ABSTRACT
RIANY, STEFANI AMANDA ANGGI. The Impact of Oppressions toward Women Characters in Khaleed Hosseini’s A Thousand Spendid Suns. Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Literature is an expression of society. It mirrors the events that happened in our social life. Hence, literary works are written based on the situation in real life or the experience of the author itself. Everything that happens in our life cannot be separated from our psychological aspects. Using psychoanalysis, this study attempts to see the impact of oppression toward women.
Oppressions, especially oppressions toward women, are not a new concern in our society. Opression has been a frightening scourge for women since a very long time, especially for women who live in a country with a strict patriarchal society like Afghanistan. Khaleed Hosseini, in his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, and through the two women characters Mariam and Laila, portray the life of women living and surrounding with oppressions around them.
Two formulated problems are discussed throughout this research. The first one is what oppressions do the two women characters suffer in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. The second one is what impact do the oppressions give to the characters in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.
This research is a library research applying psychological approach with the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns as the primary source. The method used in this study is close reading to earn the characterization of Mariam and Laila, and also the oppression they suffered throughout the story. Then, some steps of analysis re used to identify the impact of the oppressions toward the characters.
Using Iris Young’s concept of oppressions, it is found that both characters suffer some oppressions in the form of violence and powerlessness. In the further analysis, using Lois Tyson’s basic concept of psychological criticism, it is found that the characters show the indication of having three core issues as the impact of the oppressions they suffer. Furthermore, using Pablo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, it is found that there are characterization changes in the characters. From the analysis, it is concluded that oppressions give impact toward the characters of Mariam and Laila.
ABSTRAK
RIANY, STEFANI AMANDA ANGGI. Impact of Oppressions toward Women Characters in Khaleed Hosseini’s A Thousand Spendid Suns. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2016
Karya sastra adalah hasil ekspresi dari masyarakat. Karya sastra mencerminkan hal-hal yang terjadi di kehidupan sosial kita. Oleh karena itu, karya-karya sastra diciptakan berdasarkan hal yang terjadi di kehidupan nyata atau berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi dari penulisnya sendiri. Semua hal yang terjadi di kehidupan kita tidak dapat dilepaskan dari aspek-aspek psikologi dari diri kita. Dengan menggunakan psikoanalis, penelitian ini mencoba untuk melihat dampak dari penindasan, terutama penindasan terhadap wanita.
Penindasan, terutama penindasan terhadap wanita, bukan lagi menjadi hal baru di dalam masyarakat kita. Ini sudah sejak lama menjadi momok menakutkan bagi wanita terutama bagi mereka yang tinggal di negara dengan masyarakat patriakal yang kuat seperti Afghanistan. Khaleed Hosseini dalam novelnya yang berjudul A Thousand Splendid Suns, melalui dua karakter utamanya Mariam dan Laila, menggambarkan kehidupan dua wanita yang hidup dengan penindasan di sekitar mereka.
Dua rumusan masalah dibahas dalam penelitian ini. Pertama, membahas tentang penindasan apa saja yang diterima oleh kedua karakter ini. Dan yang kedua menbahas tentang dampak apa yang ditimbulkan oleh penindasan terhadap kedua karakter tersebut.
Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kepustakaan dengan mengaplikasikan pendekatan psikologi dengan novel A Thousand Splendid Suns sebagai sumber utamanya. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pembacaan teliti untuk mendapatkan karakterisasi Mariam dan Laila, dan juga penindasan yang mereka derita di dalam novel tersebut. Setelah itu, beberapa analisis diambil untuk mengidentifikasi dampak apa saja yang disebabkan oleh penindasan tersebut.
Menggunakan konsep penindasan oleh Iris Young, peneliti menemukan bahwa kedua karakter mengalami penindasan dalam bentuk kekerasan dan ketidakberdayaan. Dalam analisis lanjut, menggunakan konsep kritik psikologis oleh Lois Tyson, peneliti menebukan bahwa kedua karakter menunjukkan indikasi memiliki tiga permasalahan utama yang muncul karena penindasan yang mereka alami. Selanjutnya, menggunakan Pedagogy of the Oppressed oleh Pablo Freire, peneliti menemukan adanya perubahan karaterisasi pada kedua karakter. Dari seluruh analisis, disimpulkan bahwa penindasan memberikan dampak terhadap karakter Mariam dan Laila.
THE IMPACT OF OPPRESSIONS TOWARD WOMEN SEEN
THROUGH TWO WOMEN CHARACTERS IN
KHALED HOSSEINI’S
A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
AN UNDERGRADUTE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
STEFANI AMANDA ANGGI RIANY Student Number: 124214130
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
THE IMPACT OF OPPRESSIONS TOWARD WOMEN SEEN
THROUGH TWO WOMEN CHARACTERS IN
KHALED HOSSEINI’S
A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
AN UNDERGRADUTE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
STEFANI AMANDA ANGGI RIANY Student Number: 124214130
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2017
You can’t cross the sea
merely by standing and
staring at the water
-Rabindranath Tagore
For My Beloved Parents
&
Those Who Believe in the Power of Dreaming, Aiming
High, and Hardworking
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my first gratitude to Lord Jesus Christ. For His grace and blessing that I can finish this thesis.
I also would like to thank my thesis advisor: A.B. Sri Mulyani, Ph.D. Without her patience and encouragement, I believe that I would not have finished this research at this time. Additionally, I would like to thank my co-advisor Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum., for the detailed corrections and feedback that help me to improve this study.
I also thank Sanata Dharma University, especially English Letters Department for all the knowledge given to me all these years. The competence, conscience, and compassion are the values I would never forget.
Furthermore, I dedicate this research for my parents, especially my mother, for always asking my research progress and reminding me to finish it as soon as possible.
Lastly, I thank all of my friends who always accompanying me day and night during the making of this research, and for always encouraging me to never give up in writing this research.
Stefani Amanda Anggi Riany.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... ii
APPROVAL PAGE ... iii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ... iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH v
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ... vi
A. Women Characters and Oprresions as the Result of Patriarchal Society in Afghanistan in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns ... 18
ABSTRACT
RIANY, STEFANI AMANDA ANGGI. The Impact of Oppressions toward Women Characters in Khaleed Hosseini’s A Thousand Spendid Suns. Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Literature is an expression of society. It mirrors the events that happened in our social life. Hence, literary works are written based on the situation in real life or the experience of the author itself. Everything that happens in our life cannot be separated from our psychological aspects. Using psychoanalysis, this study attempts to see the impact of oppression toward women.
