A study of Mariam's Sacrifice in Khaled Hosseini’s a Thousand Splendid Suns

This thesis attempts to analyze Khaled Hosseini’s novel entitled A Thousand Splendid Suns. This novel tells about Mariam who sacrifices her marriage and her life for helping others. This thesis focuses on analyzing Mariam’s character who decides to sacrifice herself. The aims of this thesis are to describe Mariam’s character and to reveal Mariam’s sacrifice portrayed in the story. Dealing with the focus of the study, this study uses psychoanalysis theory to reveal Mariam’s sacrifice and it is also supported by new criticism theory to get profound knowledge about Mariam’s character. The result of this study shows that Mariam is not pretty, but she is kind. She cares to other people around her like Laila, Aziza, and Zalmai. She decides to sacrifice her marriage with her husband for helping Laila because Laila really needs her help. Mariam also decides to sacrifice her life for Laila and Laila’s children. She surrenders herself to the court and she was willing to be executed because Mariam has killed her husband, Rasheed. Beside that, she regrets for what she has done is wrong but she should do the sacrifice. She want people whom she loves can be happy though she could not see them again. Mariam does not regret to live as a Harami because it is not bad. She feels happy with all the happenings in her life. She also feels that God is just. She lives in misery at the beginning and finds happiness at the end of her life.