sargeant essay

'Artists, as witnesses for the future, have a duty to collect forgotten figures, to rescue them from historical neglect'
Compare and contrast the way Hosseini and Walker explore the experience of women in the societies they present in their respective novels.
Hosseini and Walker base their novels around two central characters suffering in a neglected and patriarchal society. Both female characters live a male dominated life, Celie in 'The Color Purple' surrounded by her violent father and husband and Mariam in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' being controlled by her arranged marriage husband, Rasheed. The two characters are portrayed as weak victims and similarly both progress and grow as characters throughout the novels, growing up and becoming stronger individuals. The experiences of women in both novels are presented with many similar themes such as marriage, education and relationships with other women, although they are presented in different ways. Hosseini and Walker use different perspectives as Celie narrates in the first person using a vernacular writing style which gives a much more personable feel to the story, whereas 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is narrated in the third person, giving a more overall view of characters feelings and emotions.
Set in the early 1900's in South America, 'The Color Purple' presents a society where black males have been emasculated by civil rights. Black Americans were at the bottom of the social chain and black women even lower, Celie represents the way women were treated at that time, and tells her story by way of writing letters. “He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church.” This shows that the way women were treated was both demoralising and disrespectful. The reader sees that Walkers purpose was to present Celie as weak as she does not answer back to the men in her life such as her father. Similarly, Hosseini shows Mariam as a weak character at first when her father sets up an arranged marriage for her. “This is the face of my husband, Mariam thought” This shows Mariam's strong disagreement to the situation, as before this she describes him as “not pretty” but she fails to outwardly express this and we see the character accepting her fate, showing weakness. This shows the similarities in the antagonist’s personalities and demonstrates their bleak outlook on life.
Religion plays a big theme in both novels and mutually, the women reply on religion and God in their lives to help them feel stronger. This point is much more clearly shown in ‘The Color Purple’ as the novel is made of letters that Celie writes, the majority of them being to God. This letter-writing style shows that Celie has no one in her life that she can turn to, God being the only one so the novel becomes much more personal as it is like the reader understands Celie’s deep thoughts and emotions. There is many references to god in the novel and the title ties in with the theme of religion also, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple and don’t notice it.” This shows that the women in the novel think of God as ‘one of them’, having real personable emotions, such as being annoyed in reaction to what people do. In ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ the theme of religion does not appear so clearly, but still carries in the storyline. Mariam gets taught the views of religion in her society by Mullah Faizullah, this tying in with beliefs and religion in ‘The Color Purple’, that in a demoralised and unfair world; both characters find comfort and peace with god in some way.
As well as being the brunt of physical abuse in the novels, both characters also go through life uneducated. In ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, the only form of education Mariam received was being tutored by Mullah Faizullah, this reflects on Mariam throughout the novel, Hosseini shows that to be different; uneducated or childless, was to be an outcast in ones society, very much reflective of the life Mariam led for so many years. This is similar to Celie, as she receives no formal education. This disables both women to live the life of freedom that they so desire and it can be said that education is the defining reason for the characters sense of worthlessness and feel that they weren’t good enough.
Although the two central characters share many similarities, they also bare differences. At the beginning of both novels their father figures are both represented in different ways. Celie’s father plays a small part in the novel and of what little he’s mentioned he creates a negative lasting impression on Celie. Her father’s harsh and cruel ways affect Celie in her future and the novel allows the reader to draw back on the characters past experiences and her emotions towards them. A critic says that Albert ‘represents the assumption that race, gender and social class are boundaries which are impossible to escape.’ This view mirrors that of the backdrop for the novel, representing oppression in society. Contrasting to Celie’s father Jalil at the beginning of the novel, Mariam’s father shows relative promise at being a fine father figure, yet was actually full of false promises, “No one knows when he’s coming back, it could be for days”, regarding Jalil not seeing her daughter and failed to be there for Mariam when she needed it most, (the demise of her mother).
