The writing style of Khaled Hosseini in A Thousand Splendid Suns is both sympathetic and disgusted. He feels pity on those that bear the burden of the war. He shows this mostly through the use of two major literary devices: Symbolism and Imagery. These two literary devices impact the reader because it gives a deeper insight and understanding of the pain and fear these characters were forced into dealing with every day.
An example of how Hosseini feels disgusted and sympathetic is when one of the main characters, Mariam Jo, is forced to go live with her father after her mother’s untimely death on page 36, “suddenly he was standing in front of her, trying to cover her eyes, pushing her back the way they had come saying ‘Go back! No. Don’t …show more content…

“I know you’re still young, but I want you to understand and learn this now, he said. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You’re a very, very bright girl. Truly you are. You can be anything you want Laila. I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance.” Though this quote doesn’t have symbolism the tone of the author is optimistic and is for the modernization of Afghanistan. The image being painted is a positive one in which women can leave their prints on the fabric that is life. The fifth quote used to portray his tone through imagery and symbolism on page 178 when Laila’s childhood friend is hit by a stray rocket and killed. “One day that same month of june, Giti was walking home from school with two class mates. Only three blocks from Giti’s house, a stray rocket struck the girls. Later that terrible day, Laila learned that Nila, Giti’s mother, had run up and down the street where Giti was killed, collecting pieces of her daughters flesh in an apron screeching hysterically. Giti’s decomposing right foot, still in it’s nylon sock and purple sneaker would be found on a roof top two weeks later. The tone in here is disgusting clearly through the explicit description of the following events of