Power Essay

Reflection: 

             I thought that this essay topic was a good topic because you could relate to it easily as a teen.  Growing up under your parent’s rules, you don’t really have a say in what you can and cannot do sometimes. Also writing this topic as a girl was an interesting view because me, my family supports anything and everything I do, and if I didn’t have that support system I don’t think I would be as good at things that I am good at today. This essay was an advantage to me to see how privileged I am.

Prompt: How  and when were both women (Mariam & Laila) able to regain power over their own lives and who was essentail for them to gain their personal power?

Essay: 

 Everyone has the power and strength within themselves to have control over their own lives. To some people it is a little harder to find, they have to search to find their inner power. But once they find it, they know they can do anything, anything they would like to do with their lives. In the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns” By Khaled Hosseini both Mariam and Laila are striving to gain power over their lives. Mariam finds her strength and power through Laila’s youth and her strength, she gives her courage to stand up for herself.  Laila always had her power she lost sight of it for a while but Mariam helps her find it again.

            Mariam never really had ay kind of control over her life until she finally stood up to Rasheed and killed him. First it was her mother telling her what to do and how to act, then when she dies her father just marries her off to Rasheed, she can’t say no she has to marry him. Then Rasheed becomes the puppeteer of her life, he tells her how to act, what to wear, when she can and cannot speak or leave the house and even how to cook. Mariam is powerless, she doesn’t even know she could have power over her own life; it has never been introduced to her until Laila comes along. When Mariam befriends Laila, Laila shows her that she can stand up for herself through her own actions. Laila was an essential part in Mariam finding her inner strength, because when she does she stands up to Rasheed and doesn’t take no for an answer, Mariam ends up killing Rasheed and thus freeing herself. From that point on Mariam knows she can make decisions for herself but since Laila could get punished, so she make s life changing decision and turns herself in so Laila can have a happy life with Tariq.

Laila always has done what she wanted to do, her dad told her that she could do or be anything she wanted to be. She continued to play with Tariq when they were younger even when people started to talk about them, she didn’t care as long as she was doing what made her happy and playing with Tariq did.  When she lost her family and then thought she lost Tariq is when she looses sight of her power, she thinks that she has nothing left and the only way she can survive is by marrying Rasheed.  Now Rasheed has control over Laila too, for the most part anyway.  Once Mariam and Laila become friends Laila starts standing up to Rasheed more and when Mariam kills Rasheed Laila can gain full control over her life again. Mariam gives her a life with Tariq who wasn’t dead like she thought. She is able to have a life with Tariq and when they move back to Kabul, that is when Laila’s power is finally full and she can have a happy life with her family. Mariam was essential in Laila’s process of finding her power because if Mariam hadn’t acted like a mother figure and protected Laila by killing Rasheed, Laila might be dead. 

Through out the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns” By Khaled Hosseini both Mariam and Laila strive to gain power over their own lives. Mariam and Laila are important and essential roles in each other’s journey of finding ones inner power. They both help each other find that power and realize that they always have had it.