A Thousand Splendid Suns Quiz

Name: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Author: Khaled Hosseini

Question 1

What event forces Mariam to leave her home in Herat and marry Rasheed?

Accepted Answer

Her father Jalil arranges the marriage after she returns from trying to visit him and finds her mother dead

Answer

She becomes pregnant and her family arranges the marriage to hide the shame

Answer

The Soviet invasion makes it unsafe for her to stay, so her relatives send her to Kabul

Answer

Her mother Nana demands she leave because she can no longer support them

Question 2

How does Rasheed manipulate Laila into marrying him?

Accepted Answer

He arranges for someone to falsely tell her that Tariq has died in Pakistan

Answer

He tells her that her parents are dead and offers her shelter

Answer

He convinces her that the Taliban will arrest her if she does not marry a man

Answer

He promises to help her find Tariq and reunite with him

Question 3

What is the turning point in Mariam and Laila's relationship from rivals to allies?

Accepted Answer

When they attempt to escape Kabul together and are caught and returned, then punished by Rasheed

Answer

When Laila gives birth to Aziza and Mariam helps care for her

Answer

When Rasheed stops providing food and Aziza is placed in an orphanage

Answer

When Tariq reappears and tells Laila the truth about her past

Question 4

Why does Mariam kill Rasheed?

Accepted Answer

He attempts to strangle Laila after learning that Tariq visited her, and Mariam acts to save Laila's life

Answer

He discovers that Aziza is not his biological daughter and attacks Mariam in rage

Answer

He refuses to feed the family and Mariam can no longer bear watching the children starve

Answer

He plans to sell Laila to another man and Mariam intervenes to stop him

Question 5

What does Mariam choose to do after killing Rasheed?

Accepted Answer

She insists that Laila take the children and leave with Tariq, then turns herself in to face execution

Answer

She flees with Laila and the children to Pakistan

Answer

She hides in the house and claims that Laila killed Rasheed in self-defense

Answer

She asks Tariq to take her with them and start a new life abroad

Question 6

What role does Laila's father Babi play in shaping her character before his death?

Accepted Answer

He encourages her schooling and tells her that a society cannot move forward while its women are held back

Answer

He teaches her to be obedient and warns her against education for women

Answer

He arranges her marriage to Rasheed to secure the family's financial future

Answer

He fights against the Soviets and dies in combat, leaving her without guidance

Question 7

How does the Taliban's rule directly affect Rasheed's treatment of Mariam and Laila?

Accepted Answer

It escalates his violence because his shoe business collapses and he becomes more desperate and humiliated

Answer

It improves his behavior because the Taliban enforces strict rules that he agrees with

Answer

It makes him less violent because he fears Taliban punishment for harming women

Answer

It has little effect on him because he already controls the women through the burqa requirement

Question 8

What is Mariam's status at birth, and how does this shape her early life?

Accepted Answer

She is born as a harami, an illegitimate child, and is hidden away in a kolba outside Herat, isolated and defined by shame

Answer

She is born to a wealthy family but loses her status when her father remarries

Answer

She is born during the Soviet invasion and grows up as a refugee in Kabul

Answer

She is born to Nana and Rasheed, but Rasheed refuses to acknowledge her as his daughter

Question 9

What does Laila do after the Taliban falls and she returns to Kabul?

Accepted Answer

She works to rebuild the orphanage where Aziza once stayed and names her new daughter Mariam

Answer

She remarries and focuses on raising her children in safety

Answer

She searches for her parents' graves and leaves Afghanistan permanently

Answer

She joins a women's political movement to change Afghan law

Question 10

How does the novel treat survival and daily acts of protection as forms of resistance?

Accepted Answer

It frames lying, planning, protecting, and enduring as meaningful resistance, even when these acts do not look heroic from the outside

Answer

It shows that only dramatic acts like violence can count as real resistance to oppression

Answer

It suggests that women should accept their circumstances rather than waste energy on small acts of defiance

Answer

It argues that survival is separate from resistance and that women must choose between the two