Another iSearch?

Sooo, apparently for English class we're supposed to compile a portfolio, just like we have every year I can remember (even though each of my portfolios unfailingly gets dumped on a pile in the corner of my Dad's office never to be seen again). Fortunately, Mrs. Kelly has found us a way out. Unfortunately, that way out exists only through an iSearch paper, but since that's very preferable to the alternative, I'll begin.

When given the choice of independent study novels, I immediately gravitated towards A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I made the right choice--it was a fantastic read. For the purposes of this paper, I'm choosing to focus on the book from two perspectives: the historical perspective and the reader-response perspective.

I know what you're thinking. But Grace, the book opens in 1959! That's hardly history! Well, I was born in '98, so honey, that's history to me. Besides, considering the pace at which developments occur in the Middle East, by the time I finish this project it could be considered outdated already. Just think about everything that's happened since 2001. Uh-huh. Now you get it.

So, without further ado, here are the five(ish) questions I hope to explore via this paper:

1. Hosseini chose his title based on a line from the poem “Kabul” by Iranian poet Saib Tabrizi. How do the diction, imagery, and details of the poem portray the city in a historical context and how does this contrast with the lives of Afghan women, notably Mariam and Laila?

2. Afghanistan went through several changes of power before the United States intervened in 2004. How did U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War exacerbate conflict in the Middle East and how does Hosseini allude to this in his novel?

3. Afghanistan was not the only country in this region experiencing conflict in the late 20th century. How do the historical events of A Thousand Splendid Suns parallel the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran, especially with concern to the role of the Muslim woman?

4. How do current humanitarian crises like the rise of ISIS and the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan put historical events into perspective? What is the connection between events in the novel and current Jihadi terrorist groups?

5. What was Hosseini’s intent when he published A Thousand Splendid Suns in 2007? How have Western attitudes towards the Middle East changed over the last nine years and to what extent have literature and the media played a role in this shift, respectively?

If these questions alone confused you, I suggest you read the book yourself to familiarize yourself with a topic that tends to get overlooked more often than it should. After all, these are current events, and they affect all of us in some way. Hopefully I can shed some light on tomorrow's history.

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