Sunshine Under The Veil:An Eco-feminist Reading Of A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns,written by the Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini(1965—),is the second novel which comes after his maiden work The Kite Runner.The great success of this novel brings significant influence to the world.In A Thousand Splendid Suns,the author pays his attention to the Afghanistan women.This novel tells about the tragedy of two women.They bear the hunger and sickness and the family bears the trauma from the war.Many people become destitute and homeless,and this country is attacked by former Soviet Union,America and Taliban which is a suffering history of Afghanistan.Mariam is one of the heroines in this novel,who experiences great pains in her marriage.It is not changed until the appearance of another female character Laila who goes through family trauma.Two heroines are the victim of domestic violence.Under the influence of Laila,Mariam renew her enthusiasm to life.The sufferings of two women indicate the hard life of the women in patriarchal society.The author shows his sympathy for Afghanistan women.At the same time,the author shows that the endless war brings terrible disasters to nature.The thesis tries to analyze this novel by using the theory of Eco-feminism.Eco-feminism originates from feminism.And it combines the ecology and feminism together.It criticizes the man-dominant society and praises nature and women.This thesis employs the Eco-feminism theory to reveal the oppression of women and nature in patriarchal society.Women are the tools of doing housework and bearing children.Nature is plundered by human beings and the war brings great effects on nature.This thesis tries to illustrate the feminine consciousness and the ecological thought and to show the author's attitude towards men,women and nature.This thesis is composed of three parts.The first part is an introduction.The second one is the main body and the last one is a conclusion.The first part includes some information about the author,A Thousand Splendid Suns and current researches on the fiction at home and abroad.The last one of this part is the basic theory used in this thesis.The main body of this thesis is divided into three chapters: the first chapter interprets the similarities between women and nature and the sufferings of women and nature in patriarchal society.The life experiences of two women are similar to the changes of the four seasons.These similarities indicate the close connection between women and nature.And then it analyzes the oppression of female and nature in patriarchal society.Specific examples in the novel indicate the low-position of women.They are attachments to men in the male-dominant society and regarded as the tools of releasing their sexual desire.They are not equal to men such as not having the same rights as man do in the society.It discovers the root causes of women's tragedy.The second chapter praises the rebellious spirit of women and nature.After suffering the long-time oppression,women and nature demonstrate their strength.This chapter aims to show that women and nature should fight for their own rights and appeal men not to oppress women and nature.The third chapter appeals human beings to build a harmonious relationship with nature.There are two symbols in this novel.The first one is the sewing by Mariam and the second one is the blanket in prison.This thesis reveals the author's ideas of harmony in A Thousand Splendid Suns by analyzing the following three aspects.They are harmony between the same sex,harmony between the opposite sexes and harmony between human and nature.The conclusion generalizes and summaries the whole thesis.This thesis employs the Eco-feminist theory to analyze this novel.It analyzes the sufferings of women and nature in patriarchal society and points out the root of the oppression.This thesis combines the social reality and the theme of the novel to demonstrate the oppression and praise the revolt spirit.The analysis of the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns with Eco-feminist theory gives the novel not only theoretical significance but also social value.Human beings should realize the importance of keeping a harmonious relationship with nature.