The relationships with other women that both characters have are the main cause of Celie’s prolonged and Mariam’s brief happiness and contentment. The characters introduced to the novels are the antithesis of the antagonists, in ‘The Color Purple’; Shug is confident and outspoken and the strong bond that her and Celie make changes Celie and opens her eyes to new experiences and takes her on a journey throughout the novel. Her sister Nettie provides Celie with strong family bonds that are noticeable throughout the novel, “Nothing but death could keep me from it”, shows their strong relationship and this is what drives Celie to endure the negative experiences she goes through during the book. Unlike Celie, Mariam does not have any close female bonds till much later in the novel. With the death of her mother and being isolated in a new city with a new husband, Mariam lives very much by her mother’s saying, “Life is to be endured”, this shows the attitudes of women in modern day oppressive Afghanistan. However, the strong bond that Mariam creates with Laila gives Mariam strength and empowers her to stand up to Rasheed. “Mariam brought down the shovel. This time, she gave it everything she had.” The novel suggests that women have a strong ability to find strength and support in one another. Mariam never would have gained the strength to fight Rasheed if she had not gained confidence and love from Laila. Similarly, Celie’s strong bond with Shug enables her to do things she never would have done without her, such as starting her own business. “For the first time in my life I feel just right”, relatively early to meeting Shug, Celie shows positive emotions for one of the first times in the novel, indicating her new found happiness. Both Walker and Hosseini portray female friendships as a means for women to summon the courage to tell stories, in turn, these stories allow women to gradually resist oppression and dominance. Both Celie and Mariam gain strength on their journey through the novel and become strong women. Another interpretation is that the women didn’t themselves become strong; they gain their power from the female bonds they form and use them as a shield to hide behind. However, it is rational to say the relationships both protagonists form among women act as a refuge in their lives, which are filled with male violence.
In 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', Hosseini uses pregnancy as a symbol of hope throughout the novel. Hosseini shows that even short-lived pregnancies can offer women (Mariam), an opportunity to be hopeful for the future despite her bleak living situation. In an Afghan society, a woman's value is often measured by the ability to bear children, making Mariam's character an outcast to her society also being very undesirable to her arranged marriage husband who wants children, only seeing Mariam as an object that can cook his dinner and help around the house. Contrasting with this cultural view is Celie's conditions, at the beginning of the novel a 'selling point' to Albert her husband was that she could no longer have any more children after already giving birth to both a girl and boy therefore he could "Do whatever he wanted to her". Celie can be 'used' in whichever way Albert wants, without the inconvenience of worrying of pregnancy, resulting in more children. This shows the sheer lack of respect both protagonists receive for completely the opposite reasons. The reader can see that both societies treat women cruelly but for the contrary reasons regarding pregnancy and children.
Both novels are presented in a word where men have been oppressed and in turn emasculated. Their constraints on life do not able them to have freedom or feel equal. The only way to make the males feel powerful in both novels is to treat women disrespectfully and as though they are objects, dehumanising them, therefore making them feel more in control. Both Hosseini and Walker present their characters in very effective ways, the experiences the two women go through are both compelling and keep the reader interested all throughout the novel. The journey the women go through mirror that of real life and tell a raw but bona fide story. The running themes throughout the novels are very similar and can be compared clearly, female relationships plays a big part in the stories and build the characters the writers try to create. Comparing this theme against the two books shows that even though the Afghan society is very different to that of the South American, living completely separate lives, the novels show that there is suffering all over the world regarding male abuse, dominance and women's lives being ruled by strong male figures. The experiences the two characters go through do have differences, but ultimately tell the same story. That of living in an oppressed world but finding strength in yourself that others were able to give you and building a new life from that, being able to fight back and gain freedom in a life set of rules and regulations and fundamentally, gaining power and enabling freedom, which the two presented societies so desperately want.


Bibliography;
‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker
‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini
Emagazine – ‘Writing women’s voices’ article.
Wikipedia and Google – Background information on Afghan and America

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