Oppressions, especially oppressions toward women, are not a new concern in our society. Opression has been a frightening scourge for women since a very long time, especially for women who live in a country with a strict patriarchal society like Afghanistan. Khaleed Hosseini, in his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, and through the two women characters Mariam and Laila, portray the life of women living and surrounding with oppressions around them.
Two formulated problems are discussed throughout this research. The first one is what oppressions do the two women characters suffer in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. The second one is what impact do the oppressions give to the characters in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.
This research is a library research applying psychological approach with the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns as the primary source. The method used in this study is close reading to earn the characterization of Mariam and Laila, and also the oppression they suffered throughout the story. Then, some steps of analysis re used to identify the impact of the oppressions toward the characters.
Using Iris Young’s concept of oppressions, it is found that both characters suffer some oppressions in the form of violence and powerlessness. In the further analysis, using Lois Tyson’s basic concept of psychological criticism, it is found that the characters show the indication of having three core issues as the impact of the oppressions they suffer. Furthermore, using Pablo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, it is found that there are characterization changes in the characters. From the analysis, it is concluded that oppressions give impact toward the characters of Mariam and Laila.
ABSTRAK
RIANY, STEFANI AMANDA ANGGI. Impact of Oppressions toward Women Characters in Khaleed Hosseini’s A Thousand Spendid Suns. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2016
Karya sastra adalah hasil ekspresi dari masyarakat. Karya sastra mencerminkan hal-hal yang terjadi di kehidupan sosial kita. Oleh karena itu, karya-karya sastra diciptakan berdasarkan hal yang terjadi di kehidupan nyata atau berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi dari penulisnya sendiri. Semua hal yang terjadi di kehidupan kita tidak dapat dilepaskan dari aspek-aspek psikologi dari diri kita. Dengan menggunakan psikoanalis, penelitian ini mencoba untuk melihat dampak dari penindasan, terutama penindasan terhadap wanita.
Penindasan, terutama penindasan terhadap wanita, bukan lagi menjadi hal baru di dalam masyarakat kita. Ini sudah sejak lama menjadi momok menakutkan bagi wanita terutama bagi mereka yang tinggal di negara dengan masyarakat patriakal yang kuat seperti Afghanistan. Khaleed Hosseini dalam novelnya yang berjudul A Thousand Splendid Suns, melalui dua karakter utamanya Mariam dan Laila, menggambarkan kehidupan dua wanita yang hidup dengan penindasan di sekitar mereka.
Dua rumusan masalah dibahas dalam penelitian ini. Pertama, membahas tentang penindasan apa saja yang diterima oleh kedua karakter ini. Dan yang kedua menbahas tentang dampak apa yang ditimbulkan oleh penindasan terhadap kedua karakter tersebut.
Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kepustakaan dengan mengaplikasikan pendekatan psikologi dengan novel A Thousand Splendid Suns sebagai sumber utamanya. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pembacaan teliti untuk mendapatkan karakterisasi Mariam dan Laila, dan juga penindasan yang mereka derita di dalam novel tersebut. Setelah itu, beberapa analisis diambil untuk mengidentifikasi dampak apa saja yang disebabkan oleh penindasan tersebut.
Menggunakan konsep penindasan oleh Iris Young, peneliti menemukan bahwa kedua karakter mengalami penindasan dalam bentuk kekerasan dan ketidakberdayaan. Dalam analisis lanjut, menggunakan konsep kritik psikologis oleh Lois Tyson, peneliti menebukan bahwa kedua karakter menunjukkan indikasi memiliki tiga permasalahan utama yang muncul karena penindasan yang mereka alami. Selanjutnya, menggunakan Pedagogy of the Oppressed oleh Pablo Freire, peneliti menemukan adanya perubahan karaterisasi pada kedua karakter. Dari seluruh analisis, disimpulkan bahwa penindasan memberikan dampak terhadap karakter Mariam dan Laila.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Oppressions toward women are not a new concern in our life. It has been a frightening scourge in a life of women since a very long time. Although the status of women in several parts of the world such as America, Europe, and some other countries has risen significantly over the last century, there are still women who are struggling and living under the shadow of oppressions, especially in the Islamic countries and other countries with a strong patriarchal society.
In Khaleed Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, it is very clear to see how women live in the Islamic countries more specifically in Afghanistan. From the two main woman characters, Mariam and Laila, it is shown that how they deal with oppressions from men in their society even family. From the story, the researcher find that the oppressions are influencing the way they behave toward the society and family.
In this study, the researcher relates the impact of the oppressions into human psychology such as behavior and human needs. The researcher chooses this topic because oppression is a common case that we can find in our daily life and psychology as a scientific study of behavior and mental processes is something that cannot be separated from human life as an individual. Human behavior is determined by society, environment, and events that happen around him/her. The researcher finds how and why the events that happen
around these two main woman characters in A Splendid Thousand Suns influence or change their behavior toward their family, society and themselves as an individual
B. Problems Formulation
1. What oppressions do the women characters suffer in Afghanistan patriarchal society as applied in Hossesini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns?
2. What impacts do the oppressions give to the characters in Hossesini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns?
C. Objectives of the Study
In this study, the researcher finds what oppressions the women characters suffer in the story. Then, the researcher finds their response (the way they act) toward those oppressions. After that, the researcher finds how those oppressions impact their psychological aspects in terms of behavior towards their family, society, and individual.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misunderstanding, there are three terms that are considered necessary to be further explained.
Oppression is the experience of repeated, widespread, systemic injustice (Deutsch, 2005). Iris Young refers the oppression to the vast and
deep injustices some groups suffer as a consequence of often unconscious assumptions and reactions of well-meaning people in ordinary interactions (1990: 41).
Patriarchal system as defined by Weber cited in Walby’s Theorizing Patriarchy, refers to a system of government in which men ruled societies through their position as heads of household (Walby, 1990: 19). Walby defines patriarchy as a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women. She uses the term social structure because it implies rejection both of biological determinism, and the notion that every individual man is in a dominant position and every woman in a subordinate one (1990: 20)
Powerlessness is one out of five types of oppressions classified by
Iris Young. It is a type of oppression consisting of people who are powerless that they do not even talk about their oppression. The powerless people are those who lack of authority or power (Young, 1992:52)
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
The researcher uses three previous studies which are in some way related to this study. The first one is an undergraduate thesis by Silvia Ajeng Putri Natalia entitled “Oppression toward Afghan Women During the Mid to the Late 1990s as seen in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns”. In her undergraduate thesis entitled “Oppression toward Afghan Women during the mid to the Late 1990s as seen in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns” Natalia analyzes two female characters in A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam and Laila. In analyzing the two female characters, she uses the theory of character and characterization and also pays attention to the setting— society, culture and historical events in the novel—to describe the characterization of the characters. Using the theory of oppression, Natalia identifies that the two women characters suffered two kinds of oppression which are physical and mental oppressions (Natalia, 2012).
