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Chapter Five Persecution and Salvation of Mariam

5.1 A Passive Victim in the Patriarchal Society

When Mariam was in her origin family,as a harami who committed the crime ofkilling her mother indirectly,she was chosen as scapegoat to take the sins of herparents.The persecution to Mariam could mainly divided into two stages that is thepersecution from her parents and persecution from her husband.As a“harami”,itseemed that Mariam was born with sins and persecution to Mariam has begun sinceshe was born.Firstly,she received oral persecution from her mother.When Mariamwas a child,if she made a mistake,she would be scolded by her mother like this:“You are a clumsy little harami.This is my rewarding for everything I’ve endured.Anheirloom-breaking,clumsy little harami.”(Hosseini,2007:4)Because of the sufferingsNana had experienced,Nana always complained to Mariam how tragic she was forthe sake of her and her father,which made little Mariam even feel sorry to her birth.Secondly,she also suffered relentless mental persecution from her parents.On the onehand,when Mariam went to find her father,she was undoubtedly prevented by herfather and his family.When she saw her father’s face disappeared behind the window,Mariam realized that she was abandoned by her beloved father,the one from whomshe believed she could gain love and recognition.The feeling of being abandoned andbetrayed as well as the sense of shame as a harami was the cruel persecution exertedon Mariam.On the other hand,because of Mariam’s disobedience to her mother’swarning,her mother committed suicide in the house.This led to Mariam’s endlessregret and the most important consequence of this was that she lost her only familymember,her only home.After her mother died,she had nowhere to go but her father’shouse.However,the indifference of her father and her father’s family members andthe huge gap between their identity reminded her that she would never belong to there.As evidence to her father’s sins,the existence of Mariam was always a threat thatwould lead to crisis which could be seen in the novel:“When she did doze off,shewas startled awake by shouting.Voices downstairs,sharp and angry.Mariam couldn’tmake out the words.Someone slammed a door.”(Hosseini,2007:47)

Conclusion

As the second novel of Khaled Hosseini,A Thousand Splendid Suns put thefocus on women in Afghanistan.When Hosseini came back to his motherland in 2003,he was astonished by the misery and oppression that Afghan women was experiencing.Inspired by the resilient women he saw on Afghan streets,he determined to reveal thereal-life condition of Afghan women to the world through a fictionalized version.In AThousand Splendid Suns,combined with the real history of Afghanistan,Hosseiniportrays the fear,anxiety,hopelessness,helplessness and struggles in turmoil ofAfghan women from the perspective of two protagonists,Mariam and Laila.

Scapegoat has been a common social phenomenon since the ancient time.Whenpeople face an overwhelming crisis,they always tend to attribute the causes of crisisto a certain person or a group of people.The notion,scapegoat mechanism was firstproposed by Kenneth Burke and enriched by Rene Girard.According to Girard,mimetic desire is the root cause of scapegoat mechanism.Mimetic desire will lead tom本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。