A Thousand Splendid Suns is pided into four parts. Part One tells the story of Mariam. Part Two tells that of Laila. Part Three centers on the shared experience of Mariam and Laila living under the same roof, and part Four serves as an epilogue relating Laila’s life with Tariq and her children in the aftermath of Rasheed’s and Mariam’s deaths. Mariam’s story begins in 1964 when she is five years old. Ten years later, at the age of fifteen, she is walking away from her one-room home or Kolba on the outskirts of the village of Gul Daman into the big city of Herat to find her father. Laila’s story begins in 1987 when she is nine years old. She is born in the same spring as the Communist takeover of Kabul in 1978. Mariam is nineteen at that time. Their stories come together in 1992, as Laila turns fourteen and the Mujahideen battle for control of Kabul. Laila is separated from her family and married to Rasheed at almost the same time that this happens to Mariam. Their circumstances are different, but the results are virtually identical. Eventually, Laila will provide sanctuary for Mariam through the love that she and her children share with her—giving her a family, a sense of belonging, and a purpose. Mariam provides Laila and the children with the prospect of sanctuary through her decisive actions at the climax of the novel. Not only does she save Laila from death, but she also provides the chance and the inspiration for Laila to realize her full potential.

1.2 The structure of this thesis

Hosseini published A Thousand Splendid Suns in May 2007. In the months since its release, the novel has garnered a plethora of positive reviews both abroad and at home. A Thousand Splendid Suns: The plight of Afghan Women only Partially Depicted by Harvey Thompson presents the hard conditions that Afghanistan women live in by analyzing A Thousand Splendid Suns; A Thousand Splendid Suns: Mariam’s Relationship with Her Father by Fatensaab points out that it is several factors, including the bad relationship that makes her succumb to her destiny and adversity; How Is ‘Family’ Portrayed in Both the Crow Road and a Thousand Splendid Suns and What Is Its Significance by Burrows shows that the notion of family life and the pressures and constraints of family, play an integral role in the progression of the story and character within each tale. Case Study of Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns by Zhang Xiaohua has tried to study the function of sisterhood in the journey of wholeness-seeking through case study.

These studies have provided great support for this thesis. With the analysis of the two female characters’ tragedy in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the thesis also attempts to explore the ways of resistance against oppression. In addition to Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis consists of three parts. The first part introduces Mariam and Laila’s tragic life in the novel. The second part explores the causes of Mariam and Laila’s tragedy. They struggle to survive in Afghanistan as they traverse the mine-littered road of sexual hierarchy, nonstop war and extremism of religion. The third part seeks to discuss Mariam and Laila’s response to their tragedy through an analysis of the two female protagonists’ struggles. Afghan females can live out loud only when they learn to concern and love themselves, and depend on each other’s support. With self-care and supportive love, they can change their miserable conditions and put an end to their fate of being lifelong prisoners of strong disciplinary power, and finally, achieve some form of liberation either bodily or spiritually.