The difference between this study and Natalia’s work are that this study focuses on the oppressions suffered by the two characters and also the impact of the oppressions to the characters while Natalia only focuses on the oppressions suffered by the characters. Another difference between these studies is that this study uses psychoanalysis perspective while Natalia’s works uses sociocultural-historical perspective.
Another previous study the researcher uses in the study is an undergraduate thesis by Dibson Williansyah entitled “The Major Characters’ Response towards Repressive and Ideological Structures that Sanction Violence against Women in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns”. In his thesis Williansyah states that
Violence against women is sactioned by the repressive and ideological structures. Repressive structures in the novel include the government, the law court, and the police, while the ideological structures in the novel include the religion and family (Williansyah, 2010).
Using theory of violence against women, Williansyah finds that the two women characters, Mariam and Laila, suffer violence from the repressive and ideological structures. Williansyah uses gender studies to analyze both male and female characters’ experience in their society.
something that somebody has said or done, while impact, on the other hand, is the powerful effect that something has on somebody. Fourth, Williansyah’s work uses the perspective of gender study, while this study uses the perspective of psychoanalysis.
In her paper, “Subjugation: A Study of the Women Characters in Khaled Hosseini’s and Arundhati Roys Novel”, Silima portrays the
exploitation and discrimination of women in the patriarchal-social system of the Afghan society and the Indian subcontinent as delineated in the novels of Khaled Hosseini and Arundhati Roy. In both novels, A Thousand Splendid Suns and The God of Small Things, the women share the common plight of suffering, where the male folks treat them as mere objects and subject them to extreme oppression.
This paper is and in-depth study of the female characters that share the common bond of subjugation and miserably struggle for their survival. They hail from different countries and religion (Silima, 2013:456).
B. Review of Related Theories
To support this research, the researcher uses several theories regarding to the topic.
1. Character and Characterization
To analyze the characterization of the characters use as the object of the study, the researcher uses theory of character and characterization by M.H. Abrams. Abrams states that characters in literary works are figures that—by the reader—are thought to have particular qualities based on their dialogue and behavior. As for characterization, Abrams says it is the way the author presents their characters in the literary work. Characterization makes the reader discovers motives behind the characters’ talk and action (Abrams, 1986:32-33).
The researcher uses this theory to analyze and identify the two women characters, Mariam and Laila, by the way they characterized in the novel.
2. Five Faces of Oppression by Iris Young
Iris Young states that there are five faces (types) of oppression: violence, exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, and cultural imperialism. The researcher uses this theory to find the oppressions suffered by the woman characters in the story by classifying the type of the oppression. a. Exploitation is the act of using people’s labors to produce profits while
according to the purposes, and for the benefit of other people” (Young, 1992: 49).
b. Marginalization is the act of relegating or confining a group of people to lower social standing or outer limit or edge of society (alienation). It is in some ways worse than exploitation because society has decided that it cannot or will use these people even for labor. Marginalization or alienation oppresses people by expelling them from the useful participations in the social life (Young, 1992: 50).
c. Powerlessness is a type of oppression consisting of people who are powerless that they do not even talk about their oppression. The powerless people are those who lack of authority or power (Young, 1992: 52). d. Cultural imperialism is what Young calls as universalization of dominant
group experience and culture, and its establishment as the norm (Young, 1992: 59). It involves taking the culture of the ruling class and establishing it as the norm. The groups that have power in the society control how the people in that society interpret and communicate. Therefore, the beliefs of that society are the most widely disseminated and express the experience, values, goals and achievements of these groups.
3. Psychological Theory of Defense Mechanisms and Core Issues
Lois Tyson states that whether we realize it or not, psychoanalytic concepts have become part of our everyday lives, and therefore psychoanalytic thinking should have the advantage of familiarity (Tyson, 2006:11). The most common psychoanalytic concepts that most people feel they know the meanings without ever having heard them defined are sibling rivalry, inferiority complexes, and defense mechanisms (Tyson, 2006:11).
Tyson believes that we can see the way those concepts operate our daily lives in profound rather than superficial ways and begin to understand human behaviors that may have seemed utterly baffling until now if we take the time to understand some key concepts about human experience offered by psychoanalysis (Tyson, 2006: 11). If psychoanalysis can help us understand human behavior, it must certainly be able to help us understand literary texts, which are about human behavior (Tyson, 2006: 11).
a. The Origins of the Unconscious
that has much control over them (Tyson, 2006: 12). That is the origins of the unconscious.
b. The Defenses, Anxiety, and Core Issues.
Defenses are the process by which the contents of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious or in other words they are the process by which we keep the repressed repressed in order to avoid knowing what we feel we cannot handle knowing (Tyson, 2006:15).
Defenses include selective perception hearing and seeing only what we feel we can handle), selective memory (modifying our memories so that we don’t overwhelmed by them or forgetting painful events entirely), denial (believe that the problem doesn’t exist or the unpleasant incident never happened), avoidance (staying away from people or situations that are liable to make us anxious by stirring up some unconscious—i.e., repressed— experience or emotion), displacement (“taking it out” on someone or something less threatening than the person who caused our fear, hurt, frustration, or anger), and projection (ascribing our fear, problem, or guilty desire to someone else and then condemning him or her for it, in order to deny that we have it ourselves). (Tyson, 2006:15)
Anxiety is the moment when our defenses break down momentarily. Anxiety can be an important experience because it reveals core issues. The core issues Tyson states are below.
i. Fear of Abandonment
It is the unshakeable belief that our friends and loved ones will desert us (physical abandonment) or do not really care about us (emotional abandonment).
Fear of betrayal is the nagging feeling that our friends and loved ones cannot be trusted. The example of fear of betrayal is that someone will think that his/her friend cannot be trusted or that his/her partner will cheat on him/her.
iii. Low Self-esteem
It is the belief that we are less worthy than other people and, therefore do not deserve, love, or any other life’s reward. The person often believes that he/she deserves to be punished in some way.
iv. Insecure or Unstable Sense of Self
It is the inability to sustain a feeling for personal identity and to sustain a sense of knowing ourselves. This core issues makes the person very vulnerable to the influence of other people and may find he/she continually changing by the way he/she looks or behaves when they involve with different individuals or groups.
v. Oedipal Fixation
It is a dysfunctional bond with a parent of the opposite sex that the person does not outgrow in adulthood and that does not allow the person to develop a mature relationship with his/her peers.
