Wild Card
Complicated
He had it all, a beautiful wife, a son, and a great job. Everything was going well for Rasheed until the thing he loved most died, ripped away from him by death. Rasheed, once a thinner, kinder version of himself, evolved into a large, dominant, wicked man full of anger and hatred. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed’s oppression of his wives can be linked to the social capacity of evil and to the loss of his son.
The loss of a loved one can have devastating effects on someone. People usually go through the grieving process in about a year and through several stages. The stages of dealing with death are shock, awareness of loss, conservation and need to withdraw, healing, and renewal (Sanders). In some cases, as with Rasheed, they can become stuck in one of the grieving stages. When someone cannot progress to the next stage, it is known as complicated grief. According to the American Psychological Association complicated grief is, “Chronic and unremitting grief typically associated with sudden, unexpected and traumatic death, the loss of children or young people, and the relative closeness of the bereaved person to the deceased” (Kersting). Rasheed’s chronic hostility and anger stem from the death of his beloved son’s untimely death. He feels a sense of guilt and helplessness because he could not save his first wife who died in childbirth and the death of his precious first born son from drowning in a lake. Rasheed could not overcome the awareness of loss stage, which made him easily agitated and abusive to the new women in his life.
In addition to the complicated grief Rasheed experienced in his life, other factors (id, ego, and superego) influenced his psychological state. Rasheed’s id overpowers his ego and superego leading to his agitated state. The id controls basic sexual and aggressive drives. It operates on the pleasure principal, demanding immediate gratification. For example, Rasheed’s first sexual encounter with his new bride Mariam, he did not prepare her for their first intimate encounter, just performed the act and then left the room after satisfying himself (Hosseini 77). Rasheed also has a weak superego, which makes him self-indulgent and remorseless in dealing with others (Myers 555). One day while beating his youngest wife, Laila, he said, “I swear you’re going to make me kill you, Laila” (Myers 305). A way he coped with the loss was for his ego to unconsciously use a defense mechanism, called displacement, to convert his anger from the death of his son to the lives of his wives (Myers).
The third reason for Rasheed’s abusive behavior towards women was his quest to have a son to replace the one he lost. In the patriarchal society of Afghanistan, male children are valued more than female children. Rasheed’s obsession to have another son, lead him to treat his wives as nothing more than breeders. After finding out that Mariam could not bear him children, the physical and emotional abuse increased over the years until he tricked Laila into marrying him. Eventually, he began abusing Laila even after she gave him a son.
Throughout the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed’s oppression of his wives leads to his murder. His inability to cope with the loss of his first born son; complications with his id, ego, and superego; and obsessive quest to have another son all lead to a miserable life for all involved.
Works Cited
"A New Approach to Complicated Grief." A New Approach to Complicated Grief. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.
Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2008. Print.
Myers, David G. Psychology. 9th ed. New York: Worth, 2010. Print.
Sanders, Catherine M. Surviving Grief-- and Learning to Live Again. New York: Wiley, 1992. Print.
Reflection
"Complicated," is my favorite piece from English 112. It incorporates information from one of my favorite classes, AP psychology. I enjoyed trying to figure out why Raheed acting the way he did towards women. I met my goals for the year concerning style, grammatical conventions and the documentation of outside sources in this paper.
He had it all, a beautiful wife, a son, and a great job. Everything was going well for Rasheed until the thing he loved most died, ripped away from him by death. Rasheed, once a thinner, kinder version of himself, evolved into a large, dominant, wicked man full of anger and hatred. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed’s oppression of his wives can be linked to the social capacity of evil and to the loss of his son.
The loss of a loved one can have devastating effects on someone. People usually go through the grieving process in about a year and through several stages. The stages of dealing with death are shock, awareness of loss, conservation and need to withdraw, healing, and renewal (Sanders). In some cases, as with Rasheed, they can become stuck in one of the grieving stages. When someone cannot progress to the next stage, it is known as complicated grief. According to the American Psychological Association complicated grief is, “Chronic and unremitting grief typically associated with sudden, unexpected and traumatic death, the loss of children or young people, and the relative closeness of the bereaved person to the deceased” (Kersting). Rasheed’s chronic hostility and anger stem from the death of his beloved son’s untimely death. He feels a sense of guilt and helplessness because he could not save his first wife who died in childbirth and the death of his precious first born son from drowning in a lake. Rasheed could not overcome the awareness of loss stage, which made him easily agitated and abusive to the new women in his life.
In addition to the complicated grief Rasheed experienced in his life, other factors (id, ego, and superego) influenced his psychological state. Rasheed’s id overpowers his ego and superego leading to his agitated state. The id controls basic sexual and aggressive drives. It operates on the pleasure principal, demanding immediate gratification. For example, Rasheed’s first sexual encounter with his new bride Mariam, he did not prepare her for their first intimate encounter, just performed the act and then left the room after satisfying himself (Hosseini 77). Rasheed also has a weak superego, which makes him self-indulgent and remorseless in dealing with others (Myers 555). One day while beating his youngest wife, Laila, he said, “I swear you’re going to make me kill you, Laila” (Myers 305). A way he coped with the loss was for his ego to unconsciously use a defense mechanism, called displacement, to convert his anger from the death of his son to the lives of his wives (Myers).
The third reason for Rasheed’s abusive behavior towards women was his quest to have a son to replace the one he lost. In the patriarchal society of Afghanistan, male children are valued more than female children. Rasheed’s obsession to have another son, lead him to treat his wives as nothing more than breeders. After finding out that Mariam could not bear him children, the physical and emotional abuse increased over the years until he tricked Laila into marrying him. Eventually, he began abusing Laila even after she gave him a son.
Throughout the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed’s oppression of his wives leads to his murder. His inability to cope with the loss of his first born son; complications with his id, ego, and superego; and obsessive quest to have another son all lead to a miserable life for all involved.
Works Cited
"A New Approach to Complicated Grief." A New Approach to Complicated Grief. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.
Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2008. Print.
Myers, David G. Psychology. 9th ed. New York: Worth, 2010. Print.
Sanders, Catherine M. Surviving Grief-- and Learning to Live Again. New York: Wiley, 1992. Print.
Reflection
"Complicated," is my favorite piece from English 112. It incorporates information from one of my favorite classes, AP psychology. I enjoyed trying to figure out why Raheed acting the way he did towards women. I met my goals for the year concerning style, grammatical conventions and the documentation of outside sources in this paper.