. While reading I noticed that Laila's story is a complete 360° from Mariam's. She comes from a family full of love, whose father is outspoken and believes that women have the right to education and work if they want it. Laila falls in love with a boy named Tariq, but when civil wars begin in Afghanistan all hell breaks loose. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and love how it relates to material from our history class. Even though the book is not based on a true story, I can see Mariam and Laila as real people experiencing their own personal pain. I'm much more interested in learning about the Mujahideen, now that it's touched the surface in our reading. Before reading this book, I had no emotion whatsoever about the situations there or in the Middle East in general. I think it's because I saw their situations as if they were the United States. Maybe it's because I personally couldn't connect with these situations. Because, again, I saw their problems through my perspective rather than someone who lives there. A Thousand Splendid Suns made me change my perspective on how I view topics related to other countries outside of the United States.