Core issues define our being in fundamental ways. It stays with us throughout life and, unless effectively addressed, they determine our behavior in destructive ways of which we are usually unaware.
and also to find out if these core issues take place in influencing the characters’ changing in the story.
4. Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Pablo Freire
Feire states that humanization is thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression, and the violence of the oppressors; it is affirmed by the yearning of the oppressed for freedom and justice, and their struggle to recover their lost of humanity (Friere, 2005:43-44). He believes that the struggle occurred because dehumanization is not given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed.
During the initial struggle, the oppressed instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become the oppressors, or “sub-oppressor. It also caused the “fear of freedom” which is a fear which may equally well lead them to desire the role of the oppressor to bind them to the role of oppressed. The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines are fearful of freedom (Freire, 2005:45-47).
5. Character Development by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia
distinguishing marks. These types of characters tend to stay the same throughout a story. On the other hand, round characters often change— learn or become enlightened, grow or deteriorate (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007: 75).
The researcher uses this theory to find the type of the characters use in this study and to find the motives of the changes in their character.
C. Theoretical framework
This study is entitled “The Impact of Oppressions Toward Women seen through Two Women Characters in Khaled Hosseini’s A Splendid Thousand Suns”. The focus of the study is on finding the oppression suffered by the two women characters and how it impacts the characters, especially the two main women characters.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
A Thousand Splendid Suns published in 2007 is one of Khaled Hosseini’s, an Afghan-American author’s remarkable work. Propelled by the same superb instinct for story telling that makes The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Sun is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of a family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.
Born within a generation apart with very different ideas about love and family, Marian and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, loss, and fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them— in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul—they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman’s love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and indestructible love.
B. Approach of the Study
The approach used in this study is psychoanalytic criticism. Psychoanalytic criticism is one of the ways of interpreting literary works. At the first time of its emergence, this approach was focusing only on the author then it developed into focusing on the characters in the literary work. This approach attempts explain the hows and whys of human actions.
Psychoanalytic approach is applied as the approach of this study because it uses aspects from psychoanalysis to analyze object and it helps the researcher to reveal the impacts of the oppressions within characters. Furthermore, this approach is applied to extend the finding to see the how the oppressions affect the characters.
C. Method of the Study
The method used in this study is library researches. The data collected for this study are provided from the library and some journals on the internet. Most data, such as the characteristics of the characters and oppressions they suffer collected from the object of the study A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hoseini.
The researcher finds the characteristic of the two main women characters, their backgrounds, and the oppressions they suffer and classifies by the types of the oppressions. Then the researcher finds the impact causes by the oppressions in the characters’ characterization and core issues as the results of the oppressions.
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
A. Woman Characters and Oppressions as the Result of Patriarchal Society in Afghanistan in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns
Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) portrays the tough struggles to live in Afghanistan during the war in the 1970s. He combines the strict patriarchal system and the Taliban war that lead woman oppressions. Although he does not show the “real” struggles that Afghans, especially the women, feel—experience—during the war until the 1990s, he makes it clear how hard it was to live in Afghanistan for a woman. Afghanistan is well-known, for it is a big Islamic country and holds into a strict patriarchal system. Patriarchy as a concept has a history among social scientists that use it to refer to a system in which men rule societies through their position as heads of household (Walby, 1989: 214). Patriarchal system often leads to oppressions and gender inequality toward women for the system itself believe that men are greater than women and gives more benefits to men.
“I wonder,” the young Talib said. “God has made us differently, you women and us men. Our brains are different. You are not able to think like we can. Western doctors and their science have proven this. This is why we require only one male witness but two female ones” (Hosseini, 2007:255).
Hosseini portrays the struggles of being oppressed that the women experience through his two heroines of the story, Mariam and Laila. Those two heroines give a big contribution in leading the plot of the novel. Despite
their opposite backgrounds, point of view in life, and age difference, then after some bad events that they experience, they finally have the same goal to escape from their abusive husband.
Seeing from Young’s Five Faces of Oppression, the kinds of oppression that the two experienced the most are violence (which is the most common and visible one), powerlessness, and cultural imperialism.
1. Mariam
Born as a harami (illegitimate child/person), it has made Mariam’s life difficult since harami is considered as “a person who would never have legitimate claim to the other people have, things such as love, family, home, and acceptance (Hosseini, 2007:4). Mariam has been alienated from her Father’s family since before she was born because the family consideres her as a disgrace for her is the child from her mother and father’s affair and also her mother being one of the servants of the house during that time. Then, after the death of her mother, she lives with her father for a few days before her father’s wives force her to marry Rasheed, a shoemaker from Kabul whose age is twice Mariam’s age. Mariam is also characterized as recluse for her never going outside to talks to other people in the neighborhood.
He snatched her hand, opened it, and dropped a handful of pebbles into it.
“Put these in your mouth. …
His powerful hand clasped her jaw. He shoved two fingers into her mouth and pried it open, then forced the cold, hard pebbles into it. Mariam struggled against him, mumbling, but he kept pushing the pebbles in, his upper lip curled in sneer.
“Now chew,” he said. …
Mariam chewed. Something in the back of her mouth cracked. …
Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars (Hosseini, 2007: 102-103).
Mariam does not even make a single mistake only because Rasheed “thinks” that she serves him raw rice that tastes like pebbles. In the novel Hosseini gives a hint about how women seem like always the one to blame in everything. Mariam knows that since Nana tells her that on her childhood.
“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter. Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger al ‘learn this now and learn it well, my daughter. Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always find a woman. Always you remember that, Mariam (Hosseini, 2007: 7).
“I should have known that you’d corrupt her,” Rasheed spat at Mariam. He swung the belt, testing it against his own thigh. The buckle jingled loudly.
“Stop it, bas!” the girl said. “Rasheed, you can’t do this.” “Go back to the room.”
Mariam backpedaled again. “No! Don’t do this!” “Now!”
Rasheed raised the belt again and this time came at Mariam.(Hosseini, 2007:234-235)
The most severe violence that Mariam receives from Rasheed is when she and Laila are caught running away and being sent back to Rasheed’s house.
“You,” he said to Mariam. “You wait here” Mariam quietly took a seat on the couch. “You two, upstairs.”
…
Downstairs, the beating began. To Laila, the sounds she heard were those of a methodical, familiar proceeding. There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only systematic business of beating and being beaten, the thump, thump of something solid repeatedly striking flesh, something, someone, hitting a wall with a thud, cloth ripping. Now and then, Laila heard running footsteps, a wordless chase, furniture turning over, glass shattering, then the thumping once more (Hosseini, 2007:261-262).
