Considering I didn't know much about the Middle East, other than what I've learned in class so far, as well as what I've seen on the news, I found A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini extremely revealing. Not only did it broaden my horizons with the plethora of cultures represented in the Middle East, but it taught me how Middle Eastern women are treated today. The book is divided into two sections which both follow the daily lives of Mariam, a young girl, and Laila, a teenager. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In the first section, the author introduces the reader to Mariam, a young girl who lives with Nana. Nana constantly blames her problems on Mariam as a child, calling her a "harami", who would later be known as a bastard. Mariam was born out of wedlock to an illegitimate businessman, who has three wives. In the first chapter, Mariam recognizes that she is the reason her mother's life is ruined. Personally, Nana wasn't one of my favorite characters. She constantly blames everything on Mariam, her child and not just that she talks to him about his father. She sees her father, I think, every week on Thursday. He sometimes brings her gifts and tells her stories during their time together. One day, his father didn't show up to meet him. Mariam decides that it is best for her to go see her father at his house, so she ends up being refused access to the house and decides to sleep outside while waiting for her father. I noticed throughout the book that he is hesitant with Mariam, simply because she was born out of wedlock. Things go wrong when Nana decides to commit suicide. Mariam is then forced to go and live with her father for a short period. When her wives decided they no longer wanted her there, they married her off to a man named Rasheed, who was more than 20 years her senior. She is forced to leave and leave everything to go live with a stranger. Which I personally think is fucked up, how dare you let your wives decide for your child? Mariam goes through the entire book believing that she deserves nothing better than the life she leads, which is truly heartbreaking. The book gives us the second point of view with Laila, who is a young girl and who lives next to Mariam. I noticed while reading that Laila's story is a complete 360 ​​of Mariam. She comes from a loving family, whose father is outspoken and believes that women have the right to be educated and to work if they wish. Laila falls in love with a guy named Tariq, but all hell breaks loose when the civil wars in Afghanistan begin. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and love how it connects to the material in our history class. Even though the book is not based on a true story, I can see Mariam and Laila as real people experiencing their personal pain. I'm much more interested in learning more about the Mujahideen now that it's surfaced in our reading. Before reading this book, I didn't really feel any emotion about the situations happening there or in the Middle East in general. I think it's because I saw their situation as if it were in the United States. Maybe it’s because I personally couldn’t connect to these situations. Because, once again, I saw their problems through my perspective rather than that of whoever lives there. A Thousand Splendid Suns changed my perspective on how I view topics related to other countries outside of the United States..