Jalil Character Analysis in A Thousand Splendid Suns

Mariam’s father, a successful cinema owner in Herat, who has three wives and nine legitimate children in addition to Mariam. Jalil comes to see Mariam every week when she is a child, but he never allows her to visit him in Herat or join the rest of his family there. Jalil does seem conflicted about Mariam, but he refuses to see her when she comes on her own. Though he seems regretful, he also allows his wives to arrange the marriage between Mariam and Rasheed. For the rest of the novel, there are hints that Jalil deeply regrets the way he acted with Mariam, though it is only at the very end that we learn the extent of this regret and shame.

Jalil Quotes in A Thousand Splendid Suns

The A Thousand Splendid Suns quotes below are all either spoken by Jalil or refer to Jalil. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

History and Memory in Afghanistan Theme Icon

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Riverhead Books edition of A Thousand Splendid Suns published in 2007.

For the first time, Mariam could hear [Jalil] with Nana’s ears. She could hear so clearly now the insincerity that had always lurked beneath, the hollow, false assurances.

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 38

Explanation and Analysis:

Mariam regretted her foolish, youthful pride now. She wished now that she had let him in. what would have been the harm to let him in, sit with him, let him say what he’d come to say? He was her father. He’d not been a good father, it was true, but how ordinary his faults seemed now how forgivable, when compared to Rasheed’s malice, or to the brutality and violence that she had seen men inflict on one another.

Related Characters: , ,

Page Number and Citation: 309

Explanation and Analysis:

Jalil Character Timeline in A Thousand Splendid Suns

The timeline below shows where the character Jalil appears in A Thousand Splendid Suns. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...“harami,” or bastard. She is five years old, and it’s a Thursday—the day her father Jalil comes to visit her at the small one-room house where she lives with her mother,... (full context)

Mariam adores Jalil, who never calls her such a name, but instead visits and tells her stories about... (full context)

Jalil has three wives and nine legitimate children. He owns a cinema and is very wealthy.... (full context)

Nana says that when she gave birth to Mariam, in spring 1959, Jalil hadn’t bothered to call a doctor. She describes her pain to Mariam, who apologizes. However,... (full context)

Every so often, Jalil’s two sons push a wheelbarrow filled with food and cooking supplies up the hill to... (full context)

One day, Mariam confides that she’d like to go to school—Bibi jo had mentioned that Jalil’s other daughters would be attending. Mullah Faizullah asks Nana, but she says there’s no use.... (full context)

Though Mariam loves having visitors, she treasures Jalil’s visits each Thursday the most. Each week she awaits him anxiously, though she tries not... (full context)

Jalil shows Mariam how to fish, teaches her rhymes, and shows her clippings from Herat’s newspaper—a... (full context)

Jalil gives Mariam a leaf-shaped pendant. Mariam loves it, but Nana scoffs that it’s just nomad... (full context)

After Jalil’s visits, Mariam always wonders what his life in Herat is like, and imagines living with... (full context)

For Mariam’s fifteenth birthday, she asks Jalil to take her to see the American film that is playing at his cinema—a cartoon... (full context)

Nana is furious when she hears, and mocks Mariam for thinking she’s wanted in Jalil’s house. She tries to make Mariam guilty by saying a jinn will come and she’ll... (full context)

...next day, Mariam dresses in her nicest hijab and sits by the stream to meet Jalil. After an hour, she heads down to Herat alone—the first time she’s ever gone to... (full context)

A young woman opens the door, and when Mariam introduces herself, she runs inside. Jalil’s chauffeur comes to the door and says Jalil’s not there, and didn’t say when he’d... (full context)

...back, Mariam cries out of disillusionment, anger, and mainly shame at how much she idealized Jalil and dismissed Nana, who had been right all along. She wonders how she’ll be able... (full context)

After Nana’s funeral, Jalil brings Mariam back to the kolba to gather her things. Mullah Faizullah arrives and tries... (full context)

Jalil tells Mariam she can stay in his house, but now Mariam sees through his façade... (full context)

On Mariam’s second day, Niloufar, another of Jalil’s daughters, comes into the room to get her gramophone. She plays a song for Mariam... (full context)

Jalil and his wives—Afsoon, Khadija, and Nargis—sit across from Mariam at a long dark table. They... (full context)

Khadija tells Mariam that she has a suitor named Rasheed, a friend of Jalil’s business colleague. He’s a Pashtun who lives in Kabul, but speaks Farsi like them. He’s... (full context)

...childbirth, and his son drowned a few years ago, so he’s suffered too. Mariam begs Jalil not to make her go. The wives continue to try to convince her, but she... (full context)

...her about chores of intimacy that women have to endure with their husbands. Mariam begs Jalil to say no to his wives, but after a long silence, he only asks Mariam... (full context)

...accepts this man as her husband, she initially stays quiet. After a few awkward moments, Jalil whispers her name and she finally says, “Yes.” The mirror is slipped under her veil,... (full context)

As Mariam and Rasheed wait for the bus, Jalil tells Mariam how beautiful Kabul is. Unable to stand it, she tells him she used... (full context)

...barren, unkempt yard, with an outhouse, well, and tool shed. The house is smaller than Jalil’s but much larger than the kolba. But as Mariam looks around, she misses the familiarity... (full context)

...likes it, and looks away shyly. Mariam realizes how much this true gift contrasts with Jalil’s halfhearted, insincere gifts, and she says the shawl is beautiful. (full context)

Mariam recalls how Jalil would visit Mariam and Nana at the first of the three days of Eid-ul-Fitr, the... (full context)

In the bottom drawer, Mariam finds a picture of Jalil’s son, Yunus, and below that, a beautiful woman standing next to Mariam. She feels a... (full context)

...and if Mullah Faizullah and Bibi jo are still alive and coping. She wonders about Jalil also, hoping he’s safe and away from all the killing. (full context)

...hair as Aziza is curled up asleep on the floor. Mariam starts telling Laila about Jalil, Nana, and Mullah Faizullah, about her humiliation at Jalil’s house and Nana’s suicide. After she’s... (full context)

...remembers having gone to see melodramatic Hindi films with Tariq. Mariam wonders what’s happened to Jalil’s cinema. (full context)

Mariam thinks back to the last time she’d seen Jalil, thirteen years earlier, in the spring of 1987. He had stood outside her house next... (full context)

Mariam realizes that Jalil was dying back then, and had driven from Herat to say goodbye. Rasheed looks at... (full context)

...Mariam’s ten days in prison, she watches children below her barred window, singing a rhyme Jalil had taught her. That night she’d dreamed of eleven pebbles, arranged vertically; of a young... (full context)

...for Mullah Faizullah’s house, he says that he is his son Hamza. She’s come about Jalil Khan’s daughter, Mariam, Laila says. At once, Hamza’s face lights up, and he asks if... (full context)

...long silence, Hamza says his father was incredibly fond of Mariam, and was upset when Jalil sent her away. But Mullah Faizullah lived to an old age, he says. (full context)

Upon their return, Hamza gives Laila a box, which Jalil had given to his father before he died, asking him to keep it for Mariam.... (full context)

The envelope holds a letter dated May 13, 1987. In it, Jalil tells how disappointed he was that Mariam did not come out to speak with him... (full context)

...they’re called—and music can again be heard at the street corners. Laila wishes that, like Jalil’s letter, Kabul’s rebirth hadn’t arrived too late for Mammy and Babi. (full context)