A Thousand Splendid Suns - Mariam - Character analysis in A Level and IB English Literature


	Personality	Role
	Quiet Submissive Guilty (for the death of her mother, miscarriages, etc.) Loyal Hopeful (as a child)	Acts as a mother figure to Laila Acts as an auntie to Aziza Submissive as a wife to Rasheed
	Development (Growth & change)	Other information
	She is naive as a child but becomes more of a realist as she grows older Eventually stands up against Rasheed Grows to love Laila and her children Her independent thinking and bravery helps Laila get away from Rasheed's abuse She does not have any children of her own but views Laila, Aziza and Zalmai as her family	"She, Mariam, was an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance" "Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid" "[Mariam] had passed these years in a distant corner of her mind. A dry, barren field, out beyond dream and disillusionment" "She thought of her entry into this world, the harami daughter of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back"

She is naive as a child but becomes more of a realist as she grows older
Eventually stands up against Rasheed
Grows to love Laila and her children
Her independent thinking and bravery helps Laila get away from Rasheed's abuse
She does not have any children of her own but views Laila, Aziza and Zalmai as her family

"She, Mariam, was an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance"
"Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid"
"[Mariam] had passed these years in a distant corner of her mind. A dry, barren field, out beyond dream and disillusionment"
"She thought of her entry into this world, the harami daughter of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back"

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