Beside oppression in the form of violence, Mariam also experiences some oppression in the form of powerlessness in which the powerless—the women, in this case—are dominated by the ruling class—the patriarch, in this case—and situated to take orders and rarely have the right to give them. Some fundamental injustices associated with powerlessness are inhibition to develop one’s capacities, lack of decision in making power, and exposure to disrespectful treatment because of the lowered status (Young, 1992: 52). Back to the patriarchal system’s characteristics listed above which the patriarch of the family always gets the last word to say in every decision making, the researcher sees it as a type of oppression in the form of powerlessness of women in saying their thought—or idea, or decision—in making the decision that requires their opinions and matters to their well-being in life. To support the argument, the researcher finds some quotations from the novel that show how Mariam is powerless in making the decisions in her own life.
“You have a suitor,” Khadija said.
Mariam’s stomach fell. “A what? She said trough suddenly numb lips.
“A Khastegar. A suitor. His name is Rasheed,” Khadija went on. “He is a friend of a business acquaintance of your father’s. He’s a Pasthun, from Kandahar originally, but he lives in Kabul, in the Deh-Mazang district, in a two-story house that he owns.
…
Mariam fixed her eyes on Jalil, her heart somersaulting in her chest. “Is this true? What she’s saying, is it true?”
But Jalil wouldn’t look at her. He went on chewing the corner of his lips and staring at the pitcher.
…
…
She turned to Jalil again. “Tell them. Tell them that you won’t let
them dothis.” “Actually, your father has already given Rasheed his answer,”
Afsoon said. “Rasheed is here, in Heart; he has come all the way from Kabul. The nikka will be tomorrow morning, and then there is a bus leaving for Kabul at noon.
(Hosseini, 2007: 46-49)
The quotation above proves that Mariam loses her right to choose what she wants to do for her life which in this part is her marriage life. Mariam of course does not want to accept the marriage, but she never has the right to say whether or not she wants to accept the marriage.
Below is another quotation that proves that Mariam loses her right to say her opinion or to object Rasheed’s decision.
“I . . . I don’t want this,” Mariam said, numb with contempt and helplessness.
“It’s not your decision. It’s hers and mine.”(Hosseini, 2007:208)
This quotation proves that Mariam loses the right to choose whether or not she gives her permission for Rasheed to marry Laila. She loses this right because of being back to the patriarchal system characteristics where the man of the house has the last words to say in making every decision and that the decision, idea, or opinion of the matriarch does not really matter since the matriarch does not have any power to decide everything when it comes to the household.
2. Laila
Mariam, a harami who is exiled from her father’s family and is considered as a disgrace for the family, Laila always says as the girl everyone admires.
“Mammy always told Laila that she had inherited her hair color— as well as her thick-lashed, turquoise green eyes, her dimpled cheeks, her high cheekbones, and the pout of her lower lip, which Mammy shared—from her great-grandmother, Mammy’s grandmother. She was a pari, a stunner. Mammy said. Her beauty was the talk of the valley. It skipped two generations of women in our family, but it sure didn’t bypass you, Laila (Hosseini, 2007: 108).
“You,” Rasheed said to the girl, “you, on the other hand, would be a Benz. A brand-new, first-class, shiny Benz. Wah wah. But. But.” He raised one greasy index finger. “One must take certain . . . cares . . . with a Benz. As a matter of respect for its beauty and craftsmanship, you see. Oh, you must be thinking that I am crazy, diwana, with all this talk of automobiles. I am not saying that you are cars. I am merely making a point. (Hosseini, 2007: 216-217)
bad treatment from Rasheed during the marriage. During her marriage with Rasheed, the same as Mariam, Laila suffers oppressions in the form of violence and powerlessness. It starts when Laila and Mariam try to escape from Rasheed’s ‘grip’, but fails effortlessly because of the patriarchal system that causes women not to allow to go outside without a man relatives accompanying them. They are caught by the police at the bus station where they are sent back to home because they are caught trying to run away from their husband without their husband knowing.
“You do realize,hamshira, that it is a crime for a woman to run away. We see a lot of it. Women travelling alone, claiming their husbands have died. Sometimes they’re telling the truth, most times not. You can be imprisoned for running away, I assume you understand that, nay?
…
“If you send us back,” she said instead, slowly, “there is no saying what he will do to us.”
She could see the effort it took to keep his eyes from shifting. “What a man does in his home is his business (Hosseini, 2007:259-260).
From the quotation above, Laila is powerless when it comes to men’s rules. Women are not able to stand their ground when it comes to fight against men’s rules because everything in the patriarchal systems always benefited the men than it is to women.
“She didn’t want to do it,” she said. “I made her do it. She didn’t
want to go—“ Laila didn’t see the punch coming. One moment she was talking
and the next she was on all fours, wide-eyed and red-faced, trying to draw a breath. It was as if a car had hit her at full speed, in the tender place en to between her belly button.
Then she was being dragged by the hair, she saw Aziza lifted, saw her sandals slip off, her tiny feet kicking. Hair was ripped from Laila’s scalp, and her eyes watered with pain. She saw his foot kick open the door to Mariam’s room, saw Aziza flung onto the bed. He let go of Laila’s hair and she felt the toe of his shoe connect with her buttock. She howled with pain as he slammed the door shut. A key rattled in the lock (Hosseini, 2007: 261-263).
During the isolation, Laila spends the days without food and water with Aziza waiting for someone to come to rescue them and even think about they would die slowly in the room. Even after Rasheed takes them out of the room, he still threatens her not to try to run away anymore and kick her aimlessly.
“You try this again and I will find you. I swear on the name of the Prophet’s name that I will find you. And, when I do, there isn’t a court in this godforsaken country that will hold me accountable for what I will do. To Mariam first, then to her, and you last. I’ll make you watch. You understand me? I’ll make you watch.
And, with that, he left the room. But not before delivering a kick to the flank that would make Laila pissing blood for days (Hosseini, 2007: 265).
Laila did not notice that Rasheed was back in the room. Until his hand was around her throat. Until she was lifted off her feet and slammed against the wall (Hosseini, 2007: 293).
With Rasheed being the man and the patriarch of the house, he has more power and strength than Laila and Mariam. This situation makes them hard to achieve what they want and makes them have to hold back their goal to free themselves from Rasheed. Rasheed is the kind of man who upholds his pride as a man and would not let it fall down when it comes to women being disrespectful to him. There is a time when Laila makes his dignity as a man falls down to the ground, but he always finds a way to raise his dignity up again.
“You can’t help being what you are.”
