View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the elderly village Koran tutor that visits Mariam and Nana during Mariam's childhood?

2. What has Tariq's uncle in Ghazni died from in Chapter 22?

3. When does the narrator say that Shahr-e-Zohak was built into a fortress to defend the valley from invaders?

4. What movie does Mariam beg Jalil to take her to for her fifteenth birthday?

5. How old is Laila in 1987 when Chapter 16 begins?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you describe Mariam's introduction to married life in Chapter 9?

2. How are Jalil's visits to Mariam described in Chapter 4? What do they talk about?

3. Chapter 6 is a transitional chapter in A Thousand Splendid Suns. What purpose does this transition serve?

4. How does Nana respond when Mullah Faizullah suggests Mariam be educated in Chapter 3? Why?

5. What discrepancy is seen between Nana's and Jalil's descriptions of Mariam's birth in Chapter 2?

6. What political events are described by the narrator in Chapter 15? How do these events affect the citizens of Afghanistan?

7. When does Chapter 23 take place? What is the political atmosphere like in Afghanistan at this time?

8. When does Chapter 21 take place? What is the political atmosphere like in Afghanistan at this time?

9. What news does Tariq relate to Laila in Chapter 25? How does Laila respond?

10. What political even does Laila's family witness in Chapter 22? What do they make of this affair?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the setting of Kabul, Afghanistan, in the 1960s-1970s. How many people live in the capital? How divided is the wealth distribution in the city? How many citizens of Kabul were Muslim at this time? What other religions and cultures coexisted? How does this setting differ from Herat for Mariam?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss marriage customs within Muslim society and girls’ education in Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1970s. Jalil has three wives in the novel. How common is it for Muslim men to have more than one wife? What customs surround marriage and courtship in Afghanistan, particularly in the 1960s?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the character of Mariam as one of the two protagonists in A Thousand Splendid Suns. How old is Mariam when she is introduced? What is Mariam’s relationship like with each of her parents? Whom is Mariam closest to? Why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 939 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample