Summary: In the beginning of these chapters, Mariam becomes pregnant and Rasheed talks about how it will be a boy and all of his excitement.  Rasheed buys for the baby a crib and keeps telling Mariam how the baby will for sure be a boy.  After Rasheed takes Mariam to a women bath house they find out that there was a miscarriage and that Rasheed will not receive the boy he expected.  Mariam then grieves about not having this child, her desire for a child, and her anger for Rasheed’s premature celebration.  She also notices how Rasheed stops enjoying her food, nightly chats, and happy moods but instead boredom and sulkiness.  Rasheed starts hitting her, insulting everything she does, and blaming everything on her.  At the end of these chapters, Rasheed insults Mariam’s cooking again and after taking Rasheed’s insults, he makes her chew on rocks as a punishment of her bad cooking.

 Analysis: In these chapters we see Rasheed’s delight from Mariam’s pregnancy and the new baby.  We also see Rasheed’s stubbornness about the baby, how he insists that is will be a boy and how he prepares things knowing that the baby will for sure be a joy.  We also see Rasheed’s transformation from this nice and kind husband to a mean and heartless man after the miscarriage.  A great example that is shared to us is about Mariam’s cooking.  How before the miscarriage Rasheed would praise her cooking and now after the miscarriage he spits out her food and insults her.  We also see that Rasheed starts to punish Mariam with physical and mental abuse.  Rasheed’s real intention for Mariam is clear now that her only purpose was to give Rasheed a son and nothing else.

 
 
Make a Free Website with Yola.