And then he was on Laila, pummeling her chest, her head, her belly with fists, tearing at her hair, throwing her to the wall.
…
“I swear you’re going to make me kill you, Laila,” he said, panting. Then he stormed out of the house (Hosseini, 2007: 298)
After Rasheed is being offended because of Laila’s remarks toward him and having his dignity shattered down by a woman, the only way Rasheed can get his man’s pride and dignity again is by giving his woman a lesson by threatening and beating them mercilessly until they cannot do anything about it.
Without saying a word, he swung the belt at Laila. He did it with such speed that she had no time to retreat or duck, or even raise a protective arm. Laila touch her fingers to her temple, looked at the blood, looked at Rasheed, with astonishment. It lasted only a moment until it was replaced with something hateful.
Rasheed swung the belt again. …
Then Laila was dashing around the room, and Mariam was screaming words that ran together and imploring Rasheed, as he chased Laila, as he blocked her way and cracked his belt at her. …
He caught her and threw her against the wall, and struck her with the belt again and again, the buckle slamming against her chest, her shoulder, her arms, her fingers, drawing blood wherever it struck (Hoseeini, 2007: 337-338).
The oppressions that Laila receives do not only come from her household (Rasheed) but also from the Taliban soldier who during that time is overrunning Afghanistan, especially Kabul, the city where they live. The Taliban make rules for the citizen that mostly point out the women. One of the rules that they make is for women not to talk back to men unless they are told to. There is a time where Laila, as a smart and educated woman, is questioning and talking back to a Talib on the streets and it ends up getting beaten.
One day, a young Talib beat Laila with a radio antenna. When he was done, he gave a final whack to the back of her neck and said, “I see you again, I’ll beat you until your mother’s milk leaks out of your bones (Hosseini, 2007: 313).
B. The Impacts of the Oppressions towards the Characters in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns
According to Young, the definition of oppression centers on the injustices that a group of people suffers as a means to further empower their oppressor(s). In the previous part of this study, the researcher has explained the oppressions suffered by the two characters, Mariam and Laila. In this part of this study, to answer the second formulated problem, the researcher tries to explain the impact of the oppressions mentioned in the previous part of this study. The impacts caused by the oppressions found are, physically, the revealing of core issues and the changes in characterization.
1. Physical Impact
The researcher does not find any quotation that directly shows the physical damages from Laila’s character, but the researcher finds a quotation that implies the physical damage in Laila’s character.
Then Tariq’s face changed, turned grave. She knew this expression. It was the same look he’d had on his face that day, all those years ago when they’d both been children, when he’d unstrapped his leg and gone after Khadim. He reached with one hand now and touched the corner of her lower lip.
“He did this to you,” he said coldly.
At his touch, Laila remembered the frenzy of that afternoon again when they’d conceived Aziza. (Hosseini, 2007: 333-334)
This quotation implies that the violence that Rasheed does to Laila causes her to have some bruises in some parts of her body.
From the physical damages listed above, it is shown that the violence done by Rasheed has physically injured both Mariam and Laila. It can be seen from the changes of Laila’s scars and bruises that Tariq notices and from Mariam’s broken molars.
2. The Revealing of Core Issues
intimacy, fear of abandonment, fear of betrayal, low self-esteem, and oedipal fixation.
a. Fear of Abandonment
Looking back to the character of Mariam in the object of the study, Mariam has the fear of abandonment, which is the unshakeable belief that our loved ones are going to desert us (physical abandonment) or do not really care about us (emotional abandonment) (Tyson, 2006: 16). As mentioned in the first part of this chapter, Mariam’s mother, Nana, makes her believe that her father does not care about her at all, that she is just a harami, an illegitimate child who is nothing but a disgrace for her father’s family.
“What a stupid girl you are! You think you matter to him, that you’re wanted in his house? You think you’re a daughter to him? That he’s going to take you in? Let me tell you something. A man’s heart is a wretched, wretched thing, Mariam. It isn’t like mother’s womb. It won’t bleed, it won’t stretch to make room for you. I’m the only one who loves you. I’m all you have in this world, Mariam, and when I’m gone you’ll have nothing. You’ll have nothing. You are nothing!” (Hosseini, 2007: 27).
From the quotation above, it shows that Nana not only manages to make Mariam believe that her father does not care about her at all but also she points out to Mariam that all men do not care about all women at all by stating that “All men’s heart is a wretched, wretched thing” (Hosseini, 2007:27).
“I’ll die if you go. The jinn will come, and I’ll have one on of my fits. You’ll see, I’ll swallow my tongue and die. Don’t leave me, Mariam Jo. Please stay. I’ll die if you go. (Hosseini, 2007: 27). What would she say to Nana, Mariam wondered. How would she apologize? How could she even face Nana now?
The car stopped and the driver helped her out. “I’ll walk you,” he said.
[…]
Then he let go, and he was talking about how Heart’s famous one hundred and twenty days’ einds would start blowing soon, from midmorning to dusk, and how the sun flies would go on a feeding frenzy, and then suddenly he was standing in front of her, trying to cover her eyes, pushing her back the way they had come and saying, “Go back! No. Don’t look now. Turn around! Go back” But he wasn’t fast enough. Mariam saw. A gust of wind blew and parted the dropping branches of the weeping willow like a curtain, and Mariam caught a glimpse of what was beneath the tree: the straight-blacked chair, over turned. The rope dropping from a high branch. Nana dangling at the end of it (Hosseini, 2007: 35-36).
But Mariam could not hear comfort in God’s words. Not that day. Not then. All she could hear was Nana saying, I’ll die if you go. I’ll just die. All she could do was cry and cry and let her tears fall on the spotted, paper-thin skin of Mullah Faizullah’s hands (Hosseini, 2007:38).
and throws her out of the house like her father did to her if she is not doing what Rasheed expects her to.
“Then one night he crushed his cigarette and instead of saying good night leaned against the doorway.
“Are you ever going to unpack that thing? He said, motioning with his head toward her suitcase. He crossed his arms. “I figured you might need some time. But this is absurd. A week’s gone and . . . Well, then, as of tomorrow morning I expect you start behaving like a wife. Fahmidi? Is that understood?”
Mariam’s teeth began to chatter. “I need and answer.”
“Yes.”
“Good,” he said. “What did you think? That this is a hotel? That I’m some kind of hotelkeeper? Well, it . . . Oh. Oh. La illah u ilillah. What did I say about the crying?”
(Hosseini, 2007: 63-64).
However, regardless of everything that she has done for Rasheed, after her several miscarries, Rasheed seems to never satisfy of all the things that she has done and blame all of it.
