The Overshadowing Presence of Toxic Masculinity and a Call for Reducing Sexism in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

Abstract

The nexus among toxic masculinity, sexism, and patriarchy; and women’s oppression as an upshot of these have been potential issues stirring the interest of the researchers for centuries. The researches done on Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns are not exceptional than those works. As the novel blatantly exposes the plight of womenfolk amid an excessive masculine setting, Hosseini’s covert signal towards the male characters’ poignant situation due to their toxic masculinity has been an unaddressed issue. This article aims at studying the detrimental consequences of toxic masculinity in the characters’ personal, familial, and social life showing the utter helplessness of male characters who have to comply with the stereotyped notion of gender roles of real men. Because of the male characters’ vague notion of masculinity, the relationship with their partners becomes toxic; Jalil does not get forgiveness from his daughter Mariam when he asks for and Rasheed’s life ends horribly. Demonstrating the poignant aftermaths of toxicity, the researcher calls for reducing sexism for establishing a healthy relationship where partners will have love, respect, and trust between or among themselves.