Analysis Of The Effects Of Point Of View In A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the second work of the Afghan-American writerKhaled Hosseini. This story is set against the tumultuous thirty years history ofAfghanistan, using two different female characters, who have great gap in their ageand are born into different circumstances, as focal characters. It is a moving storyconcerning the two focal characters, who face the wars and domestic violencetogether and finally form the bond like mother and daughter. Through the depiction ofthe two focal characters, Hosseini uncovers the veils of Afghanistan and lets readerslearn about the ordinary Afghan people, their suffering and struggle as well asinvincible hope and dream. Since its publication in2007, A Thousand Splendid Sunshas received extensive attention and high acclaim. It explores profound themes andsuccessfully shapes two Afghan women. Besides, its special point of view, whichshifts among fixed internal focalization, variable internal focalization and multipleinternal focalization, has caught wide attention. Point of view is an important aspectof narrative skills and different point of view will produce different effects andfunctions. This thesis uses Genette’s theory of focalization to analyze the differentpoint of view in this novel and more importantly, to explore the effects produced bythem. This thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter discusses the effects offixed internal focalization in A Thousand Splendid Suns. The use of fixed internalfocalization shortens the distance between the focal character and readers, builds thesuspense by restricting information and presents the destruction of wars profoundly.The second chapter illustrates the effects of variable internal focalization—shapingfocal characters from two aspects and offering more information to readers. The thirdchapter studies the functions of multiple internal focalization in this novel. Throughthe use of multiple internal focalization, the author sometimes imparts the sameinformation concerning the same event through different perspectives of differentcharacters, sometimes discloses different information about the same event. Thus,when readers get the different information about the same event, readers would feel confused and want to find out the truth and when readers obtain the same informationabout the same event repeatedly, the information is more certain and convincing. Byusing these three kinds of point of view in this novel, Hosseini depicts a true-to-lifepicture of the life of ordinary Afghan people and successfully uncovers the veil ofAfghanistan.