Through their lives both Mariam and Laila show their ability to endure the suffering and the ability to go on with their lives after enormous amounts of anguish. Rasheed giving Laila’s daughter to the orphanage make Laila suffer, as Aziza is a symbol of the feelings she and Tariq once had, seeing her daughter go away only brings a deep sadness to Laila’s heart. As they are in the orphanage Laila began to cry saying …show more content…
The ability to keep your pain private and go on with it are all part of a heroine characteristics and that all helps to develop it. Laila’s ability to endure does not end here, as she suffers the consequences for going to the orphanage alone. Laila keeps going to see her daughter, although every time she went to the orphanage she was severely beaten by the Taliban. As one talib once said to her “I see you again, I’ll beat you until your mother’s milk leaks out of your bone” (321). The quote shows the cruelty of how the taliban were striking Laila every time she goes to the orphanage and the enormous pain she had received from them without fighting back. Laila again prove some of her heroine characteristics, as that what heroines do tolerate and suffice other needs as hard as it takes them to do so and most importantly without thinking twice. On the other hand, Mariam shows her endurance since she was a little kid, because that is the one thing her mom always tried to teach her. …show more content…
She watched the sky darken...the face was there for only an instant, a flash, but long enough. Long enough for Mariam to see” (34-5). The quote demonstrates Mariam’s endurance against the dark night she spent alone and her ability to see her father abandoning her and that through all these years her father was lying. Heros are known for their strength and this strength comes when they have the ability to overwhelm obstacles and endure them. Just like Mariam who overcome the emotional pain she got when she saw Jalil and the physical pain from sleeping on the streets. Mariam pain is much deeper at this point as she experiences physical and emotional pain at this young age not like Laila who only experiences emotional pain, that makes Mariam have a bigger capability of enduring at a really young age. Moreover, Mariam still undergoes bodily and passion suffering from Rasheed who abuses her in the most harshness way a person can take. He said “Put these, in you mouth...Then forced the cold pebbles into it...He kept pushing the pebbles in...Now you know what what you’ve given me in this marriage. Bad food, and nothing else” (104). The quote shows the brutality Rasheed used to treat Mariam with, the suffering and the abuse Mariam has saw from him and still kept and moving on while leaving