Legitimacy in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’
Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts explore legitimacy. You must relate
your discussion to relevant contextual factors. (Total for Question = 40 marks)
Definition:
1. conformity to the law or to rules
2. (Of a child) born to parents who are married to each other.
Possible ways in which we can interpret the theme of legitimacy:
- Nature of one’s birth: how this denies people legitimacy in society and imposes the label of
illegitimacy upon them, how this affects the treatment of characters in the novel and their
view of themselves
- Social status: how a society emphasises class divide and adheres to this harsh separation of
lower and higher class, often the nature of one’s birth connects to their social status in
society
- Consequences of social illegitimacy: marginalised by society, deprived of opportunities (like
education)
- Political legitimacy: Whether a government has the right to rule or whether they have
ceased control through brute force and coercive power (the regimes that seized
Afghanistan, how Heathcliff manipulated Victorian constructs like inheritance to cease
control)
- Illegitimacy: the state of not being in accordance with rules and principles/ unconformity
- Contrast between legitimate characters and illegitimate characters: how they are viewed,
treated in comparison to each other (i.e., Mariam and Laila, Heathcliff, and Edgar)
Possible areas of the text to discuss in ATSS:
- Symbol of pebbles- “She put four pebbles in the first column, for Khadija’s children, three
for Afsoon’s, and three in the third column for Nargis’s children. She then added a fourth
column. A solitary, eleventh pebble.” (Page 28) Hosseini’s use of pebbles reflects Mariam’s
isolation and her longing to integrate into this ideal notion of family that she believes resides
in Jalil, she is aware of her illegitimacy as even in the stones she is separated from Jalil’s
family, she is a “solitary, eleventh pebble”. Hosseini revisits this symbol of pebbles in
Mariam’s adult life and marriage with Rasheed. The pebbles become a symbol of abuse, and
as her teeth shatter, the prospect of this hope of a family seems to have been diminished.
“He snatched her hand, opened it, and dropped a handful of pebbles into it...Then he was
gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars”
(Pages 102-103). Pebbles for Mariam embody her suffering and isolation, and the
unattainable of an ideal family.
- Mariam’s illegitimacy denies her the love and affection that Jalil’s legitimate children are
given. She is a “harami” and endures suffering due to this categorisation of illegitimacy, she
is confined and compartmentalised to this label which deprives of her of happiness. Hosseini
exemplifies the inexplicable nature of this label, despite her parents committing the sin, the
burden of its judgement is placed on her shoulders. “It did not occur to Mariam to ponder
the unfairness of apologizing for the manner of her own birth.” (Page 11) “Nor was she old
enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are
culpable, not the harami, whose only sin was being born” (Page 4)
, - “To Jalil and his wives, I was a pokeroot. A mugwort. You too. And you weren’t even born
yet.” Nana defines a “mugwort” as “A weed.” And “Something you rip out and toss aside”
(Page 8). Nana continually reinforces Mariam’s illegitimacy in her childhood, she is a “weed”
something that grows unwanted, something unintended, someone who will never be
treated in the same manner as the flowers that grow alongside weeds. This use of organic
imagery used by Hosseini like pebbles and weeds shapes Mariam’s identity as a child as
unwanted and isolated.
- Mariam is continually objectified into something of unwanted, something that lacks value. In
her childhood she is a “weed,” a “solitary eleventh pebble” and a “harami” in her
adulthood she continues to live in fear of judgement of her illegitimacy, Rasheed compares
her to a car “If she were a car, she would be a Volga” (Page 216) and he emphasises her
“harami” status to Laila. Despite moving away from Kabul, she can never escape her
illegitimacy, she still felt the “sting” of the word and recalled Nana calling her “a clumsy little
harami”- shows this inescapability of societies labels.
- “Well, one doesn’t drive a Volga and a Benz in the same manner” (Page 217) Hosseini
utilises the character of Rasheed to depict the disparity between these two women. Through
objectification and this comparison to cars, the difference in their social status is evident.
Mariam is born illegitimate, and low class, and in turn she is marginalised, mistreated, and
taught to endure. Like to Rasheed, she lacks value in society. Laila however is legitimate with
an education; she is valued due to her appearance by Rasheed and to some extent holds
value in society. However, despite their difference they are both not treated as individuals
rather as possessions, this foreshadows Rasheed’s abuse as in his view and the view of the
patriarchy they are not legitimate human lives, but possessions in his control and at his
discretion.
- Hosseini demonstrates this fear of illegitimacy in the view of society and judgement.
“Mariam heard of women who were killing themselves out of fear of being raped, and of
men who, in the name of honor, would kill their wives or daughters if they’d been raped
by the militia.” (Page 247) Hosseini presents the harsh image, elucidating the reality of
female experience within conflict and the male imposed suffering within a patriarchal
society. Hosseini also outlines this notion of killing for honour which is ironic as there is
nothing honourable in the murder of innocent women, and the pride that it restores is for
the male honour. This fear of illegitimacy leads to acts the western reader may view as
irrational and unjust, demonstrating the oppressive nature of societal views of legitimacy
and honour.
- Only in the end of Mariam’s life is she legitimised as she recalls the beginning of her life, she
has a “legitimate end” to “illegitimate beginnings.” Mariam’s decision to resist against the
tyrannical reign of her husband leads her to attain a legitimacy in her ending. In a bid to save
Laila’s life Mariam “raised the shovel high, raised it as high as she could, arching it so it
touched the small of her back. She turned it so the sharp edge was vertical, and, as she
did, it occurred to her that this was the first time that she was deciding the course of her
own life” (Page 340-341). This act is a defiance of male authority and defiance of the
teachings that have been imposed on her throughout childhood to endure. Despite this
drastic step resulting in her death, it is a symbol of liberation from male torment and abuse.
“She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an
unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident… And yet she was leaving the world as a
woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a
guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last… This was a legitimate end to a life of
illegitimate beginnings” (Page 361) Once a docile, submissive woman stripped of her social