But afterfour years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman can tolerate when she was afraid. And Mariam was afraid. She lived in fear of his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not.
[…]
Which each disappointment, Rasheed had grown more remote and resentful. Now nothing she did pleased him (Hosseini, 2007:97-98).
abandonment occur in Laila’s character. Laila never wanted to marry Rasheed in the first place. The only reason she accepts Rasheed’s proposal is that she is pregnant with Tariq child because she is afraid that people will dishonor her and punish her for adultery. Hence, she marries Rasheed so that people will think that she is pregnant with Rasheed’s child so that she will not be punished and she can raise her and Tariq’s child.
How could she run now?
Laila took grim inventory of the people in her life. Ahmad and Noor, dead. Hasina, gone. Giti, dead. Mammy, dead. Babi, dead. Now Tariq . . .
But, miracurously, something of her former life remained, her last link to the person that she had been before she had become so utterly alone. A part of Tariq still alive inside her, sprouting tiny arms, growing translucent hands. How could she jeopardize the only thing she had left of him, of her old life?
She made her decision quickly. Six weeks had passed since her time with Tariq. Any longer and Rasheed would grow suspicious. She knew that what she was doing was dishonorable. Dishonorable, disingenuous, and shameful. And spectacularly unfair to Mariam. But even though the baby inside her was no bigger than a mulberry, Laila already saw the sacrifices a mother had to make. Virtue was only the first.
She put a hand on her belly. Closed her eyes (Hosseini, 2007: 213).
The quotation above shows that Laila does everything she can to keep the baby, to keep a part of the love of her life because she is afraid that other people will separate her with her child.
b. Fear of Betrayal
Rasheed’s marriage, Laila enters the household, makes Mariam feels that Rasheed feelings toward her will disappear considering Laila’s appearance and personality that is different from her will make Rasheed leave her for Laila.
For years Mariam had looked on as he ate, the muscles of his temples churning, one hand making compact little rich balls, the back of the other wiping grease, swiping stray grains, from the corners of his mouth.
[…]
Now he ate with a spoon. Used napkin. Said loftan when asking for water. And talked. Spiritedly and incessantly.
[…]
It was the staged delivery. Like a performance. And attempt on his part , both sly and pathetic, to impress. To charm.
And suddenly Mariam knew that her suspicions were right. She understood with a dread that was like a blinding whack to the side of her head that what she was witnessing was nothing less than a courtship (Hosseini, 2007: 205-207).
From the quotation above, it shows that Mariam is afraid that Rasheed wants to marry Laila with an excuse that people will talk on their back and that it is bad for his and Mariam’s and Laila’s reputation if an unmarried woman leaves with people who are not a part of her family.
“We need to legitimize this situation,” he said now, balancing the ash tray on his belly. His lips scrunched up in a playful pucker. “People will talk. It looks dishonorable, an unmarried young woman loving here. It’s bad for my reputation. And hers. And yours, I might add.”
“Eighteen years,” Mariam said. “And I never asked you for a thing. Not one thing. I’m asking now.”
He inhaled smoke and let it out slowly. “She can’t just stay here, if that’s what you’re suggesting. I can’t go on feeding her and clothing her and giving her a place to sleep. I’m not a red cross, Mariam.”(Hosseini, 2007: 208).
over her place as the first wife and that it will make her to be Laila’s maid more than wife who must be respected.
c. Low Self-esteem
Another Mariam’s core issue revealed by the oppressions is low self-esteem. She has been given the label harami ever since she was born and she has been told that a harami like herself does not have a legitimate claim to the things other people have, such as love, family, home, and acceptance. This results in her thinking that everything happening to her—Nana’s death, the arranged wedding, her marriage life, and everything that she experiences in her life—is a punishment for being a harami or an illegitimate child who does not deserve attention, love, or any other of life’s reward
3. Fear of Freedom
Freire stated that another thing that afflicts the oppressed is the “fear of freedom” (1970: 46) in which the oppressed is afraid to embrace or to gain freedom because even though they have gained their freedom, the shadow of the oppressor still will cast over them. From the object of the study, this statement is supported by the finding where Mariam and Laila are about to escape from their household. Even though they are very excited and cannot wait to get out of the Rasheed’s stranglehold, they still have anxiety over themselves.
Everywhere she looked, Laila saw Rasheed. She spotted him coming out of barbershops with windows the color of coal dust, from tiny booths that sold patridges, from battered, open-fronted stores packed with old tires piled from floor to ceiling.
Beside her, Mariam was muttering a prayer. Laila wished she could see her face, but Mariam was in burqa—they both were—and all she could see was the glitter of her eyes through the grid (Hosseini, 2007: 252).
This quotation shows how Rasheed’s shadow still lingers around them wherever they go. Laila sees Rasheed in everyone that she sees on the road even though that is not him. It shows that their paranoia of getting caught running away by Rasheed is unavoidable despite the freedom that they want to gain.
4. Character Changes
Freire, states that as the impact of oppressions, during the initial stage of the struggle, the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, then themselves to become oppressors, or “sub-oppressor (1970: 45). From the object of the study, this impact of the oppression can be found in the beginning of Rasheed and Laila’s marriage here. Mariam feels threatened by Laila’s presence in her household. She treated Laila rudely because she is afraid that because of Laila, the young, smart, beautiful woman becoming Rasheed second wife, Rasheed will love Laila more and it makes Mariam do everything for Laila and gives her life more suffering that she already had.
“You may be the palace malika and me a dehati, but I won’t take orders from you. You can complain to jim and he can slit my throat, but I won’t do it. Do you hear me? your servant.”
“And if you think you can use your looks to get rid of me, you’re wrong. I was here first. I won’t be thrown out. I won’t have you cast me out.”
“And I see that your wounds are healed up now. So you can start doing your share of the work in this house—“
The girl was nodding quickly. Some of her tea spilled, but she didn’t notice. “Yes, that’s the other reason I came down, to thank you for taking care of me—“
“Well, I wouldn’t have,” Mariam snapped. “I wouldn’t have fed you and washed you and nursed you if I’d known you were going to turn around and steal my husband (Hosseini, 2007: 219).
Despite of the negative changes, the researcher also finds that the oppressions experienced by the two women characters, Mariam and Laila, give some positive impact in the development of the characters. At the beginning of the story, it is stated that Mariam, an uneducated woman who does not know how to stand on her ground, does not know what is happening around her, for she is raised in an isolated Kolba far from the city and is not allowed to a attend formal school like other girl do. She is also sort of dissociating herself from the society after Nana’s death and her marriage with Rasheed.
Mariam’s interview lasted only a few minutes. When she came out, she looked shaken.
