Trauma, Dependency, And Intimate Partner Violence in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns: An Ecological Literary Analysis

Abstract

Gender-based violence is seldom the result of a simple personal, cultural or relational event. It is formed by the interplay of interpersonal inequalities, economic marginalization, expectations about women and lack of protection. Through a qualitative literary discussion, this paper explores the portrayal of trauma, dependency, coercive control and intimate partner violence in A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It specifically uses the individual and relationship levels of Lori Heise’s Integrated Ecological Framework to describe the experiences of Mariam and Laila. The study uses the technique of interpretive textual analysis and close reading of selected characters, events, narrative patterns and interpersonal conflicts. The analysis also indicates that at the personal level, the protagonists’ vulnerability to abuse is heightened by factors such as illegitimacy, childhood rejection, bereavement, interrupted education, poverty, displacement, internalized inferiority and psychological trauma. On the relationship level, forced marriage, age and ‘power’ differences, polygamy, economic control, reproductive pressure, surveillance, isolation, intimidation and repeated physical violence help Rasheed to exert coercive authority over both women. The results, however, also reveal that Mariam and Laila do not have to be completely helpless victims. As they become more connected with each other there is emotional protection, a challenge to feelings of isolation, and resistance to the abusive family hierarchy. The study suggests that it is not advisable to think of intimate partner violence in the novel as a chain of separate attacks. It is a persistent cycle of entrapment that the personal vulnerability and unequal relationship in marriage further strengthen each other. The paper is part of current literary debates on gender violence because of its incorporation of trauma, domestic violence, and coercive control in an ecological approach. It finds that addressing gender-based violence requires psychological support and education, social protection, interventions in coercive and unequal intimate relationships, and economic empowerment.

Keywords: gender-based violence, intimate partner violence, trauma, coercive control, economic dependency, ecological framework, Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21964865