Another conflict that reoccurs throughout the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is the struggle for freedom. Mariam and Laila are constantly being oppressed by Rasheed’s cruel verbal and physical abuse. Together the wives dream of the day they escape Rasheed’s grasp and are able to start tranquil lives together. The narrator explains Laila’s imagination of this ideal new life, “They would live in a small house on the edge of some town they’d never heard of… They would make new lives for themselves- peaceful, solitary lives- and there the weight of all they’d endured would lift from them, they would be deserving of all the happiness and simple prosperity they would find (315).” The women use this dream to help them achieve temporary freedom from Rasheed and his unethical treatment. Mariam also finds a way to achieve a more permanent freedom from Rasheed, she kills him. It is not a plotted murder, but more of a spur-of- the-moment type. Mariam kills Rasheed as he’s about to strangle Laila to death for talking to a dear friend. Although the wives maybe free of Rasheed, they now are locked down by the guilt of taking Zalami’s father away from him.
This novel shares the question of when it is right to listen to one’s personal morals versus society’s with the film, On the Waterfront. When Mariam kills Rasheed she realizes that this action will be frowned upon by the government, but on the other hand she believes that it would be worse to let Rasheed live because he would probably do more damage to society. Mariam’s thinking is exposed in the novel, “If she let him walk now, how long before he fetched the key from his pocket and went for that gun of his upstairs in the room where he’d lock Zalmai (311)?” Just like Mariam, Terry must make a very difficult decision of whether exposing the mob will improve the union at the loading dock, or just get more people killed. I feel like there will never be an answer to this question because all societies and people are different.
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