“He asked so many questions,” she said. “I’m sorry, Laila jo. I am not smart like you. He asked so many questions, I didn’t know the answer. I am sorry” (Hosseini, 2007: 260).
Also, Mariam always becomes the obeying wife to Rasheed. She always does whatever Rasheed asks her to do, never complain to every decision Rasheed makes before Laila cames into their lives.
“Eighteen years,” Mariam said. “And I never asked you for a thing. Not one thing. I am asking now.
…
“Don’t be so dramatic. It’s a common thing and you know it. I have friends who have two, three, four wives. Your own father had three. Besides, what I’m doing now most men I know would have done long ago. You know it’s true.
“I won’t allow it” (Hosseini, 2007: 208-209)
From the quotation above, it shows how Mariam starts to find her voice to defend herself and to get something that she wants even though in the end, it does nothing to Rasheed’s decision since—going back to Rasheed becoming the patriarch of the house—all decisions are in Rasheed’s hands without concerning Mariam’s objection and demands as the matriarch of the house. Seeing the quotation, the researcher finds that the character of Mariam slowly changes from a self-contained person into a person who can speak up her objection and opinion toward things she does not agree even though she knows that, in the end, her voice does not even matter and never affects Rasheed’s decision.
Another changes in Mariam’s character is that she becomes more affectionate to the person who is close to her, to whom she cares about since she never has someone she cares about since her childhood aside from her father Jalil who she leaves since he “gave her away” to marry Rasheed. It is shown from how Mariam would take care of and spoil Aziza like she is her own daughter even though she is not.
Aziza went over to Mariam and climbed up in her lap. The two of them were inseparable now. Of late, with Laila’s blessing, Mariam had started teaching Aziza verses from the Koran.
[…]
Mariam and Laila have a rough start where Mariam dislikes Laila, for she thinks that with Laila—the beautiful, educated, smart young girl— entering her household and becoming Rasheed’s second wife will replace her position as the wife to maid that she always blames Laila over something even though it is really important.
Laila had gone to the kitchen and found Mariam yanking drawers and slamming them shut. She was looking, Mariam said, for the long wooden spoon she used to stir rice. “Where did you put it?” she said, wheeling around to face Laila. “Me?” Laila said. “I didn’t take it. I hardly come in here.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Is that an accusation? It’s how you wanted it, remember? You said you would make the meals. But if you want to switch—“ “So you’re saying it grew little legs and walked put. Teep, teep, teep, teep. Is that what happened, degeh?”
[] “I am saying that maybe you’ve misplaced it.”
“Misplaced it?” Mariam pulled a drawer. The spatulas and knives inside it clanked. “How long have you been here, few months? I’ve lived in this house for nineteen years, dokhtar jo. I have that spoon in this drawer since you were shitting your diapers.”
“Still,” Laila said, on the brink now, teeth clenched, “it’s possible you put it somewhere and forgot.”
“And it’s possible you hid it somewhere, to aggravate me” (Hosseini, 2007: 226-227).
However, after they exchange their “secrets”, they become good friends afterward. Mariam starts to treat Laila more like her own daughter despite the fact that they both are Rasheed’s wives. It may cause by the age difference among those two.
Laila let out a cry and rolled on her side. Her fingers closed against Mariam’s.
“Any problems with the first delivery?” “No.”
“You’re the mother?
From the quotation above, it shows how Mariam would take her place as Laila’s mother when in reality they both are Rasheed’s wives. She sacrifices herself to help Laila pass and survive the labor despite the consequences she has to go through since—seeing through the setting of the story—there is a war going on during that time, the Taliban war, where they have several rules and one of them includes women who are not allowed to go out alone by herself without the company of their husband or other male relatives. Also, the Taliban have divided all public facilities such as hospital and school into man and woman facilities even though in fact there are no facilities that women can use even though it says woman hospital.
Beneath the burqa, the doctor shook her head curtly.
In the toolshed, Mariam grabbed the shovel.
Rasheed didn’t notice her coming back into the room. He was still on top of Laila, his eyes wide and crazy, his hands wrapped around her neck. Laila’s face was turning blue now, and her eyes had rolled back. Mariam saw that she was no longer struggling. He’s going to kill her, she thought. He really means to. And Mariam could not, would not, allow that to happen. He’d taken so much from her in twenty-seven years of marriage. She would not watch him take Laila too.
[…]
“Rasheed.” He looked up. Mariam swung.
She hit hime accros the temple. The blow knocked him off Laila. […]
And so Mariam raised the shovel high, raised it as high as she could, arching it so it touched the small back of her back. She turned it so the sharp edge was vertical, and, as she did, it occurred to her that this was the first time that she was deciding the course of her own life.
And, with that, Mariam brought down the shovel. This time, she gave it everything she had (Hosseini, 2207: 339-341).
From the quotation above, Mariam has finally decided what to do with her life despite of the consequences she has to face. She knows very well that she will sentence to death because of what she does to Rasheed. She does not include Laila in her trial. Instead, she tells Laila to move from Kabul with Tariq, Zalmai, and Aziza to start a new life without her.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
This research entitled “The Impact of Oppressions Toward Women Seen Through Two Women Characters in Khaled Hosseini’s “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is conducted to answer the two problem formulated problems. The first one is to depict the oppressions that suffered by the two women characters in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. The second one is to show how the oppressions impact the two women characters in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.
The researcher discusses how the two women characters, Mariam and Laila, are characterized in novel. Using Five Faces of Oppressions by Iris Young, the researcher finds the oppressions suffered by the two women characters by classifying them according to the type of oppressions. The oppressions found are violence—the most common and visible one—and powerlessness. The researcher also relates the oppressions to the patriarchal society in which the novel takes place. The oppressions are also the results of the strict patriarchal system in Afghanistan where the men have full control toward women and that it is hard for women to live in Afghanistan regarding to the patriarchal system where all the rules are most likely limit women’s movements and give more disadvantages than they do to men.
The findings mentioned above are the answer of the first formulated problem about what oppressions the two women characters suffer. The findings are constructed to depict the next formulated. Using Lois Tyson’s psychological criticism, the researcher finds that the oppressions impact the characters’ psychological aspect resulting in developing the core issues of the characters. The core issues are fear of abandonment, fear of betrayal, and low self-esteem. The core issues are also used as the characters’ defenses. Mixing the findings with Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the researcher finds that the oppressions give changes to characters, especially Mariam.
Literary works are social creation, for it represents “life”; and “life” is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary imitation (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 94). Therefore, patriarchal system, in which men have a dominant role on the society and oppressions toward women reflected in the object of the study are happening in real life.
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