Women And Nature Between Despair And Hope

A Thousand Splendid Suns published in2007is Afghan-American writer KahledHosseini’s second successful work that comes after his first one The Kite Runner. In thisnovel, the writer tells a touching story in the perspective of women that two suffering Afghanwomen Mariam and Laila struggle for love. Deeply influenced by his visit to his hometown,Afghanistan, in2003, Hosseini creates the novel full of feminism care and pays muchattention to the inhuman treatments suffered by Afghan women who are always wearingbouqa, rushed and silent. In the novel, he gives his concerns and sympathy for Afghanwomen’s living conditions and miserable fates, thus criticizing the patriarchy which causeswomen’s tragedies. The novel is full of ecological consciousness, praising Afghan pastnatural beauty and lamenting the destruction for beautiful scenes in nature by the war. Thewriter also reveals his calls for the harmonious world where man and women are equal and soare human and nature. Because of Kahled Hosseini’s reflection on Afghan women and natureand his calls for the harmony, the consciousness of eco-feminism is clearly reflected in hisnovel.This thesis aims to interpret A Thousand Splendid Suns from the viewpoint ofeco-feminist criticism and show feminist consciousness and the ecological meaning andreflect the writer’s thoughts on the relationship among men, women and nature. The paperconsists of five chapters.Introduction is about the general information of the writer Kahled Hosseini and hisnovel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and the overseas and domestic critical reviews on thenovel.Chapter one mainly talks about the interconnection between women and nature,including women’s intimacy with nature, and women’s life embodied in nature. Since womenhave the quality of nature and nature has the quality of women, women are much closer tonature and there is the internal relation between them.Chapter two mainly discusses patriarchal oppression on women and huge destruction fornature. Patriarchy decides women as “the other” in family and society. In the novel, Mariam and Laila are only the tools to satisfy Rasheed’s personal desires, playing the role of serviceand giving birth. In a patriarchal culture, social oppression makes women suffer a lotphysically and psychologically, which makes them at the edge of society. The abuse of natureis explained by the indifference to people’s lives and huge destruction for naturalenvironment.Chapter three analyzes women’s resistance and nature’s revenge, calling the harmoniousworld. By analyzing those, it demonstrates that women and nature should not be subordinatedto men and should not be dominated and oppressed by men. Taking the equality of womenand men and nature into consideration, people should pursue a kind of harmony betweenwomen and men, between human and nature.Conclusion is a summary of the thesis. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Kahled Hosseinisees in his sharp eyes that human beings, because of their conquering desires, start the war inorder for the territory expansion and damage and destroy nature, which is opposed to naturallaw. As a result, human beings must eat their own bitter fruit of destroying themselves. Eventhough in the patriarchal culture, men often insult, oppress and even beat women, causingwomen in the status of “the edge”, women would resist for their rights and happy lives. It issignificant for war-torn Afghanistan: men should care and love women; human should takegood care of nature and respect nature. Only then can Afghanistan be reestablished anddeveloped. Only then can the world enjoy the harmony.