Coursework Summary

My coursework is a comparison of A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Colour Purple. I am going to write about the way woman are treated and how they deal with this. The two books are very similar, both of the protagonists grew up in difficult backgrounds and ended up in arranged marriages where they are abused and mistreated. Both women deal with this by finding love in a companionship with fellow women. They learn lessons such as how to love and be loved in these friendships.
In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam grows up feeling rejected and worthless in the world. Her mother kills herself and her father leaves her to sleep on the street. She is forced into a marriage with an older man who verbally and physically abuses her until Laila comes into her life years later. Through Laila’s side of the story we start to see how woman are mistreated and imprisoned in their own homes. Mariam and Laila become best friends under very unusual circumstances and form a close bond as they are united together in standing up to Rasheed.
In The Colour Purple, Celie is abused from very early on in her life, she is raped and beaten by her father and then her husband. The only love she knows is her sister Nettie and she is soon taken away from her. She is told her children are dead and she soon believes she has no one left in her life. When Shug Avery comes into her life, things begin to change for her. She is taught about love and about her femininity.
My ideas for titles so far are; “ In the novels A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Colour Purple, compare how women are mistreated and they deal with this.” Or, “In the novels A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Colour Purple, how similar are the lives of Mariam, Laila and Celia?”