Final Blog Post on A Thousand Splendid Suns

My learning strategy while I read the novel:
the excessive use of sticky notes

A Thousand Splendid Suns: 
Final Remarks
Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns offered me the chance to explore a facet of the women's right movement that I haven't investigated before: the fight for universal and easily-accessible education. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, despite the fact that it made me cry at the end (happy tears, not sad tears). This novel, its characters, and its intense plot enthralled me. It was a good choice as an ISU novel, because it showed feminism as being a fight for women to possess the right to being dignified people, rather than just objects that a man can possessively use to feel like he's in control. 

I do not consider myself to fit the mold of the modern-day feminist, as I align better with the belief that all humans should be treated with respect and dignity. From reading this novel, I can more clearly articulate my view of feminism. Although I believe women and men should have rights that protect them as individuals, I believe that we are different, and that women will never be directly "equal" to men. Lara summed up my beliefs in her post on her novel, The Illegal: "The simple fact is, men and women are different. That does not mean that we cannot exist in harmony with one another." (the very intelligent Lara.C). 

In addition to my reconsideration of my stance on feminism, I could personally connect to the characters (I did not include this in my reader's response because it is personal), which also made me become invested in Mariam and Laila's emotional turmoil, and their struggle to feel deeply loved and respected. 

This novel will forever stay in my heart, as I feel that it has helped me discover more about where I stand on women's rights issues. One of the most important pieces of advice that I take away from this novel is to "ENDURE" (Nana, pg. 18). Through taking this course, and my past struggles in life, I conclude that in order to get through the challenges you are faced with in your life, you must love, have hope, and ENDURE.