The Study of Gender in A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Abstract

The family life in Afghanistan is determined by role and position of men and women in
family. As with most traditional societies, men are considered the breadwinners and take pride in
providing for their families and women have a duty to take care of all family members. Women
in Afghanistan are usually less educated than men. They get married at the young age, have
many children and generally do not work outside home. The purpose of this research is to
determine the roles, responsibilities and stereotypes of men and women in family relationship in
Afghanistan.
The theory which is used in this research is gender. Gender refers to the roles and
responsibilities of men and women that are created in our families, our societies and our cultures
(UNESCO’S (GIMF), 2002). The concepts of gender role and gender stereotype tend to be
related. When people associate a pattern of behavior with either women or men, they may
overlook individual variations and exceptions and come to believe that the behavior is inevitably
associated with one gender but not the other. Therefore, gender roles furnish the material for
gender stereotypes (Branoon, 2000). Gender stereotype is a generalised view or preconception
about attributes, or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by women and men
(OHCHR, 2014).
The research uses close reading as a method. The object from this research is a novel A
Thousand Splendid Suns which is published by Khaled Hosseini in 2007.The technique that used
to collect the data (1) read the novel, (2) take a note the data that relate to: (a) the role of men and
women in family in Afghanistan, (b) the responsibility of men and women in family in
Afghanistan, and last (c) the stereotype both men and women in family in Afghanistan., (3)
classifying the data, (4) analyze the data (5) relate the data to the theory, and last (6) make a
conclusion.
The result of the research is both men and women in Afghanistan have different role and
responsibility in family relationship. Most of men in Afghanistan have role as husband and father
in family relationship and have the responsibility that provide and protect the family. For the
women characters, they have role as wife and mother with responsibilities that take care of
family and homemaker. The stereotypes of men those coming from the roles are kind, wise, and
loving. Meanwhile the women stereotypes are dutiful, tough and also loving. In conclusion,
writer finds two kinds of gender roles and stereotypes that pictured by men and women. The
character in the story play their role in line both men and women. It is also same for their
stereotypes. All of the gender stereotypes come out from gender roles. Because gender role
furnish the material for gender stereotype and both of them are tend to be related.
Keywords: Gender, Role, Responsibility, Stereotype.